Words by Melissa Blease
Theatre Royal Bath until 9 November
It’s March 2020 and Kevin — a failed comedian “on the wrong side of 40” — is living the paranoid, stockpiling, handwashing-obsessed Covid lockdown life (remember that?) back at his parent’s house. His partner has imposed ‘break’ status on their relationship, his boss has cut off his furlough payments and fired him and he’s confined to his former childhood bedroom in the attic of his parent’s house. But he’s not even socialising with mum and dad; they’ve insisted on delivering his meals via a complicated system of ropes and pulleys… and he’s entering and exiting his room via a stepladder.
As Kevin’s circumstances are enough to drive anybody a bit, erm, loopy, we can forgive him for inadvertently conjuring up the spirit of his lifelong icon Dolly Parton in his hour of need — right? Well, sorta…
Here You Come Again — written by an all-American team trio consisting of Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre (who also directs) and Tricia Paoluccio (who stars in show as Dolly herself) and adapted for UK audiences by Jonathan (Gimme, Gimme, Gimme; Coronation Street; Beautiful Thing) Harvey — isn’t the kind of jukebox musical that takes the form of a biographical, based-on-real-life tribute to the artiste as in The Tina Turner Musical, or Beautiful(Carole King), or On Your Feet! (Gloria and Emilio Estafan); if you don’t know much about Dolly Parton’s life when you enter the auditorium, you won’t find any further enlightenment here. Instead, it takes the Mamma Mia!/We Will Rock You/Never Forget approach to proceedings, putting fictional characters at the epicentre of a fictional narrative around which the songs and music of the artiste are shoehorned.
In turning Dolly Parton into a Covid-era fairy godmother who magically pops out of one of a young(ish) man’s posters during his darkest hours to inspire him with her wit, wisdom and charm, Here You Come Again takes the thread of surreality that tends to dominate the non-biographical jukebox musical genre and elevates it to full-on fanciful heights.
Steven Webb is a delightfully endearing Kevin, deliciously camp but authentically poignant in his vulnerability, skipping from sensitive, beleaguered domestic detainee to flamboyant Ru Paul’s Drag Race lip-sync superstar on the turn of a Birkenstock sandal. As Parton, Tricia Paoluccio rightfully owns her place in the spotlight, pitch-perfect in every way it takes to ‘be’ Dolly P.
Meanwhile, Paul Wills’ largely fairylit set — Kevin’s cluttered, impeccably-detailed claustrophobic bedroom — is laden with evocative domestic detail, and a live band of accomplished musicians and backing singers give those eagerly-anticipated greatest hits (Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I Will Always Love You, etc) full, satisfying resonance. However…
Despite Dolly’s best (and wholly successful) efforts in edifying Kevin — and, indeed, all of us — with her soaring songs, star-spangled outfits, wonderful wigs and all-American homespun, homely homilies, a production laden with the potential to scale musical theatre heights doesn’t quite hit the right notes. A fissure of jukebox bandwagon-jumping, cynical commercialism lurks not too far beneath the dynamic, optimistic surface and, despite the two outstanding performances in the leading roles, the fast-paced, witty script and, of course, those fabulous songs, a show that promises to be a sparkling, uplifting gift doesn’t quite wrap its heart around your little finger.
If it’s true that, as Dolly herself once said, “it’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world”, Here You Come Again is lab-grown rather than authentic.
Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning