Little Miss Sunshine is brought to us by the book writer of “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Into The Woods” and the composer and lyricist of “Falsettos” – both of which are due to have massive box office success when they return to London in the next 12 months. This Tony Award winning team of James Lapine and William Finn bring us ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ a “new musical comedy” as it embarks on a UK Tour. Sadly, this production doesn’t hold a candle to any of their previous work.
“The Hoover family has more than a few troubles, but young Olive has her heart set on winning the Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest. When an invitation to compete comes out of the blue, the Hoovers must pile in to their rickety yellow camper van. Can it survive the 800-mile trip from New Mexico to California – and more importantly, can they? This uplifting, modern classic celebrates the quirks of every family, the potholes in every road, and the power of overcoming our differences.”
The 2006 Academy Award winning film “Little Miss Sunshine” is a knock-out. It’s heart-breaking, yet hilarious and life affirming all at once. It’s a masterclass of film-making and one of my absolute favourites. The stage adaptation I saw was none of these things – just layer upon layer of disappointment. Somehow, this production manages to fall flat on all counts. The music is instantly forgettable with no catchy tunes whatsoever (as much as I was hoping for one), the dialogue is clunky and does not for one moment lend itself to any form of authentic family conversation whatsoever – it’s all overly stylised and unnatural. The choreography left me wanting: it was a poor use of the space with no major set changes, just some bright white side-of-stage lighting and coloured spotlights to change things up every 10 minutes or so, accompanied by lots of running round in circles and an excessively used smoke machine.
