Tuesday, September 11

Cabaret - Theatre Royal, Nottingham

Anyone turning up expecting to see Cabaret done Will Young-style will be in for a short sharp shock.

It's clear from this show that the lad doesn't just sing love songs for a living but is a consummate all-rounder, acting - indeed hamming it up - as the Emcee of the seedy Kit Kat Club.

He's loving it so much you could even believe Will Young was born to this role. He even seems completely at ease with his nude scene.

And that's great news for a show that's touring four regional venues before embarking on its big West End run.

 It's a mature performance from the man everyone wants to see, ten years on from his Pop Idol win.

He's perfectly cast, white-faced and manic, resembling one of Hogarth's grotesques as his role brings a chilling reminder of the changes affecting Berlin and Germany in 1931.

Will's clearly enjoying himself and deserves his share of the standing ovation at the final curtain.

His co-star Michelle Ryan has a silky strong singing voice but doesn't quite bring the gusto we'd hope for as Sally Bowles.

She works neatly with Clifford Bradshaw (played by Henry Luxembourg) as we follow their developing relationship through the inter-war years as Nazism slowly rises in Berlin.

We're treated to a string of top-notch well-known numbers as both jump aboard the helter-skelter anything-goes lifestyle of the party set.

Will's The Money Song, Michelle with Cabaret and some touching melodies as we begin to see how Sian Phillips' Fraulein Schneider might have a future with Jewish Herr Schultz (played by Linal Haft, who although he has a string of stage, TV and big screen credits, will be forever Maureen Lipman's son in the BT ads).

As we lose ourselves in the plot and mayhem of the debauched Kit Kat Club, it comes as something of a shock when Ernst Ludwig (Nicholas Tizzard) takes off his overcoat to reveal a swastika armband.

And that's where the lives of both couples begin to unravel.