Comedy of errors

HAPPY DAYS, Lowry, to Saturday

I’m tempted to suggest the title should be taken ironically: this musical, based on the famous, 40-year-old TV sitcom, left me not terribly happy.

The producers have managed to turn a great, funny TV comedy with an iconic central character into a mush of silly plot lines and altered characters that barely work.

For example that famous central character, Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli, was always the TV series’ all-conquering hero; he occasionally talked seriously to his surrogate mum, Richie’s mother (here former pop star Cheryl Baker), but otherwise never backed down and always had the answer to a problem.

Here not only does he scoot out of town temporarily when faced with a couple of local toughs, but acquires as a serious (and previously absent) girlfriend in the Pinky Tuscadero character often mentioned in the show, here raised almost to co-star level, changing the balance of the evening.

Richie Cunningham (Scott Waugh), famously played on TV by movie director Ron Howard, is relegated almost to supporting cast status and one of his two friends, Potsie, has become pretty much a non-speaking role.

The whole thing is off balance, not very funny, rather too messily put together and with stock musical comedy traits nailed on to the TV characters those of us old enough grew to like.

Oh, and the songs are pretty mediocre, too. Only the title song remains — right at the end — otherwise the rest are specially composed and rarely sound right for 1959.

Former “Emmerdale” actor Ben Freeman relies on the familiar Fonz tics and expressions to build his character, while former Sugababe Heidi Range, as Pinky, is a stock glamorous female who doesn’t really fit into what we might expect of the show.

All the other characters are similarly broader and less realistic — some ridiculously so — than their TV equivalents, though this is partly to be expected.

This “Happy Days” is clearly intended for people who didn’t see it first time round — and don’t expect much of their comedy musicals.