In Dreams – Leeds Playhouse
Everyone knows a Roy Orbison tune even if they can’t quite remember who wrote it, so some of the 20th century’s greatest pop songs were always going to be a natural fit for a jukebox musical.
All too often jukebox musicals crudely throw in all the hits and forget to actually tell a story that hangs together, so enter Emmy winner David West Read who has crafted a coherent book full of the sort of big heart and gags he delivered writing for TV show Schitt’s Creek. It’s hard not to think of the similarly warm-hearted Waitress watching this show, and that’s a standard that all shows should aim for.
It helps that Orbison’s beautifully constructed pop classics are vignettes full of loss, yearning and occasional hope that means they aren’t simply thrown in for no good reason, but on the who...
