So the show opened!! Phew! Our first review in Manchester Evening News is -

Love Shack @ Palace Theatre
By Kevin Bourke

AS one jaw-dropping moment followed another at the world premiere of Love Shack last night, it quickly became evident that its creators have come up with a work of perverse genius, a thoroughly modern, high-concept musical that’s as banally brilliant in its own way as, say, McDonalds or Big Brother.

Cavalierly, mixing reassuringly familiar elements with utter, unashamed tackiness and with a built-in flexibility to drop in songs, gags, guest performers or whatever at will, its closest relative is surely not the classic musical at all but that extraordinary British institution, the panto – and just like the panto, Love Shack might well, I suspect, resist critical derision to be around for a very long time.

Starring a B-list of pop stars from the likes of S Club 7 (Jon Lee), Steps (Faye Tozer) and Hear’Say (Noel Sullivan) in a Hull Truck-meets-Friends type tale, written by Ashton Under Lyne comedy writer, Daniel Peak, about two soon-to-be-married couples and their pals, it doesn’t miss a trick when it comes to getting them all to belt out a string of such karaoke favourites as It’s Raining Men, These Boots Are Made For Walking and Go West. Apparently, there are 35 such songs, but I soon lost the will to count them.

The show is clearly still evolving – the unbelievably toe-curling breakfast scene really should go and so must the creepy Julian post-modern-narrator – but, like it or not (and, just in case you are wondering, I didn’t at all), Love Shack is going to be with us for a long time – get used to it.