My first description of Nativity! The Musical, if I had to give a fifteen second elevator pitch, would be to say this: Monty Python meets St Trinian’s. This show is one you will either love or hate. If you are looking for serious drama, forget it. If you have a taste for silly British gently satirical humour, you will love it. If you have a taste for vaudeville/music hall riffs, you will also love it. If you like stand up comics, you will adore the routines and speedy delivery of Simon Lipkin as an energetic, manic, touching Mr Poppy. You will also love his pairing with Scott Garnham as the perfect foil. And if you love Pantomime, this can be, in a generalised sort of way, a Pantomime for you.
The villain, Andy Brady’s hissable Mr Shakespeare, even gets booed. If ever there was a case for a willing suspension of disbelief, this is it. The story is completely nonsensical and preposterous, so, as Henry James, said, you will have to accept “the given”. If you are looking for My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music or even Jesus Christ, Superstar, this is not going to be it. If you are looking for an extended Monty Python approach set in a primary school that is also a little squishy at its marshmallow heart, you will love this. The children in the show – and there are plenty of them – are so full of energy and enjoyment that it is almost impossible not to suspend all critical faculties and simply go with the very glitzy, raw flow.
In Oxford, Jake Wood of East Enders is playing The Hollywood Producer and his first appearance on stage naturally brought the show to a full stop for a lot of applause and hooting and hollering. This is an interactive musical too! It is a blissfully crass evening of show biz pizzazz. It is also exceptionally well done and professional to the core. I have nothing but praise of Debbie Isitt, the writer and director, for composer Nicky Ager and Debbie Isitt, and for Andrew Wright’s dazzlingly cheerful choreography. Everything is perfectly calculated for the enjoyment value it will bring. It is one of the most engaging shows touring the country. I also want to praise Ashleigh Gray as Jennifer and Jemma Churchill as Mrs Bevan. But especially, I must praise the children and the terrific sense everyone on that stage gives of a well-oiled, totally over-rehearsed ensemble that nonetheless seems spontaneous at every moment. You cannot be that spontaneous in and not be slickly rehearsed! And when things went a mite wrong at one point, Simon Lipkin and Scott Garnham ad libbed their way out of it with total aplomb. This is the kind of show that Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney might have put on in their barn in the 1930s. It is a real MGM style family show! As Sam Goldwyn said, “Meaning? If I want to send a message, I send a telegram!” The only message in this one is that it is great fun.