WATCHING this show was a little like eating a gourmet burger full of top class ingredients surrounded by a slightly stale, soggy bun.

Under the watchful eye of director/choreographer Craig Revel Horwood, this production was slick and smooth-running, with a string of excellent individual performances and a mouthwatering selection of 20 or so expertly staged 1980s hit songs to tickle the nostalgia buds. Pippa Evans’ book, which attempts to use all those melodies and lyrics to tell the stories of what happened to a group of Birmingham school children in the years between them leaving school and attending a 1987 school reunion, is not so clear cut.

Whilst practically every number, whether displaying the vocal talents of soloists or carefully planned ensemble work, was greeted enthusiastically by a female-dominated audience in whom they often evoked personal memories, not all of the songs, or their lyrics, enhanced or made the storytelling clearer, as the action skipped to and fro between schooldays and reunion.

Among these lively numbers, room also had to be found for some serious issues to be discussed – personal relationships and the chauvinistic attitude of men towards women in the 1980s. Once the audience fully appreciated that the story was being told in a series of flashbacks with virtually all the principles dually played as adult and schoolchildren, the mixture of comedy and drama flowed much more freely.

Leading the way was Nina Wadia’s Gemma, an unhappy nurse trapped in a loveless marriage with Chris Grahamson’s totally chauvinistic Tim, and Sam Bailey as her life-long friend April, hiding behind a false successful career on Los Angeles TV. Vocally and dramatically, Nina and Sam made sparks fly off each other, and Nikita Johal and Mata Hawkins matched then all the way as the younger Gemma and April.

You had to keep concentrating to work out where Shamil Hussain as Gemma’s would-be entrepreneur brother Frank, (and Luke Latchman as his younger self) fitted into the story, but while you were waiting, they provided some very enjoyable vocals. And three well-crafted characters from Christopher Glover and Poppy Tierney (Gemma’s dad and mum), and the self-deprecating Phil Sealey’s physically and mentally stolid local shop owner, Steve.

The big set piece of the evening comes when the guest artist, dressed in a sparkling silver catsuit, enters Gemma’s dreams to guide her out of depression and on into a positive future reunited in friendship with April and minus the attentions of the selfish Tim. Sonia fitted the bill in the Hippodrome and duly delivered Better the Devil you Know in eye-catching fashion. The disappointment for her fans was that, apart from that number and a reprise in the encores, it was all she was asked to contribute to the evening.

One thing was certain – for those who had come to be reunited with their favourite musical genre the pop music of the 1980s, with 20 such numbers on offer they did not go away disappointed.

GRP