In the great days of Broadway musicals, Julie Andrews was a star: she was Eliza, Mary Poppins, Maria von Trapp and Guinevere to Burton’s Arthur.
She’s still with us, as children’s author and queenly voice-overs for The Princess Diaries and Shrek.
This week, she can also be found on stage at The Rialto Theatre where Sam Nixon and Alasdair Carson-Sheard pay her the sincerest form of flattery with a play which imitates her life.
Practically Perfect is a musical biodrama in which a psychotherapist explores the contrasts between the public persona and the private woman.
The ingenious two-hander requires Carson-Sheard to become characters as varied as Dick Van Dyke, Rex Harrison and Julie’s first vocal coach, all of which he manages with minimal props and considerable aplomb.
Sam Nixon looks and sounds eerily like her heroine with crystalline vowels to match.
It’s all wonderfully entertaining with everybody’s favourite songs and a deal of humorous charm.
Julie Andrews might have struggled with a goody two-shoes image, but despite a patchy upbringing, first failed marriage and alcoholic parent, she emerges as an attractive, warm and funny star who was just as nice as she looked.
Four stars
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