Sunny Afternoon, The Kinks Musical, Edinburgh Playhouse Review:

**** 4 Stars

“A Generational Treat of A Show! “

Debuting in 2014 at the Hampstead Theatre London then transferring to the west end at the Harold Pinter Theatre, this semi-autobiographical musical telling the story of the early days of Ray Davies and the seminal 60’s pop/rock group The Kinks would enjoy a two-year run before embarking on its first UK tour. Now ten years after that first tour the show is back on the road around the UK approaching the end of the tour itself the show stops at the Edinburgh Playhouse delivering a generational treat of a show!

Featuring Music and Lyrics by Ray Davies, a book by Joe Penhall and directed by Edward Hall this is a production that takes the actor musician style to a new level with an incredibly gifted cast of talent bringing the myriad of characters to life. The show is admittedly too long and the point that the members of the band were extremely unhappy to be in said band is over laboured towards the end. The story is engaging and the collection of Kinks hits deployed is incredible and carry the show no end.

“You Really got me”, “Dedicated follower of fashion”, “All Day and All of the night” and of course “Waterloo Sunset” all feature amongst other classics. All of which are performed with panache and procession by the lead cast Danny Horn (Ray Davies), Oliver Hoare (Dave Davies), Harry Curley (Pete Quaife) and Zakarie Stokes (Mick Avory) who make up the Kinks on stage and all prove their abilities as musicians and actors with ease. Especially Danny Horn who imbues the humanity of the real Ray Davies with incredible skill and truth and he captures every moment he is on stage.

Performances across the board are uniformly excellent for a tight and well drilled ensemble especially when delivering Adam Cooper’s 60’s soaked yet sparky choreography. Edward Hall’s direction is equally as taught but gives way to true emotional depth at the require moments. That said, the use of “Audience Run In” is utterly exhausted and so must be the cast given the size of the Playhouse auditorium they have a lot of distance to cover across the show.

Production wise the show is a joy with Miriam Buether’s set and costume design summing up 60’s counterculture with ease and delivers some of those iconic looks with deft skill which is boosted by Rick Fisher’s tremendous lighting design using an inspired lighting rig to give the show a quality 60’s feel. Matt McKenzie’s sound design has its moments too, bringing out the sharpness of the intimate moments, then letting rip with rock concert level sound when the band really up the ante and rock out.

Sunny Afternoon is a show that doesn’t deliver a juke box musical by the numbers but a show which places the music at the heart of the production to tell Ray Davies story, yet it lingers a little too long but this is a show with depth and truth and gives a shimmering insight into the legend that is Ray Davies who at 81 is still living an authentic life of a rock star on his own terms. The show speaks to a generation of rock fans and to those well beyond and is truly worth to price of ticket to view this particular waterloo sunset!

Sunny Afternoon, The Kinks Musical, Edinburgh Playhouse, Runs until Saturday 9th May, for more information and tickets go to: Sunny Afternoon Tickets | Edinburgh Playhouse in Edinburgh | ATG Tickets

The Productions UK tour continues with its final leg  and the show will visit Inverness at the Eden Court Theatre from 12^th to 16^th May.