Singing strongly in a slightly flat comedy

Quartet, Oldham Coliseum

Lots of good jokes, a strong sense of bonhomie, four reasonably eccentric characters and even a karaoke finale.

If the play was a bit better this would be a terrific night out; as it is, it’s just a very entertaining one, in the company of four highly-watchable actors.

Ronald Harwood’s comedy, 10-years-old this year but already greying at the temples, finds four retirees in a home for elderly singers.

On the way is an in-house gala to mark Verdi’s birthday. The quartet in question — Cissie and Jean, Wilf and Reg — used to be well-known for its performance in Rigoletto, but while three of them are keen to have a go at the famous act three quartet, Jean, the only real star, refuses.

The tension isn’t exactly unbearable: Jean — who got terminal stagefright 30 years before but has just got round to telling anyone — and the gang alight on a solution that involves no actual singing . . .

Which leaves us merely to watch them chat some more about how things were, how they are now and how they pretty much wish they were all 30 again. Sporadically touching, in its own slightly mundane way, the play never goes any deeper into any emotion than to set up the next joke.

But while the play could be stronger, Kevin Shaw’s production is blessed with four widely enjoyable performances and another of Dawn Allsopp’s attractive sets.

Harwood’s people are broadly drawn: Wilf is sex-mad and has a gammy leg, Reg is buttoned down but has bursts of frustration, Cissie is on the border of dementia and given to amusing statements, and Jean is a would-be diva with a sharp line in put-downs — not entirely accidental.

Stealing the show, as he is supposed to, is Russell DIxon as Wilf — never short of an innuendo and all the better for it. Col Farrell as Reg is wonderfully understated but keeps the whole play turning, while Roberta Kerr as Cissie is a delight, funny and outgoing. Anny Tobin as Jean might be even meaner and haughtier at first, but rounds out well.

It’s not that “Quartet” is a bad play, just a pretty average one, and we expect more from a feted, Oscar-winning dramatist.

Set that disappointment aside, and this is a very pleasant, sweetly funny evening.