Showing  @ King’s Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 20 Oct

Before the film was the play, and since, nothing has quite matched it. Still, Jim Cartwright‘s story of a shy and talented girl being brought out of her shell and into the local limelight continues to tick the feel-good box. But timeless stories need a time, to be rooted in a place that allows us to become immersed in the world of the play and make our own connections. Cartwright’s own Little Voice revival here doesn’t quite meet the momentum of the 1998 movie, but offers light entertainment nonetheless.

Corrie’s Beverly Callard plays man-eating mother Mari, in an array of ridiculously tight and tacky costumes. Her lines are a combination of cruel insults and sloppy speeches, which get old fast. Jess Robinson, LV, delivers her musical medleys with gumption, although they are few and far between; Julie Andrews and Cilla Black numbers are shoehorned into the routines among the sultry sounds of sex symbols such as Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe. Audience interaction, raffles, bingo and slapstick comedy add a farcical element that jars with the darker tones of the play, hinted at by LV and Mari’s tense and frustrated relationship. With a greater sense of place, and quicker pace, the audience might get more out of this than the prospect of winning a teabag in the interval.