Review: I Should Be So Lucky - The Musical

Kylie, Jason, Rick Astley, Sonia, Sinitta, Bananarama, Mel & Kim – together (forever) their squeaky-clean songs were the soundtrack of a generation, and every chart-topping single had the same distinctive SAW touch.

Now those irresistible earworm tunes are celebrated in I Should Be So Lucky The Musical, a jukebox-joyous trip down memory lane to the days of mullets and perms, pull-out posters from Smash Hits adorning your bedroom walls, and eating your tea after school each evening watching that day’s episode of Neighbours.

Of course fans of Stock Aitken and Waterman’s incredible catalogue – 100-plus top 40 UK hits, 13 number ones totalling 33 weeks at the top of the charts – will be in their mid to late 40s now at least, and the audience at The Lyceum in Sheffield is given a stern recorded warning from Pete Waterman himself before the show begins.

There’s to be no singing along or shouting out and, Pete implores, “Take it easy on the booze.” Perhaps that explains why the first floor bar was shut in the interval. To deter a repeat of events last November in Manchester when a disruptive reveller had to be removed from the stalls by security.

There’s no such bawdiness in Sheffield. The audience waits until the medley finale to leap to their feet, sing, dance and clap along, and treat the cast to a much-deserved standing ovation – because besides just the standout songs of the Hit Factory, the show has all the ingredients of a smash itself.

The choreography is by Jason Gilkison – creative director of Strictly – and the writing is by Bafta and Emmy award-winning Debbie Isitt who created, wrote and directed the Nativity! franchise of films and penned all the original songs in the movies.

The plot – packed with ludicrous laugh-out-loud twists and turns – is fast-paced and funny, like a mash-up of all your favourite chick flicks, with nods to Shirley Valentine, Mamma Mia and Dirty Dancing.

Against the backdrop of a giant heart-shaped set, Kylie superfan and bride-to-be Ella is jilted at the altar by fiance Nathan, and jets off to Turkey on what should have been her honeymoon with her larger-than-life friends and family instead.

Lucie-Mae Sumner is totally believable, and totally brilliant, as broken-hearted Ella, confidently leading a huge cast of characters every one of whom sparkles.

Jamie Chapman is camp-as-Christmas as kind, sweet, gently acerbic hotel manager Spencer, Giovanni Spano is hilarious as Bobby Davro lookalike and best man Ash, and Scott Paige gets some delicious one-liners as honourary hen Michael.

Even Kylie Minogue herself has a huge starring role in the show, appearing digitally via a magic mirror as fairy godmother to Ella, reminding her that no matter what life throws at her she is ‘strong, beautiful, fabulous’.

The songs come thick and fast, and at times do seem somewhat shoehorned in whether or not the dialogue or the story arc demand it. It feels a shame, for example, that Ella’s rationale for getting back with Nathan is he’s ‘better the devil you know’ – cue Sonia’s 1993 Eurovision hit – and characters use the words ‘lucky, lucky, lucky’ just a little too often, for no real reason other than the phrase comes straight from Kylie’s most famous song.

But on the whole it’s frothy, feel-good, heartwarming and uplifting stuff and nonsense – a sun-soaked celebration that’s the perfect way to beat the January blues.

Put your hand on your heart and tell me you didn’t like it.

• I Should Be So Lucky - The Musical is at the Lyceum, Sheffield, until Saturday, January 20