Artistic Director Douglas Rintoul brings a new jukebox musical to The Queen’s Theatre called ‘Love Letters’ in which he asks what would you do if you received a love letter 16 years after it was originally posted?
I sit down and stare at a bar called ‘The Perseverance’ that has appeared on stage. The bar looks amazing and even had what looks like real ale taps which you see actors pouring beer from throughout the show. All ale is served by a lady called Sheila (played by Lucy Benjamin), she won’t let anything get her down and is always looking to encourage everyone around her. She especially seems interested in a man called Keith (played by Mike Lloyd) who always seems to be dropping post off at the bar.
We meet Justin (Kit Esuruoso) and Danni (Dannie Harris), a couple that don’t seem to be able to decide if they’re right for each other and this isn’t helped by a number of mistakes. They both did brilliant jobs of acting different ages as we see them progress from teen to parent and throughout the show they certainly showed their acting, comedy, singing and dancing talents
Music is very much the focus of the show and it aims to use lots of music that originates from Essex. With songs from Alison Moyet, Billy Bragg Blur, David Woodcock, Depeche Mode, Jessie J, Olly Murs, Sandie Shaw and The Tremeloes, the night will certainly leave you surprised of all the bands that originated in Essex, for example I never knew that Billy Ocean originated from Romford/East London. The band’s performance was brilliant, they had me dancing all night through the tunes and will have you heading to iTunes after the show to keep your head full of Essex music
The show is very much focused on the 16 years passing and sadly this can mean the show does feel a little bit dragged out but the performance is certainly helped by both its musical and comedy elements that will leave you laughing and dancing throughout the night. I especially enjoyed Kit Esuruoso, who really did show off his amazing dancing skills and all during the course of the night he simply looked like he was enjoying himself with a huge smile on his face
The night was lots of fun and I really felt part of the show as we clap along and even found myself singing along to all of the well-known songs that originated in Essex.
It was great to return to the Theatre with a show written by its own Staff and the actors/actresses looked like they were happy to be back
Love Letters is at The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch until the 21st August Link here
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