The Rise & Fall Of Little Voice

How I wanted to love this, and how much did I love Jess Robinson who certainly played LV with real conviction and the ability to sing like the stars she loves. Sadly, there it ends, for the rest of it had the feel of a northern nightclub act but with no sense of irony. Beverley Callard played the comedy to great effect, but her physical agility felt like it was thrown in to prove that she can still do a handstand. It lacked any sense of dark desperation, the bleak truth about her terrible life and her oppressed daughter and abused best friend. The addition of pre-show and interval shenanigans fell on stony ground too with the Brighton audience, few of who seemed to engage with bingo. Simon Thorp played the lothario well but seemed to give up when his dream collapses and he threw away a potentially great scene. On a set that looked world weary, not by design, this felt like a play that could not decide whether it was comedy or tragedy and had not worked out that it could be both.

Theatre Royal Brighton, 4 March 2013,

Rating: