Stratford East is always adventurous in its support for new musicals but it has been over-hasty in bringing this incoherent piece by Robert Lee and Leon Ko to the stage.
The premise is intriguing: 21-year-old Eddie Woo, who works in a takeaway in Stratford, is improbably consumed by a passion for Tom Jones.
His devotion provides a good excuse to break into songs – some of them tributes to the raunchy singer – but Eddie is mixed-up to the point of unbelievability. He supposedly lacks confidence, yet he’s pursued by three women and one man and possesses a smashing voice that not even his closest friends know about.
The bumping and grinding of the choreography doesn’t suggest a man who holds back. Nor does it help that Stephen Hoo as Eddie has only one expression, that of pained disgust.
There’s more fun with the older folk, especially Pik-Sen Lim as ageing film star Widow Chu. Kerry Michael’s staging if anything adds confusion to the jumbled plot, not helped by technical problems with an ambitious set.