Who Put The Bomp? – Theatre at the Tabard review

Aidan Spicer as Danny (centre) with Joshua Webster, Finn Williams, Billy Michael and Joy Silweya

Keith Strachan’s new doo wop musical is light on plot and big on charm, and with a young cast this talented it makes for a thoroughly joyful night out

A new in-house production written and directed by Keith Strachan, who’s had recent success at the Tabard with The Mikado and HMS Pinafore.

It follows Billy Johnson, a shy teenager obsessed with the records his grandfather loved, who forms a doo wop group, The Doo Woppers, with his friends and the help of their music teacher, Miss McTavish. As the group gets more popular, friendships are tested and a few secrets come out.

Unashamedly optimistic musicals aren’t always to my taste, but Who Put the Bomp? won me over pretty quickly, and by the end of the first number I’d stopped worrying about whether it was my kind of show.

Joy Silweya as Summer, and Billy Michael as Billy with Finn Williams as Jack B Smith

The plot is fairly light, with the dialogue scenes mostly there to get you from one song to the next, but when the cast are this good at performing such classic and well known songs, that’s a feature rather than a bug. Why Do Fools Fall in Love, The Great Pretender, Blue Moon, Only You and Love Potion No. 9 all get an outing, along with the title track, and there’s few songs in there you won’t recognise.

The real star of the show, though, is the cast. Billy Michael and Joy Silweya are both making their professional debuts, which is hard to believe when you watch them. Michael is very likeable as Billy, convincing as the shy kid at the start and every bit the frontman by the end, and Silweya is a joy as Summer, with a lovely voice and great comic timing.

They’re backed up brilliantly by Joshua Webster, Aidan Spicer and Finn Williams as the rest of the group, and the harmonies between the five of them are terrific, all the more impressive given the singing in such a small space isn’t amplified and there’s nowhere to hide. Marissa Landy, meanwhile, does double duty as the show’s musical director and as Miss McTavish, playing piano and saxophone while getting plenty of laughs as the enthusiastic teacher.

Joshua Webster as Cole (centre) with Joy Silweya, Finn Williams, Aidan Spicer and Billy Michael

All of that energy is infectious, and the Tabard’s size helps. You’re close enough that it carries right to the back, and foot tapping in the audience was consistent through both halves.

If you’ve any affection for the music of the 1950s and 60s, or just fancy an evening that’ll send you home in a better mood than you arrived in, it’s well worth a trip.

Who Put the Bomp? plays to 7 November

Book tickets: Who Put the Bomp?

All photos credited to Hunter Collins Photography