3 stars

***

Oh dear… The Hot Mikado is usually a great show, full of tongue-in-cheek humour and hot, jazzy music. However this version has been bastardised and chopped more than a pound of mince, squeezing essentially a ‘greatest hits’ version of the show into an hour.

The cast are hard working and energetic, which is good. However even in the fourth row you can’t hear them as the band is far too loud, and for no good reason. Don’t get me wrong, the band are good – just too loud as the cast are unmiced. And the songs are too fast – they’re supposed to be “hot”, not so fast that they lose all musicality.

Such a shame, as there has obviously been a lot of work put into this.

Review by Alan.

C eca, 18:50-19:50.

Until 29th August.