Review: Singin' In The Rain At the Palace Theatre, London

Photo by Manuel Harlan.

Sitting in the 'you will get wet' seats at the West End's current revival of Singin' In The Rain is not for the faint of heart. Be prepared to get soaked at every opportunity, including just when you need to head home. My fellow front-row occupants scattered during the curtain call when it became clear that we were to be showered again.

I think perhaps it says something of the quality of the show that my overriding memory is having water ceaselessly kicked at my face while audience members shrieked. Which is not to say that Singin' In The Rain is an unenjoyable evening at the theatre. It is thoroughly entertaining with a young, energetic and endearing cast. Endless laughs come from Daniel Crossley as sidekick Cosmo Brown, Scarlett Strallen toes the line (and sometimes crosses into) annoyingly sunny territory, and Adam Cooper tries valiantly; but will anyone ever compare to Gene Kelly?

The show seems to acknowledge this, but in exactly the wrong way, relegating dancer Cooper to water splashing duty in the title number, rather than letting him show off his impressive footwork. Cooper, Strallen, and Crossley do get a stand-out number in 'Good Morning', and the romantic duets dazzle. David Lucas snags two diverse cameos, and shines in both. But the absolute stand-out performance of the night is Katherine Kingsley's frog-voiced Lina Lamont. She owns the stage throughout the night, but the show does falter by giving her a solo number that affords her sympathy, and therefore makes her eventual comeuppance a bit sad.

The plot lumbers along, juxtaposing musical numbers with silent (and later, sound) films, but these are always jarringly modern in style. The script seems at times a watered-down (pun intended) version of the film's screenplay, but it retains most of the original's charm. The design (by Simon Higlett) is serviceable, but the staging sometimes appears amateur. The show never seems to reach the emotional climax that the film does when Debbie Reynolds runs crying up the aisle; and this is perhaps what the show most lacks, a bit more heart and a large helping of nostalgia.

Despite all that, that rainstorm is spectacular.


Singin' In The Rain, directed by Jonathan Church, is currently playing an open-ended run at London's Palace Theatre.