Light In The Piazza

On Monday night, I tootled my way through to Leicester for the final preview of Light In The Piazza at the (relatively) newly opened Curve.

The theatre itself is lovely. Spacious, comfortable and lots of legroom (double brownie points from me). If only I had so many positive things to write about the show.

Ultimately, I was bored. Very bored. I don't dispute that the orchestrations are very pretty, and they have some lovely singers but the show itself left me thoroughly cold. There is no book. At no point in the whole show did I engage with any of the characters... and that certainly wasn't the fault of the actors. Equally, I am someone who likes to be able to walk away from a show with a melody in my head and it failed utterly in that respect too. The songs had that Sondheimesque clunkiness that jars on me.

The set was bloody ugly too. Giant, moving MDF boxes shifting around the stage. Impressive in terms of scale but totally out of character for the show.

I know the plans were for a West End transfer of this. I can't see it happening and I bloody hope it doesn't - the thought of a show as dull as this clogging up a London theatre depresses me no end.