Sleepless – Troubadour Theatre, Wembley Park

Cory English, Tania Mathurin, Kimberley Walsh, Jay McGuiness, Harriet Thorpe and Daniel Casey in Sleepless at the Troubadour Theatre, Wembley Park. Picture: Alastair Muir

Sleepless continues at the Troubadour Theatre, Wembley Park, London until 27 September 2020.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Theatre is back. After six frightening, unprecedented months it’s a surreal thing to be sitting in an auditorium watching a fully staged socially non-distanced production, with audience etiquette more militant and anxiety inducing than ever before. But with their staff armed with show-branded visors and silos worth of anti-bacterial gel, the Troubadour Theatre,

Wembley Park is primed to reopen its doors for the world premiere of Sleepless, a new musical based on 1993’s Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan rom-com classic, Sleepless in Seattle.

It’s clear from the get-go that Sleepless isn’t looking to pull punches. Ruthlessly cut short at its dress rehearsal by lockdown and reopening so quickly after the easing of restrictions, it’s impossible not to admire the tenacity of the cast, crew and creative team and the message their triumph extends to the rest of the theatre community.

Greeted by Morgan Large’s stylish glass-panelled house set, complemented in turn by Ian William Galloway’s projections of the Seattle skyline, the effect is immediately transporting, not to mention the running water feature that runs the lip of the stage to suggest the Seattle waterfront.

The story of Sleepless is relatively simple. In the wake of the death of his wife, Chicago architect Sam Baldwin (Jay McGuiness) and his son Jonah (Jobe Hart) move to Seattle to begin a new chapter. One Christmas Eve, Jonah calls in to a radio talk show, inviting his father to reflect on the air about his grief and the deep love he still holds for his wife. Hearing this, prospective lovers across the country write to Sam, referred to by the show’s host as ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, professing their deep (and carnal) feelings for him.

Among them is Baltimore Sun reporter Annie Reed (Kimberley Walsh) stuck in a dead-end relationship careering towards a dead-end engagement to her dead-end boyfriend Walter. Reading her letter, Jonah decides he has found the woman of his and his father’s dreams and with the help of confidante Rob (Cory English) goes to elaborate lengths to matchmake the two.

Given the fact that there are no subplots to speak of or much intrigue further to the central ‘coupling up’, you’d be forgiven for questioning why this was chosen for musical adaptation. Unfortunately, I found myself asking the very same thing, and with a two-hour-twenty-minute runtime found plenty of opportunity to do so.

Michael Burdett’s book offers few genuine laughs and many of composer Robert Scott’s songs and their subsequent reprises begin blending into one, with Brendan Cull’s achingly sincere lyrics mostly doing little to help matters.

There are however a few genuinely glorious exceptions, the first being the three-part vocal brawl ‘Dear Sleepless’, between Sam’s lovestruck devotees, (played with oozing charisma by Charlie Bull, Leanne Garretty and Dominique Planter) and both Jonah and Rob led entries ‘A Whole Different Ballgame’ and the show-stealing ‘Now or Never’.

Wunderkind Jobe Hart and ever effortless Cory English are the runaway stars of the evening, defibrillating the show with their sparking comic chemistry and seriously impressive triple threat ability (thanks in part to mercurial choreography by director Morgan Young).

Returning to our two leads is, sadly, another story, with both McGuiness and Walsh finding themselves regularly overpowered by the orchestra. There is an inescapable hint of vocal constraint evident in both at points along with a general feeling of reticence scene to scene, leaving them overshadowed by their committed and charismatic ensemble. And perhaps, most regrettably, there is little to no feeling that these people should and must be together.

The team behind Sleepless seem convinced that McGuiness is the MT second coming of Hanks, having filled the same shoes in their last joint venture, 2019’s Big the Musical as literal man-child Josh Baskin. Comparison between the two leading men is, in theory, ridiculous, but the decision to cast McGuiness in another of the Hollywood titan’s iconic roles comes across less as a logical step and more as a precarious and slightly bizarre statement.

Sleepless is unquestionably a theatrical feat but probably not in the ways it had hoped. Despite lacking in both ‘rom’ and ‘com’ departments, its welcome (even if outstayed) is warm and definitely reassuring.

Alex Chard