Spend Spend Spend! (21/10/10, WYP)

Outing number 2 this week was in Leeds, so no worries about getting home late. On Thursday we were at the WYP, our regular hang out, to see the comedy musical Spend Spend Spend! Another WYP production that I knew nothing about, and yet another home run, as it turned out to be a hilarious, warm, Northern true-life tale, with catchy songs and memorable dance routines.

Based on the true story of Viv Nicholson, a Castleford woman who won £152,319 on the pools with her husband Keith in 1961, Spend Spend Spend is a cautionary tale of what can happen when you a let a lottery-style win go to your head. Told through an interesting narrative device whereby Viv narrates her story, mostly through song, and interacts with the action as Young Viv and her 1960's family and friends show you how Viv came to be working in a hairdressers in the present(?) day.

I didn't know any of the cast, but the play was directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood, and there certainly was a lot of dancing. It's one of those musicals where nearly everything is conveyed through song, with not much spoken dialogue. There were dance routines with lawn mowers, a stripping fireman, women and men dragged up as rough bunny girls, miners, mods and everything in between. 

The cast were uniformly excellent, particularly Kirsty Hoiles' Young Viv, who was practically in every minute of every scene, and her on-stage husband Greg Barnett, who unfortunately as the character died, didn't get to be there all through, yet was a welcome addition whenever he was. I particulaly liked the northern humour and accents, as well songs like 'Garforth', 'Sexual Happening' and the exurberant title number 'Spend Spend Spend!' which featured the best dances. As with Britain's Got Bhangra, another musical we saw at WYP, it's a real shame there isn't a soundtrack album available.