Daddy Cool - The Musical

This musical advertises itself as being based on the songs of Boney M, in fact it is based on the songs of Frank Farian. For the uninitiated, Farian wrote and produced Boney M’s songs and those of other acts such as Milli Vanilli, Eruption and No Mercy. I suspect that a musical featuring the songs of Milli Vanilli would not have quite the same appeal, so they seemingly gloss over that and hope the Boney M fans don’t notice.

Following on from the success of the Queen musical ‘We Will Rock You’ and Abba’s ‘Mamma Mia’ there have been a few musicals springing up based loosely around the songs of a certain band. I had seen the Queen musical and knew the story was weak and just an excuse to link all the songs together and chuck in a few jokes; however there was a bit more effort here with the story. Instead of making up a weak plot they unashamedly nicked a tried and tested one from West Side Story, which itself was inspired by Romeo and Juliet.

Looking back I don’t really remember why we chose this musical, I think we thought it would be a fun slice of disco-cheese. If you have seen posters for it they make a big thing out of the stars for the show: Michelle Collins (Eastenders’ Cindy Beale), Harvey (rapper with the So Solid Crew) and Javine (Eurovision entrant and the one who didn’t quite make it into Girls Aloud). However they are actually more in supporting roles.

THE CAST AND PERFROMANCES

SUNNY (Dwayne Wint) is a young lad in love with music, his friends and his girlfriend. Wint has a lovely, sweet soulful voice slightly reminiscent of Lemar and carries off the lead role well.

ROSE (Camilla Beeput) meets Sunny at a club and they fall in love and she vows to stand by him regardless. She has a beautiful singing voice, although it is not the strongest. If you recognise her name it is because apparently she was also in the first series of Fame Academy.

MA BAKER (Michelle Collins) is Rose’s mum and is not happy about her daughter’s relationship. Her singing is one of the weakest and all non sung lines are delivered with her hands on her hips. Disappointing.

PEARL (Melanie La Barrie) is Sunny’s mum and is also not happy with his new relationship as she lost Sunny’s dad Johnny Cool to Ma. Melanie has the one true diva voice in the show.

SHAKE(SPEARE) (Harvey) is Sunny’s best mate and leader of the west end Subsonic Crew. He doesn’t sing and only speaks a few times; mainly he just raps and makes the odd gratuitous shirtless appearance.

BENNY (Davie Fairbanks) is Ma’s son and leader of the East End Blade Squad (not to be confused with Blazin’ Squad who were a bunch of twelve years olds from Walthamstow) he is a bit of a thug and is portrayed well by Fairbanks.

ASIA BLUE (Javine) is a pole dancer at Ma Baker’s club and would- be singer. She is going out with Benny but is attracted to Shake. Javine sings OK, delivers a few lines and that is about it. Nothing much more is asked of her.

Having read that I think you now have an inkling of the groan inducing cheesiness that surrounds this show. If your cholesterol can stand it, read on…

THE STORY

We start off in 1990 in The Islands and young Sunny is living with his grandma, and it is Independence Day. What better excuse do you need to bring out the steel drums and sing ‘Hooray! Hooray! It’s A Holi-Holiday’? Quite. Sunny is then told he must go to England, where it is winter, and live with his mum.

The second scene is Christmas in London and young Sunny and his mum are at church. What else do you sing but ‘Mary’s Boy Child’? This is giving a gospel twist with a bit of rapping thrown in by the little lad playing young Sunny. We then go back to Sunny and Pearl’s flat where she sings ‘Sunny’ to him as a lullaby.

Fast-forwarding to the present day we see grown up Sunny going down to the recording studio owned by Rasputin (I swear I am not making this up) to meet the So Solid Crew, sorry I mean Subsonic Crew, and get a little beatbox demonstration before they perform Milli Vanilli’s ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ in a hip hop style. This is where the Subsonic’s first meet Benny and the Blade Squad from East London and they don’t exactly hit it off. The Subsonics decide to head out to the Shadwell Arches club a bit later and see what is happening.

Benny and his pole-dancing girlfriend Asia Blue go to Ma Baker’s lap dance club where Asia dances. Asia and Ma sing an obscure (to me) Boney M song called ‘Take the Heat off Me’. Meanwhile Ma has banned her daughter, Rose; from going to the Shadwell Arches thus Rose and Sandra sing the song ‘Ma Baker’ in her bedroom before shinning down the drainpipe.

At Shadwell Arches, whilst Asia sings some other songs I don’t know, and I get a bit fidgety, Rose and Sunny meet and surprise, surprise it all kicks off with the two rival gangs. Rasputin suggests a sing off and all agree. Sunny and Rose sing a duet of Milli Vanilli’s ‘Baby Don’t Forget My Number’. It was an improvement on the original. They make a date to go to Camden Market where some more steel drums are found to sing ‘Brown Girl in the Ring’ and there is a lively ensemble performance of ‘Sunny’.

We then see a flashback Seventies scene with another obscure disco track as Pearl remembers Sunny’s dad going off with Ma, and the young Pearl sings a medley of ‘Daddy Cool’ and ‘One Way Ticket’ (the latter originally a hit for Eruption).

Thankfully now there is an interval, the theatre is boiling hot and legs need to be stretched.

Now it is time for the sing-off and traditional Boney M fans will be very disappointed as the songs are turned into raps with very little in the way of words and music can be related to the original songs. There is no mention of a Russian Queen during ‘Rasputin’ for example. Saying that the rapping is excellent, and not a naff effort, it seems for the programme that a lot of the cast members have experience in this field and know what they are doing. The Subsonics win the sing-off (rap-off?) but tragedy strikes as Shake is shot. Sunny can’t continue to go out with the sister of the bloke who shot his mate so ends it with Rose by singing to her Milli Vanilli’s ‘Girl, I’m Gonna Miss You’. A cringe worthy choice of song, but well executed.

We are then treated to one of the best vocal performances as Pearl sings Eruption’s ‘Can’t Stand The Rain’ and gives Aretha and all the rest of the soul divas a run for their money.

Benny catches up with Asia and asks her ‘Where Did You Go’ just like No Mercy. He did a good performance, ably supported by some pole dancing rappers and did well not to be distracted by the audience giggling in a combination of disbelief and embarrassment as the full extent of the tackiness of the show.

I won’t spoil anymore of the show for you, there are some more songs that I didn’t know to close the show, plus a bright orange parrot was lowered from the roof for no apparent reason other to block the view of those in the Upper Circle and back of the Royal Circle. Fortunately it only stayed down for a bit before going back up again.

After the cast took their bows, (Collins, Harvey and Javine taking theirs after the more talented leads) the show finally redeemed itself with a lively medley of Boney M tracks in the expected disco style plus a Boney M tribute performance of ‘Rivers of Babylon’ and a gigantic glitter ball.

There is some humour in the show and some lively tracks and generally the performances are solid. Die hard Boney M fans should think again, as they are unlikely to appreciate the new versions of the songs. If you are looking for a bit of a laugh and a fairly lively show (especially at the end where the audience can get up and dance) then this is worth considering.

The show is currently at the Shaftesbury Theatre, 210 Shaftesbury Ave, London, WC2.
Box Office: 020 7379 5399

Nearest Tube is Holborn and Tottenham Court Road (Central Line)

Performance Times Mon-Thurs: 7.30pm; Fri: 5pm and 8.30pm; Sat: 3pm and 7.30pm. My 7.30pm performance ended at 10.20pm and there was a 15m interval.

Ticket prices are between £17.50 and £45.00. I purchased my front of the Royal Circle seats for £22.50 +£2 booking fee each through Show-Pairs (http://www.show-pairs.co.uk/). If your company has more than 20 employees, give them a call and sign up to their mailing list for two-for-one offers on selected West End shows. Tel: 020 7976 5887. 76 5887