Ghost ***

Piccadilly Theatre, London

***

"To be honest, though it might be worth going for the projections alone, this was a rather underwhelming cover of the 1990 classic film, and one that simply won’t stand the same test of time."

With London theatre ticket sales hitting an all time high right now and the amount of choice available almost overpowering, I feel every musical has the need to set itself apart from others by something extraordinary, some kind of WOW factor that people can talk (almost exclusively) about after. With Billy Elliot, it’s the choreography (those back flips!), with The Lion King it’s the costumes and set (the stampede!) and Legally Blonde it’s the lyrics (too funny!). The thing to take from Ghost is undoubtedly the projections: how do they do the hand through the door thing?

Barely departing from the original Patrick Swayze-Demi Moore film script, the main two changes the directors make pull the piece in totally different directions in terms of quality. Where the film was (at least for me) ruined at the end by the absolute crassness of the chasing black shadows taking Carl Bruner off to hell, the musical version stepped the quality of projections up a level – a hugely impressive achievement when you consider it has to take place on stage before our very eyes, and without the added benefit of photoshop or intensive editing. The tube ride is wonderfully done, with accompanying swooshing noises done perfectly to convey Sam Wheat’s initial inability to touch anything real; likewise, seeing Carl (Andrew Langtree) in the office being tormented by an invisible ghost as his life (and books) cascade around him, was beautifully choreographed. However, whereas in the film the music makes it, apart from buying the rights to The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody (good move there, btw, it would not have gone down well if you had skimped on that one), I felt the music was generally a bit weak. Not nearly catchy enough, the mediocre tunes were one of the main reasons the whole show had such limited emotional impact.

Livened up big time by Sharon D. Clarke’s presence as Oda Mae Brown, Clarke injected an energy and literal colour into the proceedings that was much needed. Whoopi Goldberg’s sensational act is a hard one to follow, but I felt she performed admirably. Likewise, both Caissie Levy (Molly Jensen) and Richard Fleeshman (Sam Wheat) were good, and though others were struck by the latter’s natural flair for performing, I was a bit underwhelmed by both. To be honest, though it might be worth going for the projections alone, this was a rather underwhelming cover of the 1990 classic film, and one that simply won’t stand the same test of time.