UNLESS you were living in a cave or are in your early teens, in which case this show isn’t appropriate, then you’d have been hard pushed to have missed The Full Monty film when it came out. The stage show closely follows the story, but it is set in Buffalo, USA and the translation loses some of the bittersweet poignancy.

John Dempster, musical director led a strong orchestra, who expertly played the score and filled the gaps between awkward set changes. The show felt under-rehearsed. There were dropped lines, missed lighting cues and late sound cues, including all of the last song, which was totally inaudible. This created a sense of the cast not giving their all to their roles as they searched for their next line or move, and this slowed the pace.

There were some good one liners and some entertaining moments, with a gregarious performance from Jeanette (Jenny Mears) and a moving ballad by Malcolm MacGregor (Dave Simmons) but on the whole it was disappointing.

Rebecca Case