Interviews

First of all, let's get the guilt thing out of the way. I had forgotten being in big trouble for making the mark of the Z on the headboard of my bed in homage to the masked stranger.

Fortified by a bottle of Old Speckled Hen and the promise of interval tapas, I overcame the childhood nightmares and prepared to be entertained by a production which has aspirations of Broadway after taking the West End by storm.... possibly.

Let explain the concept. "Zorro" is a musical but it has been mixed up like Seth Brundle in "The Fly" with the music of The Gypsy Kings.

Zorro

In order to achieve this, Diego goes to Spain and joins a travelling troupe of gypsy entertainers who then travel, complete with caravan, to California. Here Diego assumes the role of the masked avenger, a cunning disguise which fools everybody, as he fights for the poor oppressed by his evil half brother Ramon and the love and respect of Luisa.

The Gypsy Kings tunes give the show big chorus numbers based around the gypsy troupe. Other songs move the show along with rather trite narrative lyrics.

Technical triumph

Visually this show is a treat. The set is a technical triumph ensuring a seamless fast paced show.

There many stunning visual effects which could go wrong but mostly work brilliantly. So the knife throwing stunts works well, the three nooses are severed with a single swipe of Zorro's rapier and the Z shaped scar appears on Ramon's chest.

There are explosions, aerial rope tricks, a collapsing scaffold and Zorro pulls off a brilliant disappearing act by climbing in a barrel which then collapses completely empty. As you can see this show takes calculated risks and this adds to what is at times a breathtaking production.

The plot of course is a stinker as you would expect. Given that Zorro and Diego share the same scruffy beard, why does nobody work it out? And given Zorro's predeliction for appearing on a rope, you'd think they'd take down the ropes that hang from most buildings in California. But this is comic book world and Matt Rawle brings the swashbuckling hero to life with some inventive and effective fight scenes.

There are some strong performances throughout the cast. Rawle, who has recently played Che in "Evita", sings, acts and fights well. Adam Cooper plays the villain well but Ramon doesn't give him much scope to exploit his dance background.

Strong

The female leads are strong. Lesli Margherita really steals the show as gypsy Inez and apart from one filling, rattling vocal towards the end of the first part in the song "Luisa", Aime Atkinson makes a pleasing love interest as Luisa. There's a fine comic performance from Nick Caviliere as Sergeant Garcia.

My main criticism is that the show rather runs out of steam. The first half should end on the soaring" Bamboleo" but adds another song. By the second half the show has unleashed all its surprises.

To accommodate more Gypsy Kings numbers, we have a Fiesta which brings new costumes but little else other the song "Baila Me ". There then follows a period of about 15 minutes where nothing really happens.

Luisa is transformed into a gypsy to fit in "Djobi Djoba". It may be necessary to fulfil the promise of music by The Gypsy Kings, but at nearly three hours the show is too long.

"Zorro" finished to rapturous applause and that is deserved: if only for the cast's determination to make this show work.

Whether it succeeds in the West End in this form, I'm not sure. It is a visual delight from start to finish and is well sung and brilliantly danced. It way well draw in the tourists, but at West End prices the lack of a big name may hamper it at the box office. I still maintain it needs shortening.