'Love Story' at the Duchess Theatre

Cooking! Live on stage! In time to the music! Proving once and for all that a pasta meal really is simple enough to prepare after a hard day at work - it must have been fresh pasta though because it wasn't in the saucepan for very long.

Apart from the onstage culinary wizardry, 'Love Story' at the Duchess has much going for it. The two leads were very good, I felt that Emma Williams had the edge as Jenny. She had a steel to her performance that made you believe in the stoic acceptance of her illness. Michael Xavier as Oliver had the harder task to perform, the rift from his family not eliciting much natural sympathy.

The story of 'Love Story' is not going to win many awards for straying from the hard worn romantic tragedy path, it may have been more ground breaking in 1970 but I don't think it's very likely. As the opening number says 'What Can You Say?', a fair assessment of the entire musical. It does exactly what you expect.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Clark and Howard Goodall are straight forward and tidily performed by the onstage band - as straight forward as such an honest theatrical endeavour deserves. The flashback structure doesn't add anything to the story but does allow for the satisfaction of the score ending with echoing the same melody with which it began. The famous 'Love Story' theme makes a welcome appearance in one scene which, I would imagine, everyone in the audience would have expected.

Overall though I couldn't help feeling that the evening needed something more to raise it above the level of alright. I didn't get the kind of emotional burst at the finale which I would have expected - I'm quite easy to move with a little theatrical magic. My friend was in floods though so maybe it was just me.

Bill Count: 3

'Salad Days' at the Riverside Studios

There is a school of thought which extolls the supremacy of American musicals over their British counterparts. Most of the time I'd be pretty much in agreement - there is a vitality and brashness about the American musical which is not, in general, matched by musical theatre from this side of the pond. But that doesn't mean there aren't unique British shows that just couldn't have been made in America and 'Salad Days' - at least going by the Riverside Studios revival - is one of these. A perfectly formed pice of absolute silliness that nevertheless managed to raise a tear when it finished, I was completely bowled over.

Julian Slade and Dorothy Fields put together a show that, on the one hand is about a magic piano, flying saucers and drinking den cabarets and, on the other, is a beautiful study of growing up, putting away childish things and moving into the world with your best friend by your side. When Timothy and Jane walk away from the Tramp and Minnie and the reprise of 'We Said We'd Never Look Back' fades gently away I'd dare anybody to remain completely unmoved.

The simple tunes, neat rhymes and plainly barking mad story are all played straight down the line in a healthily thick BBC English style. Everyone appears to be having a great time and you almost wish you were joining in. A few lucky members of the audience get that chance as the power of Minnie even manages to get a few people off the front couple of rows and dancing along.

High praise should be distributed widely amongst the entire cast but I would single out Katie Moore for her perfect renditions of 'I Sit in the Sun' and 'The Time of My Life'. Just superb.

Bill Count: 1

'On the Twentieth Century' at the Union Theatre

'On the Twentieth Century' is a Cy Coleman musical - he of 'Sweet Charity' and 'Big Spender' fame - which uses a Howard Hawks screwball comedy as it's primary inspiration. It explores the tempestuous relationship between a movie idol actress and a producer desperate to get her services. And has lots of entertaining running in and out of compartments with slamming doors.

The Union Theatre is on a bit of a roll at the moment with their small scale productions of big Broadway musicals - like an even thriftier version of the Menier Chocolate Factory's shows. The tiny cavern like space has both the benefit of making you a real part of the performance but can also throw up some sound level problems. The surprisingly large and beautifully brassy band sometimes overwhelmed the performers given the acoustics.

The seating arrangement stretching across the length of the performance area also wasn't quite as successful as having more depth to the seating and stage but a smaller width. Bit too much neck twisting to be completely comfortable. Not that you could accuse the seating in general of being comfortable.

But these are minor concerns in comparison to the sheer energy of the production. In the fine tradition of most farcical comedies, a lot of the comedy relies on the cast throwing themselves at the ridiculous situations with brio and this cast didn't disappoint. The music stylistically sits somewhere around the 1930s even though the show premiered in 1980 and has the same kind of bounce as the book.

Coleman's melodies range from the superbly catchy 'On the Twentieth Century' to the sadistically annoying 'I Have a Written a Play' but my favourite has to be the wonderfully un-PC 'She's a Nut!' Comden and Green's lyrics are playful and have the effortlessness of years of experience.

The staging was inventive given the constraints and had the best cast-train since 'Hello, Dolly!' at the Open Air Theatre a few years back. Howard Samuels and Bruce Granit obviously had great fun preening in fake mirrors and Valda Aviks is delightfully certifiable. Rebecca Vere was as wonderfully untouchable a movie star as you could wish for. Chris David Storer and Matt Harrop were an engaging two stooges and the rest of the cast gave enthusiastic support.

All aboard the Twentieth Century for some sophisticated jazzy silliness, here's hoping for a transfer.

Bill Count: 0

'When We Are Married' at the Garrick

With a cast that reads like a who's who of British comedy and a script by J.B. Priestley what could possibly go wrong?

Well, nothing really. It all ticked along quite nicely. Nobody can do downtrodden and then rebellious like Sam Kelly or fix a Basilisk stare like Maureen Lipman. Lynda Baron is big and bustling, Roy Hudd end-of-the-pier drunk and Susie Blake sweet. But pleasant was the only height it reached.

For a comedy to be considered farcical, doesn't the tempo have to rise? Doesn't at least one of the cast have to panic? One mis-timed entrance or slammed door? Much like the characters the script was trying to lampoon, this was all a bit mannered. The performances too careful and the comedy too gentle. Chuckles rather than laughs.

Still, the set was gorgeous and the staging old fashioned and simple. There was an old school robustness which left you in no doubt that everyone knew what they were doing. And you're not going to get that many opportunities to see a cast like this.