Dreamboats & Petticoats

There was nothing rock 'n' roll about the genesis of this nostalgia-fest. After two carefully marketed compilation albums went through the roof, a book was organised around a slightly overlapping selection of songs from the same era - by Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Bobby Darin and other mid-century stars capable of inducing delighted recognition in the over-50s and a yelp of 'Who?' in the under-30s.

The show opens with just such a cry, before spiralling back to a 1961 youth club where Bobby and Norman are both desperate to win a songwriting competition. So is little Laura, who also has a thumping crush on Bobby - who, naturally, only has eyes for Sue.

The story is flimsier than a prom-night corsage but with a song every three sentences that's hardly a problem. This is essentially an old-style gig with dialogue instead of patter: as the kids blast out catchy lyrics while the audience claps in time, it's possible to forget all the horrors of contemporary life for a couple of hours - even when a third of the cast is off sick with a particularly contemporary lurgy. The one jarring note is the lack of interest in the era apart from its music.

Sean Kavanagh's half-hearted set design consists of posters so lacklustre he'd have done better decorating the stage with stills from 'Mad Men' and while there are coy hints that getting laid wasn't as easy back then as it is nowadays (the show's funniest moment revolves around Bobby sneaking Sue up to his bedroom), most of the jokes are aimed directly at the twenty-first century: Bobby's father refuses to get him a guitar on HP because 'if everyone lived beyond their means this country would go to the dogs!'.

A little more of that astringent humour would have been welcome in a show that's fun, but as folksy and artless as a small-town ingénue.