If there is a formula for the quintessential ‘feel-good’ musical, the four writers: Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre, Tricia Paoluccio – who also plays Dolly Parton – and Jonathan Harvey, have hit on the exact correct balance in Here You Come Again. But don’t think it’s just fluff: it is beautifully layered with depth and heart.
What’s crystal clear right from the start is that everyone involved in this new musical has put their all into it, and enjoyed every second. The energy from the performers is infectious and joyful; and considering that it’s set in 2020, that is no mean achievement. Now in 2024, we seem to be just far enough away to look back on stockpiling toilet-rolls, disinfectant spraying the shopping and washing your hands while singing happy birthday, to remember it with the humour it’s presented with here, and to be very grateful we are no longer living then.
Kevin, played here by the understudy Aidan Cutler in a role he seems born to play, lives back with his parents in their attic, still filled with all the paraphernalia of his childhood including Sooty and Sweep puppets and an old record player. Here he still has all his Dolly Parton posters on the walls and his love for Dolly is still alive and well: his need for her, and to know “what would Dolly do?” opens the show and starts the tale.
Even though the band and singers support with live music throughout, and also act different voice parts, it’s mostly a musical with just two people, and for it to be so riveting with just these two is really quite extraordinary. Tricia Paoluccio, herself a lifelong Dolly Parton fan, becomes the icon with gentleness and such ease it’s as if you’re watching Dolly herself. The way she walks, talks, sounds, sings, even moves her hands: it’s a channelling of Dolly Parton, including the positive energy she exudes. Aidan Cutler as Kevin is simply superb: he brings a Dewey Finn from School of Rock energy to the role in some of the extra and extrovert moments that make the audience roar with laughter. The next moment, with pathos and humility, you feel such empathy for what he’s going through in his life. It’s a full energy, masking self-confidence, and vulnerable performance in perfect balance which is an utter joy to watch. They both have the most sublime voices, there are some gorgeous harmonies which blend beautifully together, and Dolly Parton’s most famous hits are all here.
What’s also interesting is the way they have managed to bring us into the attic with them, while occasionally taking you out to see the skyline and imagine the world beyond, reminding us that whatever we’re up against and whatever life throws at us, it will pass, and our lives are up to us to live. It has fundamental and very important things to say about being yourself, and about not settling for second best just because you’re lonely: “someone who loves you for you, that’s real love” as Dolly says. And perhaps Dolly’s best advice: “Stop looking in mirrors, start looking out of windows.”
With audience participation, some lovely bits of magic and brim full of perfectly performed music with the best voices: there is absolutely nothing about this show not to love.
Theatre Royal Brighton, Tuesday 3rd September 2024
Photos by Hugo Glendinning
