Theatre review: They're Playing Our Song. Menier Chocolate Factory, London

I was reminded by a colleague that this middle-of-the-road American musical first appeared in the same year as Sweeney Todd, but while Sondheim's 1979 masterpiece took the musical into uncharted territory, this show simply offers an amiable variation on the boy-meets-girl formula. The fact that it is closely based on the life story of its composer, Marvin Hamlisch, and lyricist, Carole Bayer Sager, could be seen either as proof of its emotional authenticity or its inherent narcissism. The show's smartest feature is Neil Simon's book. Charting the up-and-down collaboration between Vernon and Sonia, tunesmith and wordsmith respectively, it shows how their burgeoning romance is plagued by the latter's adhesion to her former lover. As their working and sex lives are constantly interrupted by Sonia's need to console her ex, Vernon... [read full story]