Little Miss Sunshine – Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool

The Playhouse is host this week to the first of two consecutive Selladoor touring productions, both of which bring much-loved films to the stage in musical form. In a couple of weeks we will see Amélie, but first it’s the turn of Little Miss Sunshine, which first brought its warm glow to cinemas in 2006 and is now at the end of an extensive stage tour.

The Hoover family are not without their problems. Grandpa has a white powdery addiction, Uncle Frank has attempted suicide and sports bandaged wrists, whilst elder son Dwayne refuses to speak. Dad Richard brims with hopeless optimism and mum Sheryl tries to keep her creaking family in check.

Enter Olive, their irrepressible little girl with the ambition of winning a beauty pageant. She gets the opportunity to enter California’s Little Miss Sunshine contest and the family, unable to leave any of the less reliable members at home, embark on a crazy road trip from their home in Albuquerque in a rundown old Volkswagen.

Director Mehmet Ergen’s production plays out on a clever revolving set by David Woodhead, which enables the suggestion of the van and its shambling progress along Route 66. The band, visible to the rear on a raised platform, makes a good fist of the score, although William Finn’s music turns out to be the biggest disappointment of the show, being sprightly but distinctly un-hummable.

Mark Moraghan is a big surprise as Grandpa, delivering a larger than life performance. The hapless Richard is nicely done by Gabriel Vick, and opposite him is a strongly stoic Sheryl played by Lucy O’Byrne. Sev Keoshgerian as Dwayne plays wordlessly for much of the piece, so when he find his voice it certainly has impact.

The show’s energy, however, centres around young Olive, played on press night by Lily Mae Denman. She may be tiny but my goodness her voice and personality certainly pack a punch. When she finally gets to perform the risqué dance routine that scandalizes the judging pane, thoughts of the correctness of these pageants can’t help but cross the mind, but it clearly didn’t occur to James Lapine to comment on this in his script.

Little Miss Sunshine in this musical incarnation is an odd piece of work in that it explores some shocking social and moral questions (albeit lightly) whilst dripping in such syrupy sweetness that it could give you toothache. Nonetheless it is a very entertaining show, even if you won’t exactly be singing any of the songs on the way home.

Evie Gibson and Mark Moraghan - Picture (c) Richard H Smith

Star Rating: Three Stars