Viva Forever!

Musicals

West End

Piccadilly Theatre

Until Sat Jun 29

New_New_VIVA FOREVER!_4 Eternity - Diamond (Lucy Phelps), Viva (Hannah John-Kamen), Holly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) and Luce (Siobhan Athwal).jpg

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Time Out says

Wed Dec 12 2012

Kudos, I suppose, to 'Mamma Mia!' maestro Judy Craymer and writer Jennifer Saunders for successfully draining all the fun out of The Spice Girls' back catalogue with this woeful new musical. It's no mean feat: I was 15 when Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty ramraided the stultified charts of Britpop Britain, and even as a surly teenage Blur fan I found the girls' fizzy, feisty pop immensely refreshing.

'Viva Forever!' is not fun or refreshing, largely because instead of giving us the in-yer-face full arrangements of 'Say You'll Be There', 'Who Do You Think You Are', '2 Become 1' et al, it treats these enjoyable pop ditties as endlessly malleable Dylanesque narratives: chopped and changed and stopped and started, sung out of key and stripped of their bounce in order to further Saunders's rubbishy script.

Hen dos and girls'-night-out crowds will have to wait aeons before they've got anything they can actually sing along to, and even then the slenderness of the Spice back catalogue is made painfully clear – several songs are performed twice, with a baffling three outings for flop 2007 comeback single 'Headlines'.

The story, then, follows the escapades of Viva (Hannah John-Kamen), an unprepossessing young singer who goes on an 'X Factor'-style singing contest with her girlie mates, is forced to carry on as a solo act, misses her mates, misses her mum, then – SPOILER ALERT – reunites with her mum and reunites with her mates.

The odd good line reminds us of 'Ab Fab' mastermind Saunders's past form, but for the most part the blandly cast, blandly sung 'Viva' feels like it was knocked off in about five minutes, a witlessly affectionate homage to reality TV talent shows masquerading under the thinnest veneer of satire.

It's inconceivable that the intended original 'Viva Forever!' director Marianne Elliott – she of 'War Horse' and 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' – would have stood for this, and you only have to look at the just-opened 'The Bodyguard' to see what great direction (from Thea Sharrock) can do for an iffy musical.

'Viva Forever!' is now helmed by Paul Garrington, a longterm Craymer associate whose recent career has largely involved setting up new productions of 'Mamma Mia!' – her sole previous hit – in foreign countries. But 'Mamma Mia!' had a decent script and vast catalogue of Abba songs to draw upon, mostly performed straight. 'Viva Forever!' has an awful script and a small pool of Spice Girls hits to work with, mostly rearranged bafflingly.

A dull, pointless exercise in not giving the people what they really, really want

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Venue details

MAP

Name:
Piccadilly Theatre
Address:
Piccadilly Theatre London
W1D 7DY

Phone:
0844 871 7618
Website:
www.ambassadortickets.com
Transport:
Piccadilly Circus tube
Map
1. Piccadilly Theatre
  - London
    W1D 7DY
  - 0844 871 7618
  - www.ambassadortickets.com
  - 51.511056,-0.135375

Event phone:
0844 871 7618
Event website:
www.ambassadortickets.com

Categories:
Theatre. West End. Musicals
Occasions:
Girls' night out. Going in a group
Type of event:
Plays and shows

Viva Forever! 2013

Date Time Price information
Thu May 23

19:30

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets
Fri May 24

17:00

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets

20:30
Sat May 25

15:00

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets

19:30
Mon May 27

19:30

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets
Tue May 28

19:30

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets
Wed May 29

19:30

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets
Thu May 30

19:30

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets
Fri May 31

17:00

£25-£76. Booking to Jun 1 2013
Buy tickets

20:30

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Comments & ratings

(9 ratings)

Loved it! I already saw it 5 times and can´t wait to see it for a 6th time! The cast is AMAZING and the set superb. standing ovation guarantee!

Samuel Zernig Sun Mar 31
Rated as: 5/5
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In a word... Awful. I love the Spice Girls, but they have been let down by a poor, poor book and a very average creative team. The direction is dull, the choreography is sloppy and boring and screams of someone who doesn't know what to do with what has been laid out to work from... the book. The songs are badly orchestrated and we have to suffer through Spice Girls songs no-one knows!!! Give us the hits the way they were written (Who do you think you are and Too Much are stand out problems)! The design is dreary, but again dictated by the book. There is one major problem here and that is the BOOK! What was wrong with the Spice Girls actual story? It's got highs, lows, drama... everything you need for an interesting story. Viva Forever is not funny or moving, the only laughter is at it, not with it. It is not Ms. Saunders fault entirely, she was hired by the producer. Not anyone can write a musical. I predict there will be producers sniffing outside the Piccadilly any day now.

Hewitt Wed Jan 23
Rated as: 1/5
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STOP right now all you bad critics - it's clear you just need to Spice up your life!

rosie Sun Jan 6
Rated as: 5/5
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So many bad reviews - and so uncalled for! This is a really fun, feel good musical with plenty of Saunders humour and Spice Girl Classics. Yes it's a bit cheesy, but it's perfect for nostalgic Spice Girl fans - it made me and my friends laugh, cry, dance and sing. There are some great cameo pieces and of course - all the Spice Girl tunes you could want!

Rosie Sun Jan 6
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I thought it was good. I think it would appeal to more Spice fans as a lot of album tracks were sung. I was there with quite a few mates and we were all singing and dancing by the end.

Rajj Wed Dec 12 2012
Rated as: 4/5
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i spent the first part of the show not recognising a single song. The highlight was a woman in row A threatening to hit a man in row b for kicking her chair. Its that type of crowd and that type of show

dooby Wed Dec 12 2012
Rated as: 1/5
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A cynical, artless money making excercise. The turkey arrives two months early. Full report on my blog http://www.frontrowdress.com/2012/12/viva-forever-piccadilly-theatre-monday.html

Front Row Dress Tue Dec 11 2012
Rated as: 2/5
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Boring, amateurish and certainly not worth the money. I have seen many, many West End Shows and this is the worst ever!

Jools Mon Dec 10 2012
Rated as: 1/5
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