After six years, the West End, Broadway, a fair amount of mainland Europe and two Olivier Awards, Kat and the Kings returns to the venue that hosted its UK premiere. Even after all those performances and air miles, it's pleasing to report that David Kramer and Taliep Petersen's musical remains a toe-tappingly infectious evening's entertainment.
And entertainment it most certainly is, for although the time is 1957 and the place apartheid-era South Africa, the majority of the show takes a definite walk on the sunny side of the street. For the setting is Petersen's childhood home of District Six, which was, until 1966, a large, vibrant and, crucially and incongruously, multiracial community in Cape Town.
It is in this promising melting pot of a location that 17-year-old Kat Diamond and his friends Bingo, Magoo and Ballie spend their days on street corners singing and dreaming. Magoo's sister Lucy is a dab hand at playing the piano and songwriting, and before long the boys have styled themselves The Cavalla Kings and have themselves a series of bookings and a recording contract. Yet the fact that the piece is narrated by Kat's older incarnation, who ekes out a living as a shoeshine, foretells of dreams shattered by apartheid's insidious legislation.
The songs, which are lovingly reminiscent of the Fifties' sound of nascent rock and roll, just keep
coming and are given turbocharged treatment by the vivacious cast of six. The voices blend beautifully and ensemble numbers such as Boetie Guitar and The Claridges Hotel Medley are triumphs both of Petersen's musical direction and the choreography of Loukmaan Adams and Jody Abrahams.
Emraan Adams makes a suitably impetuous hip young Kat, but the five men have even their star wattage eclipsed by Abigail Petersen as Lucy. She plays, sings and dances up a storm, and West End producers with musical roles on their hands would be advised to take a look. Or maybe they should simply re-embrace the entire show and give Theatreland some muchneeded vitality.
Until 8 February. Information: 020 7328 1000.
b>Kat and the Kings
Tricycle, NW6
Kat And The Kings
