Raise the Roof

A refreshingly unpretentious backstage musical, set among the lower reaches of the theatre world, where a tatty revue company that makes Hamlet seem like a perishing pantomime battles valiantly against the catcalls and rotten tomatoes. Fortunately it has the inestimable advantage of silents star Betty Balfour, trembling on the brink of love with a bizarre mixture of worldly vulgarity and little girl charm. Like a ruffled cockatoo, she bullies her fellow players into dropping their costumes and their actorly aspirations and giving the public what it wants: 'Laughter and legs...mostly legs'. Nice to know Britain has a musical tradition to be proud of.