Connect with us

News

REVIEW: The show is clumsy, loud, predictable, and brash. It’s embarrassingly bad

‘A show that could have been so much better’

Published

on

Here You Come Again – the Dolly Parton Musical at Cambridge Arts Theatre. This show is beyond terrible – but Tricia Paoluccio as Dolly Parton is magnificent in it. She has a tremendous voice, a walk like Mae West and gives us the demeanour and delivery of Dolly. Both she and Dolly Parton deserve better.

Sadly, instead of a tribute to Dolly Parton, who has written over 3,000 songs, sold over 100 million records, won eleven Grammy awards, ten Country Music Association awards, been nominated for two Oscars, a Tony and an Emmy as well as founding projects to bring education and poverty relief to people in East Tennessee where she grew up – we have the story of a guy called Kevin, who we learn has just turned 40 with very little to show for it.

The show is set during the Covid and Kevin (played by Steven Webb) is isolated in his parents’ attic in Halifax where his mother puts food in a basket to be pulled up by a rope. He gets jilted by his boyfriend (who sends a text) and sacked by his female boss in a Zoom message.

Then we descend into a cringe-worthy pity fest. Kevin is a failed stand-up comic -and sadly, Webb is far too method with this. When his jokes fall flat he says: “Tough crowd” but that doesn’t get a laugh either. He does have a pleasant voice but it’s a tall order for a musical to have a main cast of two.

Here You Come Again is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, June 29.

Here You Come Again is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, June 29.

As Kevin despairs of making anything of his life, Dolly, whose posters are all around his room, appears to him.

The show’s 15 songs include Here You Come Again, Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, and the absolute triumph, I Will Always Love You. They are knitted together, not through the story of Dolly Parton’s amazing life but by Kevin’s eventual realisation that he can replace one boyfriend with another.

https://yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Here-We-Come-Again–Covid-19

Advertisements
canopyuk.com in-article

As part of the band, backing vocalist Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke does a great job as the voice of Kevin’s mum from Yorkshire and his hard-faced night club boss from London. A tiny contribution but memorable.

Dolly Parton was, according to her autobiography, born in a shack. Her family were so poor, the doctor at her delivery was paid with a sack of corn, instead of cash. She was the fourth of 12 children. She sang in church at the age of six.

Here You Come Again is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, June 29.

Here You Come Again is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, June 29.

A bus trip to a recording studio in Louisiana with her grandmother, when Dolly was 13, took 30 hours. None of this is in the show. It’s not about Dolly from Tennessee, it’s about Kevin from Halifax. I found it hard to care.

The show is clumsy, loud, predictable, and brash. It’s embarrassingly bad. When Kevin comes on channelling Kenny Everitt’s drag act – the combination of a wig, a dress, and a beard, I saw four people in the stalls get up and walk out. We hadn’t reached the interval by then.

If they hadn’t gone then, they might have left later when the audience was asked to put the torchlight on their phones and wave them in the air.

Of those who stayed, many stood up in tribute at the end, but the applause was surely for Paoluccio whose performance was a triumph but in a show that could have been so much better.

Here You Come Again is at Cambridge Arts Theatre until Saturday, June 29.

Facebook

Read More

News1 month ago

Ely ‘hit and run’ driver sought after cyclist left with serious injuries

Cyclist injured in crash with a grey car in Lynn Road, Ely

News1 month ago

WATCH: Police retrieve machete and cannabis from Peterborough drug dealer

Offender caught again whilst on bail for first offence

News1 month ago

BREAKING: Cambridgeshire County Council ‘truly sorry’ after it admits liability for 3 fatalities on Guided Busway

Council 'fully acknowledges the serious historic failings'

News1 month ago

WATCH: ‘You got me fair and square’ Wisbech burglar tells police in Peterborough

He was arrested in Peterborough city centre on 26 April

News1 month ago

WATCH: Police raid cannabis ‘factory’ inside Alconbury Weston house

Cannabis arrest followed a tip off from members of the public

News1 month ago

3 things to do while in the queue for an Oasis ticket – and it’s not what you might think

Tongue in cheek post has a serious message

News1 month ago

Cambs transport charity launches scathing attack after losing subsidised bus route to Stagecoach

FACT operated the 68 Wisbech service for a number of years

News1 month ago

Mayor attacks ‘cheap theatre of negativity’ over £48m Peterborough station facelift

Labour hopes Great Northern Hotel will be in future phase of re-development

News1 month ago

Opposition to 8am to 11pm pavement wining and dining in Wisbech by Wetherspoon

In Whittlesey Wetherspoon hope to use Market Place for outdoor drinkers

News1 month ago

Cambridge ‘drug lord’ caught with loaded gun, cash, and £500,000 worth of drugs

Rahman ran a criminal enterprise across Cambridge