From tiny acorns come some mighty jokes

ACORN ANTIQUES — THE MUSICAL, Mossley AODS, George Lawton Hall

VICTORIA Wood’s first musical comedy remains a peerless example of making the best of a very bad job.

And by that I mean her use of language, ham acting, bad dialogue and, yes, music and dance, makes something wonderfully funny out of the appallingly silly three-minute sketch comedy antique shop that first featured in her TV shows.

Those sketches were parodies of the Crossroads syndrome, all wonky sets and bad camera angles; this is a parody in turn of that show, of musicals, of musical styles and musical dancing — whether it be the sparkly-suited Bob Fosse-like routine in the middle of act two, or the outrageous tap number that closes the first half, even though neither should figure in a show about the homogenisation of the high street.

And oh yes, it also manages to cram the script with dozens of Woodisms — basically stand-up jokes turned into dialogue — that are as arch and funny as anything you will hear in musical theatre in general.

Which brings us to this simply brilliant Mossley production; complete with its inch-perfect main cast, energy, musicality and the sheer silliness injected both by Wood’s sense of humour and by this cast and director Craig Wright.

It could have been really bad — average actors trying to be funny while actually forgetting their lines and losing timing. But goodness, it’s not.

I’ve seen professional productions that struggled to overcome the effect of everyone having seen the originals — Wood, Walters, Preston and Imrie. Here there is, amazingly, no such problem.

In Kerry Newton we have a wonderful sense of timing, character and sexual tweediness as Miss Babs; the declamatory faithfulness of Mr Clifford in Iain Linsdell, the mousey magnificence of Dawn Leigh as Miss Berta and the towering baggyness of Samantha Bates as Mrs Overall.

But the beauty of this show is that the entire cast displays barely a weak link between them. Everyone dives in behind the top team and has fun; terrific, disciplined fun, and that means we do too.

This is a terrific night out; one of my favourite theatre-going experiences of recent times, professional or amateur. Get a ticket and see for yourself.