Any review of Flowers for Mrs Harris has to start at the end of the show as the magical uplifting final sequence back in her Battersea home makes the whole production worthwhile; when Clare Burt as Mrs Ida Harris stands in her sixties kitchen and baskets of flowers are loaded on to the revolve one by one from her friends and the people whose lives are touched, one can't help shed a tear of joy for her and the production.
The second half of the production explodes into life when Andre Fauvel, played with comical delight by Louis Maskell, is kissed on the cheek by Natasha, Laura Pitt-Pulford. His rubbery legs and comic walk on the stairs of the Christian Dior showroom kicks off the show and from that moment the whole production lifts, the characters expand and the music seems more melodic.
The challenge is that over the preceding seventy minutes the show is slow and laborious establishing Mrs Harris's humdrum life with her British cleaning clients thinly sketched. She is a lonely widow who sets a single goal to acquire a Dior gown. The music has echoes of Sondheim but is not varied enough and lacks the comedic elements which make the second half sparkle. It needs a judicious cut, a new tune and to play up the comic interplay with her local acquaintances.
