Birmingham Repertory theatre
The 18th-century novel and Welsh crooner meet on 1960s Carnaby Street in a spirited jukebox musical
This is a madcap mashup of a musical. Its basic premise is, bizarrely, a meeting of two Tom Joneses: the foundling and rakish antihero of Henry Fielding’s eponymous bildungsroman and the latter-day, hip-swinging Welsh crooner. It takes romping plotlines from the former and hit songs from the latter. The result is a musical that could pass for a Christmas show with its gaudy colours, picaresque comedy that teeters on pantomime and its very own singalong moment (Delilah).
Dragging Fielding’s 18th-century village life forward to London’s Carnaby Street of the swinging 60s, it seems to revel in its look and style for too long: there are fabulously psychedelic stage designs (by Jon Bausor, new sets bursting out of old ones), costumes to die for (geometric designs and peppermint stripes, all by Janet Bird) and dazzling lighting (by Howard Hudson) that climbs the stage walls and reaches into the auditorium. One song follows another, jukebox like, and Joe DiPietro’s story feels slightly subsumed by the styling.