Review: Who Do Ya Love?

If adapting author JF Lawton had any doubts about stringing a jukebox musical featuring the songs of KC and the Sunshine Band together, the resulting show makes a virtue of them. In a meta nod to more contemporary, postmodern styles of musical theatre, the band’s founder, songwriter and lead vocalist Harry Wayne Casey (Fionán O’Carroll) and Dee (Paige Fenlon), his childhood friend from Florida, take themselves out of the action to discuss what his life’s story actually is.

It turns out being one of the biggest and most enduringly successful recording artists of the 1970s (and “inventing disco”, a contentious but not unreasonable claim in the script) isn’t the main story which Lawton takes from those days. Instead we stay in Casey’s youth, exploring ambition, sexuality and grief through his carefree pre-fame days with friends Casey, Dee, the conflicted Gina (Annabelle Terry) and handsome Orly (Peter Camilleri).

KC and the Sunshine Band's songs are perfect for director and choreographer Lisa Stevens’ brisk, lively trip down memory lane, with a young, West End-experienced cast of eight delivering compelling routines to the upbeat disco funk of 'Boogie Shoes', 'Get Down Tonight' and an irresistible mid-show megamix, and the tender nostalgia of 'Rock Your Baby, Please Don’t Go' and the title song. It feels like a compact try-out of a musical which is bound for the West End before long.