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Curve, Leicester
Scratch-and-sniff theatre comes to family audiences with this musical adaptation of David Walliams's best-selling children's novel about the homeless Mr Stink, "the stinkiest stinker who ever lived". As you enter the theatre, you are handed a small booklet that children are encouraged to scratch and sniff at key moments in the show. It is difficult to say whether the pong of ice cream or smelly socks is nastier. But although this show does not entirely come up smelling of roses, it is certainly no stinker, providing lively entertainment for all ages.
As you might expect from the co-creator of Little Britain, there is plenty of whiffy humour, but it is very much tailored to the under-10s. That means lots of belch and fart jokes, around the edges of a more fragrant story about lonely 12-year-old Chloe, bullied at school and overlooked at home, who invites Mr Stink and his dog, Duchess, to move into the garden shed. Soon Chloe's mother, Janet, a terrifying cross between Hyacinth Bucket and Sarah Palin, and the kind of woman who uses air freshener to improve the scent of her garden, is using Mr Stink to further her political ambitions. But hypocrisy gives off a bad smell.
Much more than simply a one-joke story, on the page it is a deliciously improbable romp. Much of the joie de vivre transfers to the stage. Though sometimes a little baggy and oversentimental, the show is an ambitious and competent stab at a small-scale family musical. The Curve's compact space is just right for it, though it may underwhelm on some bigger stages during the tour.
The loss of Quentin Blake's illustrations is a blow, and the show is never quite as madly outlandish and funny as the novel. It is a little too well-behaved, as if worried that the talk of pongy things might offend. But there are plenty of compensations, particularly in Julia J Nagle's double turn as the poor little rich girl bully, Rosamund, and the monstrously self-deluded Janet. Lotte Gilmore captures Chloe's spirited wistfulness, and Peter Edbrook is a twinkly presence as Mr Stink, a man who thinks one bath a year is quite enough.
