If only Jacques Demy's love story, first seen in the 1964 film, was the equal of Emma Rice's inventive stage adaptation, we would have something irresistible on our hands.
As it is, although this entirely sung-through tale, set in the eponymous French port, drifts aimlessly, Rice's production is so saturated with Gallic charm, it eventually strokes its audience into a nostalgic purr.
The focus is on young love, between 17-year-old Genevieve (Carly Bawden) and Guy (Andrew Durand), a 20-year-old mechanic who is called up to fight for the French in Algeria. But the evening relies heavily on our narrator, Maitresse, played by feline cabaret performer Meow Meow, and the hypnotic melodies of Michel Legrand's circular score.
What keeps us engaged is the sheer inventiveness of Rice's production, for which she gets the triple credit of director, adaptor and choreographer. Best known for her shows created for the Kneehigh theatre company, she establishes her theme of puppets and their masters by first introducing us to the lovers' offspring - two child-sized puppets controlled by the chorus line of four sailors.
The idea elegantly sticks around, though never overbearingly so, as the characters who populate the port, played by real actors, are occasionally manipulated or carried across the stage like mannequins - until, in an exquisite undermining of her own idea, Rice has them rebelliously throw off their controllers.
The only complaint is that Rice has opted to be too restrained and resisted the temptation to big-up those elements that promise moments of musical ecstasy. Perhaps her adaptation was written before Meow Meow was cast, but this charismatic, sexy performer spends too much time lolling on the off-stage piano looking at the action, rather than being part of it.
And I yearned for the beautifully choreographed dance sequences set to Legrand's Eurojazzy melody to be given the status of showstopper that they deserve. Similarly, it is only towards the end of the show that we get the full benefit of Cynthia Erivo who plays the demur Madeleine - carer to Guy's wheelchair-bound aunt - as she is allowed to blossom into a role that reveals her to be possibly the finest all- round talent on stage.
Of the lovers, Carly Bawden delivers a performance that is more interesting and has more fibre, than the demur innocence delivered by Catherine Deneuve in the film role that launched her career. Durand, meanwhile, is an endearing if underpowered presence.
But if there is one moment that best sums up the feeling of promise frustratingly and belatedly delivered, it is the post-curtain call reprise of a dance number that comes right at the end, and then ends all too soon.
Tel: 0844 482 5130
