David Walliams' The Boy in the Dress divides opinion at Royal Shakespeare Theatre - review
Based on the David Walliams book , directed by Greg Doran and with songs by Robbie Williams, this must be the most hyped musical of the year.
It has some good numbers and some fine, poignant moments but it is not in the same league as that great RSC musical, also about a troubled pupil, Matilda.
This is the story of 12-year-old Dennis whose mother walks out on the family, leaving behind a photo of herself in a yellow dress.
Dennis wears a similar dress to school and is denounced as 'degenerate' by a heartless headmaster, expelled and chucked out of the school football team.
The happy ending comes when his soccer mates rally around him and they defiantly all wear dresses for the crucial cup-final which they win.
This is a Christmas show with a message. And the message, hammered home relentlessly, is that ordinary people can be extraordinary and, hey, kids, it’s okay to wear just whatever you fancy.
It is a confused sort of message. Why, for example, is it courageous and ground-breaking when young Dennis, played on press night by the excellent Toby Mocrei, wears a dress but when his headmaster, portrayed by Forbes Masson, is exposed as a cross-dresser, he’s a Widow Twanky-style figure of fun?
This is a Marmite sort of show and while there was much wild whooping and frantic applause, there were also some folded arms and stony faces.
From nearly 20 songs, my favourite was the headmaster’s snarling rendition of I Hate Kids. This could become an anthem in staff rooms everywhere .
The Boy in the Dress is at Stratford until March 8.
