The American Way

And so, a Saturday matinee of "Little Shop of Horrors" at the Duke of York's Theatre. A family group, age range 15 - 58 who all enjoyed the show, even if they were a little less demonstrative than me. We left the theatre and walked up St Martins Lane past the Albery, sorry the Coward Theatre, where the equally engaging "Avenue Q" is playing. Both shows are small scale, albeit with wonderful puppetry at "Avenue Q" and a truly monstrous walking talking plant at "Little Shop". Young and manically hard working casts, loud but undistorted music and imaginative, 'tho hardly revolutionary design and direction.

The recipe for Broadway and West End Success? Well, yes, but there has to be more than that, and if British musicals writers could crack the formula there might be genuine competition for the successful, but somewhat portentous monopoly of Lord Lloyd Webber. Lloyd Webber's music may nod towards Puccini and Mendelssohn, to name two well known examples, but it does at least reflect his compositional voice. The music for "Little Shop" and "Avenue Q" is actually much more derivative, but the shows undeniably work.

Perhaps it is because the composers unashamedly plunder Broadway. We know we have heard the songs before, but they are so rooted in the genre that it doesn't seem to matter. The three girls of the chorus in "Little Shop" (and I mean chorus in the Greek tradition) are named Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette and their music tells us so. The wonderfully un PC "Every one's a Little bit Racist" in "Avenue Q" traces it's musical roots directly to vaudeville.

So, British composers and lyricists- its simple - go back the the Beatles, or George Formby or Gilbert and Sullivan and we can look forward to a West End full of home grown musicals.

Or maybe not.