Review: Starter for Ten, Bristol Old Vic – ‘The cast create a magically fun evening in the theatre’

Starter for Ten is a story about studying English literature and participating in the quiz show University Challenge. So it’s fitting that it gives rise to a question. Your starter for ten is: How can a show be utterly terrible, yet also utterly brilliant? The answer lies in the thing that makes theatre such a unique experience – the energy of live actors making the show work in real time.

So let’s start with the terrible. Author David Nicholls writes about love. That’s what he does, whether it’s the extended love in One Day (now a smash-hit Netflix series), the first love in Sweet Sorrow, or the gradually extinguishing love in Us. His first novel Starter for Ten is a tale is a tale of misguided infatuation and redemptive love set against a backdrop of university life. The brand new stage musical Starter for Ten is not. It’s a show about University Challenge.

Right from the high energy opening number, this is a celebration of a rather obscure quiz show. It elevates its former host Bamber Gascoigne – portrayed by Robert Portal with an idiosyncratic accuracy totally unappreciated by anyone under 40 who doesn’t have the faintest idea who Bamber Gascoigne was – into almost luminous guardian angel figure who regularly pops up in the life of Brian Jackson (Adam Bregman), the 18-year-old central character and UC fanatic.

Will Jennings (Patrick), Stephenson Ardern-Sodje (Spencer) in Starter for Ten

Living in 1980s Southend, working class boy Jackson aspires to greater things, and heads for the groves of academe at Bristol University to study English. But the one thing he wants to do more than anything is be on Bristol’s University Challenge team. He finally wins a place, takes part, the end.

That is the essence of Starter for Ten the musical, although there are some sketchy inserts about the power of education, class discomfort and how hard it is to move on from grief bolted into small gaps in the narrative. The relationship stuff from Nicholls’ novel is hardly even hinted at.

Luke Johnson, Emily Lane and Natasha O’Brien

The advance publicity claims that composers Tom Rasmussen and Hatty Carman have written ‘Eighties-inspired’ music, and that is true up to a point. There are songs with musical echoes of Spandau Ballet, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Duran Duran and Madonna.

But just as you start to feel that the composers have absolutely nailed the brief, up pops a melody which is utterly 21st century in a sub-Frozen (slushy?) way. The lyrics are rickety at times, and the amplification is so loud that the words are frequently inaudible (your next starter for ten: Why should a theatre in which actors have manage to perform unamplified for most of its 250 year history need a sound system that could comfortably fill Wembley Arena?). Since the writers have followed Sondheim’s rule that characters’ emotional development in musicals should take place in the songs rather than the talky bits in between, this inaudibility is a problem.

Gemma Knight Jones (Professor Bowman)

And then there is the biggest problem of Starter for Ten: it’s just about University Challenge. All the characters – even Brian – are not full-fledged characters in which the audience can believe and invest, but merely ciphers in a UC-themed song and dance, as is symbolised very clearly by the frequent reappearance of the distinctive banked UC contestants’ desks. Musicals may not rival Ibsen or Shakespeare in capturing the intricacies of being human, but the best ones still have a story that engages the audience on an emotional level.

Although they have written some excellent funny lines, what adapters Emma Hall and Charlie Parham ultimately seem to have done is take Nicholls book and strip it down to a pop-up version for early readers.

Emily Lane (as Alice) and company

And yet… Starter for Ten is also brilliant. Because it is one of the finest examples of what makes theatre so magical: a cast so talented and dedicated that they can take the flimsy, soggy base material and turn it into something amazing through sheer hard work. And boy do they work hard.

Choreographer Shelley Maxwell’s lively multifaceted choreography on the many musical numbers is executed with glorious precision. Every single actor manages to fully embody the threadbare characterisations they’ve been given – and not just when they’re centre stage, but all the time. There is a particular joy when watching a play in glancing away from the main action to study the actors hovering on the periphery and see that rather than going into stand-by mode (as many do) they are still acting their little socks off. In Starter for Ten, all the cast do that in spades. They even dance and carry out the set changes in character. And the actors playing multiple roles manage to maintain that discipline across all the parts they play – each new wig delivers a perfectly executed new persona.

Robert Portal (Bamber Gascoigne), Will Jennings (Patrick)

As Alice, Emily Lane seems to have slipped through a hole in the space-time continuum from Sandy Wilson’s flapper musical The Boyfriend with a permanent wave and a megawatt smile. Unsurprisingly, Adam Bregman’s Brian has more depth than the other characters, and Bregman manages to capture the joys and agonies of leaving home for university very well within the limitations of the script.

Will Jennings takes the part of pompous UC team captain Patrick and manages to imbue pathos into a part which could easily be a simple slapstick cartoon. And Eubha Akilade’s Rebecca serves as perfect antithesis of cynical calm to the overexcited UC contestants around her. The remainder of the cast are equally on point. It’s a delightful display of really committed acting.

Mel Giedroyc (Irene Jackson)

And then there’s Mel Giedroyc. It would be easy to assume that she had simply been brought in as the ‘as seen on TV’ name to liven up the publicity. But no – the producers are undoubtedly getting full value for their fee. Giedroyc delivers a powerful, well-rounded performance as Brian’s mum, but then also pops up frequently in the ensemble to demonstrate her top class comedic talents. And her appearance as the Granada Television producer is so startlingly reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher that a chill briefly runs through audience members old enough to remember the Iron Lady.

Don’t go and see Starter for Ten because you’re a fan of David Nicholls’ book. Don’t go and see it because you’re expecting a rich emotional story told through the medium of song. But do go and see it because it is an excellent example of how a cast giving it their all can overcome a weak story to still create a magically fun evening in the theatre.

Miracle Chance (Lucy)

Starter for Ten is at Bristol Old Vic on February 29-March 30 at 7.30pm, with additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Thursday and Saturday (no shows Sunday). Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk.

All photos: Marc Brenner

Read more: Fingers on Buzzers: Bristol Old Vic prepares for world premiere of ‘Starter for Ten’

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