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From rags, to riches, to rags again – over the decades, the British press has gleefully splashed tales of lottery-winners’ woes across its pages. There’s usually faux sympathy, quick moral judgement and – often – an unpleasant strain of class-based scorn.
This musical revival – which plasters the back wall of the stage with newspapers – is based on the life of one of the first people to be set up and pulled down in this way. Yorkshire housewife Viv Nicholson’s excited answer in 1961 of ‘spend, spend, spend’, when asked what she planned to do after winning more than a hundred grand in the pools, would come back to haunt her.
The show is told in flashback by an older, regretful Viv. After several decades during which the love of her life has died, four more husbands have come and gone and all the clothes, cars and houses have been lost as bankruptcy has hit, she’s now working on a beauty counter to make ends meet.
What we get is a vividly engrossing, unsentimental portrait of the hand-to-mouth toughness of Viv’s early years in a Yorkshire mining village and the post-win rush of financial freedom. Steve Brown and Justin Greene’s book and lyrics are a breath of fresh air. Alive with sweary wit, the big numbers and looping refrains neither sugar-coat nor mock Viv.
Director Christian Durham uses the Union’s small stage space inventively. And as old and young Viv respectively, Julie Armstrong and Katy Dean are a joy to watch. In particular, the younger version – sexed-up, gobby and strong-willed – is a gift of a role that Dean seizes with both hands. She powers through the show like a platinum-blonde tornado.
Not all of the songs are memorable and, here at least, the finale feels more underpowered than melancholic. But while it doesn’t end happily, this is no snootily cautionary tale – as performed by this talented ensemble cast, it’s full of grit, wit and heart.