@ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 14 Mar 2015

A wacky mash-up of rock ‘n’ roll, Shakespeare and cult B-movie sci-fi descends upon the Festival Theatre this week for this gloriously daft space rock opera. The large cast show off their impeccable skills as musicians as they bounce around the set (a spaceship’s interior) playing various instruments. The music is fantastic and there was plenty of head bopping and the occasional audience member getting up on their feet for a boogie along to the classic tunes.

The show follows a group of space travellers as they try to help a marooned scientist, Dr. Prospero, who is stranded on an alien planet. It’s basically a re-jig of the classic ‘50s sci-fi flick, Forbidden Planet, which itself was taken for a twist on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It’s a format that sets itself up to not be taken too seriously and despite the postmodernism and occasional Shakespeare dialogue, not a show that needs an awful lot of intellectual thought.

It’s a shame then that there is a lack of laughs in the production. Despite the kitsch and campy quality it seems the cast haven’t made more of the opportunity to ham it up with B-movie style acting. If ever a show requires some OTT acting from the cast, it’s this one. Joseph Mann has a good crack at it with the space robot, Ariel, and his rendition of Who’s Sorry Now is fun but there isn’t an awful lot else for him to do.

There is one performer, thankfully, who completely nails the tone of Bob Carlton’s tongue-in-cheek creation and that comes from Mark Newnham as the hopeless romantic cook, Cookie. Newnham’s squeaky voice and face-pulling certainly wouldn’t work in any other Shakespeare adaptation, but here he steals the show. Whenever he’s off the stage the production falls a little flat. His guitar solo as Cookie discovers his dark side is a mesmerizing, spectacular moment of wild abandon that is the show’s ultimate highlight.

The music however really lifts things up and the vocals of the cast are impeccable along with their musicianship. Despite a few lulls this is an invigorating, fun show that should appeal to all humans.