Showbiz razzmatazz

Producers are cashing in with stage tributes to every music icon from Abba to Elvis to the Sinatra Rat Pack, so why not build one around Ray Charles? Here was an artist of such universal talent and appeal that his contemporaries called him The Genius.

In this production the issue of Ray's blindness - not to mention his blackness - does not arise. Six talented singers, a dozen stunning multi-ethnic dancers and a mostly white Anglo-US big-band all sparkle, but you search in vain for any sociological, political, psychological or even romantic insights behind the songs.

Unlike the recent Oscar-decorated movie, which took Ray's story only up to the early Forties, this slick song-anddance extravaganza makes no attempt to explain how a blind Georgia orphan could claw his way from abject poverty to the very top of the showbiz mountain.

There's no book here, not a single line of dialogue. Nothing, indeed, but songs in glorious profusion. Whether written by Ray (What'd I Say, I Got a Woman, Hit the Road Jack), immortalised by him (I Can't Stop Loving You, Georgia), borrowed by him (Eleanor Rigby, Your Cheating Heart) or only vaguely connected with him (Minnie the Moocher), the hits rattle past faster than any other show in the West End.

Of the singers, only the improvising Ty Stephens suggests Ray's vocal flexibility, though Maurey Richards and Ken Prymus produce the necessary power. Among the oddities is an implication that Ray's country-andwestern hits shocked redneck America. Maybe so, but over here we saw a greater sell-out in Ray and Aretha Franklin accepting bit-parts in Blues Brothers, that travesty of a movie that Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi clowned their way through.

Top diva is big Johnnie Fiori, despite having too much fun during her socialconscience number, John Lennon's Imagine. The stately N'Kenge Simpson-Hoffman and Brummie Natalyia Ronie, the only UK singer, run her close in a pacy and exciting second half. This show certainly entertains, but it could
so easily have been thought-provoking too.

Until 13 August. Information: 0870 4000 626.