Zorro the Musical

****
Now knowing me -who hate's spanish as well as feel good shows - I should hate Zorro. Hell no.
Getting an extension very soon into the beginning of it's run, Zorro managed to break the curse on the Garrick (which strangely started when Derren Brown's run finished there...coincidence?). It's a show that ticks all the boxes. The costumes are fabulous, and although it's a simple set, it works wonders with levels and is perfect for smooth scene changes. You can't get the music out of your head, and the urge to just get up and dance is so hard to resist (until the megamix of tunes in the curtain call where the cast encourage you to). There's no better way to finish a show than with the villain smiling like a cheshire cat and strutting his stuff. You can't fault the the Gipsy Kings somehow successful score of traditional spanish music and music theatre. Nor the choreography, the extremely impressive flamenco essential to the music. It's an unbelievably high energy show.
Zorro (Matt Rawle) delivers hilarious one liners one after the other charming the audience into drooling mode, Luisa (Emma Williams) is very able yet feels like nothing special in comparison with the rest of the cast. Inez (Lesli Margherita) is a feisty temptress with a big voice and even bigger personality, but the star of the show is Ramon (Adam Levy) who gives a powerhouse performance. Of course the appeal of a depressing childhood creating a sexy bad guy that runs about topless for most of the show (how can it take so long to find another shirt? Not that I'm complaining) and in very tight trousers for the rest of the show does help.
The only let down is however much you love the laughs...serious dialogue is an unbeliveable let down, giving the impression that they wrote the jokes first then fit the plot in around it. It's the familiar story we know from the film. Zorro, known to his friends as Diego De La Vega, is sent to university but rebel that he is, he runs away to party with a group of gypsies. His childhood friend Luisa finds him to tell Diego his father is dead, and their friend Ramon is now running things like a tyrant. Cue transformation into Zorro.
Zorro is a phenomenal show, the recipe for an almost perfect musical, and in my opinion, the most original and best show on in the West End.
Veronica Grubb