The Boy Friend

On a sultry summer’s evening in London, what could be better than going to the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park to watch The Boy Friend? Maybe going to Regents’ Park Open Air Theatre to watch The Boy Friend, preceded by jugs of Pimms and catching up with one’s father. Hurrah! Wednesday night was a winner on all counts then.

Dad phoned on Tuesday afternoon to say that he had a meeting on Thursday, so why didn’t he come up on Wednesday night and we could go to the theatre – how about Guys and Dolls? Fine, said I. Wednesday morning dawned as hot as ever, so Dad phoned again to say that he couldn’t bear to sit in a stuffy West-End Theatre (seriously, Andy and Cameron, aircon would be a great idea in this weather) so why didn’t we head over to Regent’s Park? The show is unashamed silly fluff, but sitting outside would be far more pleasant than sweltering inside. Great idea! said I. Of course, as he was paying for the tickets, I wasn’t really going to put up too much resistance, but it sounded like a top plan anyway. The only slight drawback was that every time Dad and I have gone to watch shows at Regent’s Park in the past it’s absolutely bucketed it down with rain and the performances have been cancelled by the time we get to the interval. Ah well – looking on the bright side, a bit of rain would probably have done London good, so we decided to tempt fate.

What a great show! Yes, the content is as light as marshmallow, but in this heat I certainly wasn’t interested in having to think too hard. The choreography was great, the costumes delightfully over the top and there were some fantastic performances as well, notably from Summer Strallen as Maisie Merryweather. Definite shades of Bonnie Langford there, but that suited the role down to the ground. In fact, all of Mme Dubonnet’s ‘Young Ladies’ gave great performances, particularly in their ensemble work. Their timing was spot on and they were silly and giggly without being grating. Wonderful stuff – I highly recommend it.