I have been a fan of Louise Rennison and the antics of her anti-heroine Georgia Nicolson since I was in my early teens, but after the disaster that was the feature film I approached this new stage production with great trepidation.
I’m 21 now, but only recently I spent a couple of hours with my mate Jane moaning about how rubbish the film was so I was going to be totally gutted if the Playhouse did a similar hatchet job on characters I’ve come to regard as mates. Not literally, of course, but I do know them so well in my head.
The good news is that Georgia’s army of fans can rest easy as this show has got it spot on and I think that is partly due to the fact that Louise Rennison has co-written it with experienced dramatist Mark Gatley. There was no way she was going to let her characters be butchered a second time and they deliver a script that pushes all the right buttons.
They story is simple. Georgia has a gang of loyal mates, and a male best friend Dave the Laugh. She falls in love with two very unsuitable boys on a rocky road to true love. Think of it as a far, far more innocent Inbetweeners for teenage girls wrestling with what seem – at the time – like life and death boy problems.
The other huge plus in this hugely entertaining show is that the casting is spot on. After a shaky start Naomi Petersen – making her stage debut – really inhabits the endearing geekiness of Georgia who is hopelessly in love with the coolest boy in school, and worries about a spot on her big nose. Emily Hougton is utterly brilliant as the daft Rosie, and she is exactly how I imagined in my head. I liked Rachel Caffrey as loyal best mate Jas, and another debutant Yemisi Oyinloye is wonderfully dithery as Ellen.
I hate adults playing little kids so I was pleasantly surprised to see Georgia’s little sister Libby was a puppet, as is Georgia’s crazy cat Angus. Nice touch.
Now, there are 10 books in this series so Louise has cleverly brought the three boys – Robbie the Sex God, Masimo the Love God and Dave the Laugh into one intersecting narrative. All three lads are great too, but for me Lewis Rainer really gets to grips with the lovelorn best mate Dave the Laugh. Robbie and Masimo front dreadful indie pop band the Stiff Dylans who as just as awful as I always imagined them to be.
Sadly the school head and the school caretaker didn’t make an appearance, but old hands Margaret Cabourn-Smith and George Potter were suitably cringy as Georgia’s totally embarrassing parents, Vati and Mutti. They also doubled up as German teacher Herr Kamyer always banging on about the Koch family and the naive drama teacher Miss Wilson.
I took my dad along and luckily for him there is a useful glossary of Georgia’s secret language in the programme otherwise he would have been hopelessly lost. He tries too hard like Georgia’s parents, but it would have been a shame if he had missed the essential meaning of boy entrancers (false eyelashes). bum-oley (bottom hole), lurker (an elusive spot) and nunga-mungas (breasts).
Dad had a great time and we both loved the energetic and hilarious one minute version of Romeo and Juliet in act two. The great thing about this show is that the cast are clearly having great fun which really wins over a tough audience packed full of hard core fans like me.
I would have no hesitation is telling every Georgia Nicholson fan to buy a ticket as this production really does our heroine proud, and I can see this lavish production being a big hit in the West End.
* Thanks to uber fan Martha Clarke for this guest review.
* Pictures by Keith Pattison.