REVIEWS - SPEND SPEND SPEND 2010

The Public Reviews - 29 September 2010
Spend Spend Spend! – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
Music by Steven Brown
Book/Lyrics: Steven Brown & Justin Greene
Director/Choreographer: Craig Revel Horwood
Reviewer: Katherine Kirwin
The Public Reviews Rating: 3 and a half stars

This small-scale musical has been artfully brought to life on the relatively small stage of the Yvonne Arnaud theatre with a full first-night audience; quite likely as intrigued by the celebrity of the show's director/choreographer, Craig Revel Horwood, as much as they were attracted by the prospect of an evenings entertainment. And great entertainment it was.

Inspired by the true story of Viv Nicholson, who won the largest ever jackpot (at the time) on the pools in 1981, the plot of Spend Spend Spend! Seemingly travels the predictable Cinderella rags-to-riches story, although really it charts the consequences of being lifted above your class and background through monetary gain, a morality tale to counteract our current ‘spend as if you have it' society. We follow the story of Viv's life from teenage lovers, mistaken marriages, discovering love, finding grief, to rebuilding from nothing.

The ensemble cast were astounding in their abilities, each actor playing at least one musical instrument, forming their own backing music for numbers – they really were the beat and life of the performance. I always prefer shows where you can see the musicians on stage but I especially enjoyed seeing the artistry of these performers as they integrated their musical performance (and carrying of their instruments) into their characterisation.

The strength of this production lay in the fantastic performances of younger Viv and older Viv, played by Kirsty Hollies and Karen Mann respectively. The memory play structure results, in this case, in emotional tension rather than corny narration as we sense the urgent warnings of older Viv to her younger self not to be so foolish, not to wish for bigger things, to embrace what she had. The characterisation was so strong that you felt as if you really were watching across the generations; yet each actress brought their own element to the performance of Viv making it fresh, and emphasising the small parts of her own personality that had died and changed across the years.

As a northerner, I came prepared to be insulted by the ‘it's harsh oop north' talk, however the script dealt with it in such a way that it emphasised the benefits, as well as the difficulties, of community and dependency which arises out of poverty and harshness. Further, the clever use of folk songs intertwined with the musical numbers fully immersed us the sense of time and place.

However, I have reservations about a couple of elements in this production – much as I enjoyed the dancing in some of the numbers (i.e. Sexual Happening) I felt that the extravagant musical dancing numbers of Spend Spend Spend and the playboy bunny costumes didn't correlate with the emotional heart of the rest of the production; it appeared to undermine it rather than provide light relief. Furthermore, a star was lost because of the addition of an allusion to the Strictly Come Dancing theme tune and over-the-top Bruce Forsyth impression handing over the pools cheque; although I do appreciate that he handed real-life Viv her cheque in 1961, I feel that this could have been done more tastefully and artfully.

Overall, a thoughtful, emotional musical production with so much heart and punch behind it's swinging demeanour it brought a tear to this reviewer's eye – a testament to the powerful performances by this talented ensemble. Catch it while you can.