THEATRE REVIEW: Can't Smile Without You, Liverpool Empire

Sep 16 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

Chesney Hawkes _320

"CHESNEY HAWKES” and “multiple standing ovations” are a set of words that until last night seemed incapable of ever appearing together in the same sentence post-1994.

Now they are indisputable fact. It actually happened last night.

Hawkes plays the lead in the new Bill Kenwright musical, Can’t Smile Without You, featuring the songs of Barry Manilow. It’s been okayed by the man himself, who it was rumoured, was supposed to visit the touring production last night, but in fact was nowhere to be seen.

But little could have boosted the audience – including Everton manager David Moyes – more than they already were, and they made the most of every cheesy gag and ‘70s radio favourite they got.

Tony and his band are about to make it to the big time in New York when he’s beaten up and can’t remember a thing.

What could be a serious plot device is taken a tad too lightly (“that’s OK, I understand, I’d feel the same – what’s your name again”, he says, bandage wrapped around his head, when he finds out his fiancee doesn’t want to marry him and is carrying on with his best friend).

Now he’s got to make the big time and remember who this mysterious Mandy is who keeps popping up . . .

It’s a back-of-a-fag-packet storyline with over-simplistic dialogue that shoehorns in every conceivable Manilow hit, any way, any how. It tries to make a virtue of its own knowing (including one very funny nod to Hawkes’s hit, The One and Only), but isn’t quite brave or sassy enough to pull it off – no rocking the boat here.

A ridiculous attempt to make a whistles and bells version of Copacabana fit in is out of place but silly fun.

Can’t Smile Without You doesn’t seem to know if it’s a straight-up stage play, part Rocky Horror type panto, or dance in the aisles nostalgia show. But nobody seemed to care. The audience absolutely loved it.

Siobhan Dillon, a runner-up on How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, is a musical theatre natural.

But the star is Hawkes.

He is great behind the piano (slowies like Could it be Magic and I Write the Songs) or when leading his band (This One’s For You), especially as the show goes on. And although he’s somewhat awkward as a leading man, his affable nature and genuine talent easily win through.

vickyanderson@dailypost.co.uk