'Come Dancing' at Stratford East

Tonight Chris treated me to a trip to Stratford to see 'Come Dancing', the new musical by Ray Davies at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Yes, Ray Davies and (gulp) he was in it as well.

Don't start thinking this is the latest in a band cashing in on musicals by winding a vague story around their hit songs. It's not. With the exception of the title song (which was The Kinks' last hit single in 1983) all the songs are new and pretty damn good too.

This is a new musical with quality songs that eloquently tell a story of Ray's family's life based around the local Palais dancehall in the late '50s, with his parents and older sisters going dancing every Saturday night. Everyone goes dancing on a Saturday night - it's what people do. Survive the mundane world of work and live for the weekend. Meet friends and potential friends, fall in love, marry and, when they're old enough, start bringing the children. But the world changed in the late '50s with the invention of teenagers and rock'n'roll, immigration, building new towns in the countryside, ambitions and hopes for the world to be different. It all makes for a nice backdrop to Ray's story which is partially autobiographical.

The play opens with a blurring of the "fourth wall" (as Chris called it) with tables and chairs replacing the first few rows of the stalls, people on stage dancing and occasionally coming into the stalls to chat. The band is playing and couples are foxtrotting on stage. There might've also been a St Bernard's Waltz in there too. Gradually the couples move to the side and on walks Ray Davies with a guitar and sings 'Tired Of Waiting For You' before starting 'Come Dancing' which he stops half-way to assume his role as the Storyteller and narrator for the play. We're introduced to his family and their friends and the action starts. Ray appears now and then to talk or sing, keeping the story moving along but it's the cast who do the bulk of the singing and dancing with never a dull moment. I won't tell you the story - go and see it for yourself.

OK, I've got to step into my fan-boy shoes for a moment and say, 'wow, that was Ray Davies!'. And he sang! And he was only about 10 feet away from me! *The* Ray Davies. My first ever single was 'Lola' back in 1970 and my second LP album was 'Golden Hour Of The Kinks'. I grew up on his songs but never thought I'd see him. I wonder if he opens with a different Kinks song at every performance before starting the show proper with 'Come Dancing'?

Back to the show and the songs. There's a good range of songs, some are there to take the story forward and others make statements, in different styles - show tunes, rock'n'roll, sultry blues, hard rock and seering ballads, they're all in the mix. I must single out Wendy Mae Brown for an excellent performance and a great voice as the blues singer in a club that exists side by side with the local Palais but they're in different worlds. She has a couple of show-stopping moments powered by Ray's songs. Mind you, all the cast put their all into it. I hope there's a cast recording of this show - it deserves to be recorded. The fact that I couldn't stop yakking about what I'd seen and heard at half time is a good sign.

It's a great show, with fun and laughter, song and dance, poignancy and sadness. Ray has carefully created a show of light and shade, of local communities expanding as the world changes, all based around the local Palais dancehall. Dancehall as metaphor for stability and change at the same time. A well crafted and fully rounded show which is a great night out - so go and see it!

There is a downside. There's always a downside. In this case it's the seats in the stalls which must be the lowest seats in any theatre in London - why on earth are they so close to the floor? But that's a minor niggle in the scheme of things. Go and see the show while you can, you won't regret it!