Fizzy Fun For A Dreary Day

Dreamboats and Petticoats is a musical for cold, wet nights because it has more fizz than a lemon popsicle and enough musical energy to make Elvis and his rock 'n' roll cohorts turn in their graves.

It will not test you mentally but it will have you tapping your feet from the start which is why this Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran creation - inspired by the million selling album - will always pack 'em in and has already been doing so for several years.

The cast is young, the enthusiasm and energy high and even my 89-year-old mum overcame her dodgy feet to stand for the finale, such was the enthusiasm of the cast as they sang At The Hop!

This is the classic juke box musical where a couple of lads, by their own admission failed popstars and music promoters, proved themselves smart entrepreneurs when, like British playwright Catherine Johnson with Mamma Mia, they saw an opportunity to wring a bit more value out of the music of the 50's and 60's.

For her it was an Abba compilation musical but, for Marks and Gran, it was the flavours of Bobby's Girl, Poetry in Motion and Let's Twist Again that put a few bob in the bank.

It is a predictable story of boy meets girl teenage love strung together by a raft of coincidental lyrics, but it is fun and, if the lady behind me was anything to go by, it will take you back to your teenage years. She oohd and awed her way through two hours of predictable teenage angst.

Elizabeth Carter is the lovesick 16-year-old, Laura, who pines to be with Bobby, aka Alistair Higgins, the squeaky clean boy next door who simply wants a Fender guitar (with amp) so that he can become as cool as the arrogant, but infinitely less talented, Norman, played with suitable humour and bravado by Alastair Hill.

There isn't a lot more to say other than the music is spot on, the backdrop colourful and the overall, performance, foot-tapping good.

Right now it's the day after the night before, I have just wolfed down my toast at Wetherspoons, it's chucking it down outside and, quite frankly, the prospect of the sun cracking the flags at the Yorkshire Show is rapidly diminishing.

So, get the Leeds Grand rung up, providing of course you are a lover of 50's and 60's music, and I promise that you will feel a sight better by 10.10pm tonight after a nourishing diet of rock 'n' roll fizz led by a young, vibrant cast.

PS - Elizabeth Carter. I won't tell anyone that you graduated from Bretton Hall in 2006 if you don't. You still managed to make a good 16-year-old!!

Dreamboats and Petticoats
Leeds Grand
Until Saturday