SPEND, SPEND, SPEND: Brown & Greene: Belgrade Coventry till 29 Sept, Touring

Coventry

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND: Steve Brown and Justin Greene
Belgrade: Tkts, 024 7655 3055
Runs: 2h 15 mins: till Sat 29th September 2001 and tour
Review: Rod Dungate, 20th September 2001

Gritty story, talented cast, pity about the music.
In 1957 Keith and Viv Nicholson – living on the bread line in a council house in Yorkshire – won £152k on the football pools. The equivalent of about £3 million today. They didn’t say ‘This will never change our lives’, they said they were going to ‘Spend, spend, spend.’ And so they did until it was all gone and, by then, widowed Viv was back where she started – a rag to riches and back to rags story.

The musical explores what drove this woman, it attempts to show us that if you have nothing to start with, then to enjoy everything 110 per cent when you suddenly have it is a valid choice.

Sadly the music, by Steve Brown, in this sung-through musical never really engages with the emotions in the subject. It is rarely better than pleasant, with no opportunities for the obviously talented cast to shine. I waited and waited for the music to take me deep into Viv’s turmoil but it never did.

The characters in the story are gritty – the Nicholson’s virtually drank their money away for goodness sake. No amount of raunchy lyrics (as when Viv sings to Keith ‘forget the sheath/ Me on top, you underneath’) stops the show being merely a coffee-table, cosmetic version of tale.

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND which closes the first half is great, this is the only number with real balls and the company gloriously rises to the challenge: a witty nod in the direction of the Generation Game too replete with cuddly toy!

The show is not entirely devoid of good moments: genuinely moving is the scene between Viv (Barbara Dickson) and Young Viv (Rachel Leskovac) at husband Keith’s funeral as the two women join in WHO’S GOING TO LOVE ME?

The production was directed by Jeremy Sams and Anna Linstrum and it’s difficult to see what they did.

Cast:
Viv: Barbara Dickson
Young Viv: Rachel Leskovac
George: Nigel Williams
Keith: Grant Anthony

with

Annie Wnesak
Nicla Sloane
Melissa jacques
Erica Ann Deakin
Karen Clegg
Matthey Wtorey
Kevin Curtin
Graham Vick
Mark Halliday
Carl Patrick
Peter Edbrook
Cheryl Knight
Anthony Thornley

Director: Jeremy Sams
Choreographer: Grain Revel Honwood
Design: Lex Brotherston
Lighting: Mark Henderson, Neil Austin

2001-09-23 14:38:27