CLOSE your eyes and you are listening to Dolly Parton – every note, every inflection, every accent in both the songs and the dialogue performed by Tricia Paoluccio in Here You Come Again, the show she co-wrote and is now touring the UK until spring 2025. It is a truly remarkable performance.

And the story, co-written with Bruce Vilanch and Gabrielle Barre, carries the seed of an excellent show. Sadly, this isn’t it.

Dolly fans, among whom I number myself, will be delighted by the songs, performed by Ms Paoluccio and the onstage band of Jordan Li-Smith, Luke Adams, Ben Scott and Kevin Oliver Jones and backing singers Aiden Cutler and Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke.

The other character, the central character, is Kevin, played by Steven Webb. Kevin is a 40 year old gay man whose very iffy relationship with Jeremy the hedge fund manager has broken up in the locked-down days of COVID. He is back home with his paranoid parents, living in the loft which he has to access via a ladder from the garden, in case his germs permeate their living space. He is absolutely heartbroken, lonely and hopeless, with his intended career in comedy an embarrassing memory and nothing to look forward to.

Hey presto – and his beloved poster of the Backwoods Barbie, Queen of Nashville and doyenne of Dollywood comes to life. Dolly is here in his attic shrine-cum-bedroom, doing her thing with down-home Tennessee philosophy and a positive outlook to battle with his misery-me take on life. So far so good.

The show is directed by one of the co-writers, Gabriel Barre, and I suggest he is much too close to the work to take a stern look at how it’s going. The set, by Paul Wills, is a clever blend of the skyline chimneys of terraced houses and the wood-rich timbers of an attic giving an Americana cabin feel.

Steven Webb is a very agile performer, a fine dancer and an energetic mover. Kevin has done some drag, and is happy to do it again for his unexpected guest. His antics are reminiscent of Kenny Everett in his Cupid Stunt mode. It was impressive the first time (and maybe the second time) that Mr Webb did his head-from-side-to-side thing, but not the tenth or twentieth. The woman behind me was screaming “drink the wine.” I wanted to scream “calm down!”

As a vehicle for the undoubted talents of Tricia Paoluccio this is a triumph. As a play with a story and a believable, relatable heart, it needs a serious rethink.

GP-W

 

Photographs by Hugo Glendinning