Slap on your shades, sip your spritz, hop out of your seats and get physical for this neon 80s explosion of sex, sun and sneakiness
Ah, the '80s. Lovely Lorraine (Karina Hind, Sun-In'd and bender-curled) is staring at her Lady Di-a-like wedding dress, surrounded by '70s wallpaper and her mother’s expectations, while her bluff and fanciable fiancée (Cellen Chugg Jones) quivers in the church.
It only takes a tiny blast of Cyndi Lauper to send her spinning off on a girls-only holiday to sunny Spain. Here they check into Club Tropicana, an on-the-up resort hotel run by hot 80s power non-couple Serena (Sugababe Amelle Berrabah) and Rob (Eastenders' Neil McDermott), ably supported by the main attractions of the night; genuine 8'0s legend Kate 'all the women in Spitting Image' Robbins and X-Factor’s million-watt smile Joe McElderry, a soaring vision in pastel shoes and glitter jackets.
The smash hits crash on in with all the heterogeneity and logic of a Now That’s What I Call Music side 3 cassette tape, Moroder bangers rubbing up against dark new wave, sugary Chart Show ballads shimmying up to Top of the Pops party dance-a-longs. Then Emily Tierny, hot and haughty, arrives, bringing the plot (such as it is) along with enough lurex and sequins to confetti-cannon a cruise ship, Krystle to Berrabah’s Alexis.
Dynasty crashes into Hi-di-Hi, smears into Blind Date and Fawlty Towers, which is tricky, because subverting racist stereotypes is a risky game, and at times the attitudes towards body image, gender, race and age felt a little basic for the woke generation. But still the hits keep coming, as the boys join the Benidorm Barbie neon pastel playset, in a ripple of abs and unrestrained break dancing.
What if Yazoo had run a hotel? Can you mend a broken heart through drunken karaoke and a competitive dance through four octaves? How does Margaret Thatcher fit into the story? Sit back, relax, raise a cocktail and enjoy.