Thoroughly enjoyed this fresh and talented cast – including the delightful Wayne Sleep (not doing badly at 58 and still managing to do ‘the splits’!) cast in the role of the lecherous ‘Uncle Willy’. It was less like the movie than I was expecting, so I felt the loss of missing songs such as Now You Has Jazz; Mind If I Make Love To You and High Society Calypso – however, this stage-version presented a light-hearted show with some catchy tunes.

Professional shows are usually noted for their fabulous sets but I did feel that this show was slightly lacking… in that the set was permanent (i.e. there was one!) – nothing moved. Also, not all of the cast can get away with an ‘American accent’ (Hugh Laurie they are not!) so about a third of the way through the performance it began to grate. Perhaps that was just me, though – having spoken to others since who didn’t notice, perhaps it is just me! Having said that, I really did enjoy the show and the principals were well cast, particularly Wayne Sleep and Paul Robinson (as ‘Mike Connor’).

High Society is at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, until 24th March 2007.