SIDE BY SIDE
The Gatehouse, Highgate

IF it feels like déjà vu reading this review, imagine what it feels like writing it.
In fact you might even be able to write it yourself, so unsurprising is it that a tried and tested formula delivers such a charming musical.
When the Plews family take charge of a show at their Upstairs At The Gatehouse hideout in Highgate, they more often than not hit the mark – and Side By Side is no exception.
This time Racky Plews (those paying attention over the years won’t need telling that she is the daughter of theatre bosses John and Katie, and a teacher at Camden School for Girls) is in the director’s seat.
She follows up last summer’s musical tribute at the Gatehouse to Cole Porter with a similar homage to master musical lyricist Stephen Sondheim.
There’s no storyline to worry about – just a sort of on-stage documentary of Sondheim’s writing career with a pleased-with-himself narrator chuckling his way through a This Is Your Life binder.
The chat is perforated with 29 songs varying from hushed ballads to big, brash burlesque routines.
When the idea was first conceived 30 years ago, it was to have three players sauntering through the songs on bar stools.
But Plews shakes things up with some eye-popping costumes and a breathless chase around the simple set. Unfair critics say that it’s a revamp that lacks maturity but to reach such a conclusion misunderstands what is a brave, and for the most part successful, attempt to do things differently.
There are spotlight moments for James Pearson and Nikki Gerrard but the star of the show is clearly Susie Harriet, who is just at ease with slow ballads as she is with the comic songs.
She injected magic into I’m Not Getting Married with a breakneck delivery which is worth paying the ticket fee for alone – but I fell in love with her during the raunchy Boy That Boy Can Foxtrot.
The only grumble was the narration. It sometimes sapped the pace in Plews’ attempts to make this a rapid-fire revue. At times Andrew McDonald looked uncomfortable and he stumbled over his lines more than once.
But it’s a minor quibble because once you’ve cut through the froth, you are left with a show that sends you home singing and smiling – and you can’t ask for more than that.

Until July 3
020 8340 3488