Review: Only Fools and Horses the Musical, at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall, showing until this Saturday, April 26

Get ready for a right old knees up with this hilariously fast-paced homage to a truly iconic comedy.

Written by comedian Paul Whitehouse and Jim Sullivan, Only Fools and Horses the Musical is now showing at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall, until this Saturday (April 26).

Based on the beloved British sitcom which captured the hearts of TV viewers throughout the 80s and 90s, it was hard to imagine how the show could be adapted to the stage, let alone as a musical.

My fears were quickly alleviated, however, as the opening rendition of “Hooky Street” by an ensemble of market traders set the tone straight away.

With more than a few knowing nods back to some of the TV show’s most iconic jokes, this musical managed the strike the right balance between loving homage and caricature.

With a run time of just over two hours, the jokes flew out faster than the dodgy wares Del Boy was flogging.

But you can’t hang the success of a show on nostalgia alone, and where this musical really shines is in fast paced, funny, and surprisingly fitting original songs scattered throughout.

Whether it was Del Boy signing up for a dating agency and describing what he was looking for in “Bit of a sort”, or Trigger using a crystal ball to see the future of a gentrified Peckham in “Gaze into my ball”, there were plenty of laugh out loud tunes which provided a hilarious break from all the references and sentimentality.

One of my biggest concerns going into this show is that they wouldn’t be able to capture what made the original so special, which was the chemistry between the quirky cast of Cockney characters.

But in truth they exceeded my expectations and the world felt truly lived in, from meetings down at the Nags Head, between familiar faces, quippy exchanges between Del Boy, Rodney, and Grandad in the Trotter flat, or the lively atmosphere of the high street market.

The true stand out was, Sam Lupton as our lovable leading wheeler dealer Del Boy himself.

It didn’t take long to completely forget that I was not actually watching David Jason.

With Sam’s pitch-perfect accent and mannerisms, all elevated by excellent physical comedy, he somehow never went overboard and was fully deserving of his standing applause when the cast took their bow.

The plot was kept simple, condensing several story lines down to fit the tight run time. But sometimes you just want to laugh and not think too deeply.

Perhaps sometimes a little on the nose, what mattered most is that it was fun, and judging from the way the audience were rolling in their seats with laughter, this show exceeded itself.

I thought it straddled the right line between throwing a wink and a nudge to fans of the original and welcoming a younger audience who may be complete newcomers to the world of Only Fools’.

From initial scepticism, to laughing out loud, I was more than happy to be proved wrong and pleasantly surprised at just how great this show was. Lovely jubbly. — FB