BWW Reviews: RUDY'S RARE RECORDS, Hackney Empire, September 24 2014

Adam (Lenny Henry) is back in Handsworth to help his irascible father, Rudy (Larrington Walker), keep up with his pills and with his on-off lady friend Doreen (Lorna Gayle), who runs the laundrette and wants rather more than Rudy will commit. Rudy loves his record shop as much as life itself, but the debts are mounting up and, when Adam's son Richie (Joivan Wade) drops by with some shock news, Rudy and Adam have to decide how to get on with their lives and with each other.

A first non-panto commissioned show for the Hackney Empire, Danny Robins has expanded his successful Radio 4 sitcom (and retained many of the cast) into an evening full of wit, warmth and wonderful music.

Gramps Rudy gets the best lines, of course, railing against the 21st century world of Amazon, Media Studies degrees and property developers. Walker, in real life clearly as old Rudy on stage, gives us a terrific turn, connecting instantly with the audience and never losing them, his timing as sharp as the creases Doreen irons into his pants

Henry's middle-class, midlife-crisis-ridden actor (who gets regular work in TV as a "mugger" except in Casualty in which he was cast as "injured mugger") is determined to save his father, but slowly realises that that there'll be nothing worth saving without the shop that is as much a part of him as the string vest he insists on wearing. It's a nicely understated part for one of British television's most famous faces.There's good work too from the support cast, in which Jeffery Kissoon stands out as Rudy's Trinidadian neighbour, getting the best line of the night, as he describes the multicultural street they share.

The music, played by a live onstage band, floats in and out of the first half - reggae and ska classics - before the second half sees half a dozen numbers belted out and even a bit of singalong. I confess that I found this shift in gear rather puzzling, since (with the admirable exception of Ms Gayle) the actors are much better acting than singing and the hitherto compelling character of Rudy is lost in the big miked-up productions.

That said, the songs are fantastic and we do eventually return to Rudy to find that things are not so grim as they appeared and, to widespread amazement, that not all the tales he told were tall ones. Rudy's Rare Records (continuing at the Hackney Empire until 5 October) isn't afraid of throwing a bit of politics in with the laughs (think mid-80s Ben Elton updated for the UKIP generation) but ultimately it's a gentle, family show about families getting by in the Britain of today. It's a show that pleases rather than punches - and why not? .

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