BWW Reviews: HUTCH, A PLAY WITH MUSIC, Riverside Studios, May 17 2013

Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson is somewhat forgotten now, but in the years before Elvis changed musical entertainment forever, he was a huge cabaret star, singing at the piano, an exotic, beautiful, black man in a white, ugly, fearful Europe. That he is little more than a footnote in the lives of exalted stars is not the result of a lack of talent - indeed, it is fairer to say that it is the result of his excess of talent, a talent that led Hutch into high society circles. But, like Icarus, he chose to fly close to the sun and, like Icarus, when he needed friends to provide a soft landing, none were there.

Joe Evans' Hutch: A Play with Music (at Riverside Studios until 8 June) concentrates on the two crucial relationships of his life. In Act One, Hutch, having fled the Klan in New York, fetches up in Paris and beguiles Cole Porter, who worships his voice and his body in equal measure and mentors the young man in ways of cabaret and manners. If Act One charts Hutch's rise, Act Two relates his fall. In England, his affair with Edwina, wife of Lord Louis Mountbatten, scandalises London and eventually makes the papers. Society - as ever looking after its own - shields the Mountbattens at the price of shunning Hutch. His career as a star is over.

Ruby in the Dust's production marries an enthralling story to some of the greatest songs ever written. "Begin the Beguine", "Anything Goes", "Let's Do It" and many other standards punctuate the tale, much of which is set in the cafes that thrived during the cabaret craze. This approach requires much from the cast, and they rise to the challenge wonderfully well. Sid Pheonix is a louche and loquacious Cole Porter, Imogen Daines a scheming and sex-mad Edwina Mountbattan and there's strong support dramatically and vocally elsewhere. Holding it all together in the title role is Sheldon Green, whose piano-playing and shy charm are plenty sufficient to convince us of how this outsider so captivated so many so quickly. Still a student, Mr Green has landed a dream part - and delivered it.

Real life doesn't do too many happy endings and Hutch's funeral attracted just 42 mourners, but after Charlotte Breese had done the legwork in writing Hutch's biography, this show brings the man to life - it's what he, and the audiences of today, deserve.

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