★★★★☆It began life as a vehicle for toothy Tommy Steele and in 1967 the musical was made into a frenetic, saccharine film. Yet Fellowes’s freshly adapted book adds a sliver of edge, emphasising the upstairs/downstairs class conflict with an arched eyebrow and… Based on Kipps, HG Wells’s semi-autobiographical 1905 novel, its plot remains a wispy rom-com affair. Because in a new version by the composer/lyricist duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe and the writer Julian “Downton Abbey” Fellowes, this sweet, slight musical comes up bright and shiny as a new penny. Don’t let any of that put you off, though.

Source: The Times July 27, 2016 10:52 UTC