A camp and colourful caper

Photo: Pamela Raith

COLOURFUL . . . John Partridge stars as Albin.

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

(Lowry, to Saturday)

THIS Jerry Herman/Harvey Fierstein musical has rarely been my cup of tea in the past, standing as it does somewhere on a line between adult pantomime with a silly story and an evening as camp as a cup of chicory essence in a field of tents.

Turns out all it needed was the right man in the right heels: as Albin, the cabaret star, stand-in mother and would-be mother hen-figure in the life of his lover George's (Adrian Zmed) grown-up son, Radcliffe-born John Partridge is a revelation.

Partridge - late of EastEnders and the storyline-hogging years he spent playing the openly gay character, Christian Clarke - chats with the crowd about three quarters of the way through the first act and gees up an until then slightly dull show into something funny and brilliant. Camp also, but mainly funny and brilliant.

Playfully insulting the audience like Lily Savage or a panto dame in his flat Manchester tones, Partridge easily morphs into camp diva and powerfully belts out tunes such as I Am What I Am and The Best of Times, all with a cheeky grin and extravagant gestures, rather than a style of acting from a far broader Broadway....

Partridge has all the looks and gestures, all the cutting asides and smouldering, sultry looks (and in a suit he even looks a bit like James Bond and Hannibal supervillain, Mads Mikkelsen, though with tunes).

Costumes? He's got those too; with the shimmering spangles of act one or the bright yellow two-piece of act two (admittedly both tailored for a man with a rather large upper body), he brushes aside all potential competition on stage.

This includes Adrian Zmed (specially imported from America and a veteran of Broadway, but here merely Wise to Partridge's Morecambe). Zmed's Georges and the other star name on the bill, Marti Webb, are both rather underused by the show, though she gets a chance to shine in act two.

But the whole thing is put together with fun and playfulness (when it isn't being sentimental and camp), has a suitably gaudy set and supporting characters who play the game alongside Partridge and make this a silly, enjoyable evening.