A-Team - The Musical

This nostalgia-fest borders on the pantomimic, and calling it a musical is something of a misnomer, since songs are few and far between. But if your heart leaps at the sound of Mr T’s catchphrases, and there’s a wavy-lined flashback to the blue-eyelinered 80s every time you hear the theme tune’s opening bars, then this could be the show for you.

The plot is wafer thin. Young female hick is threatened by local yobs when she doesn’t hand over protection money. That’s it. In come the A Team, Hannibal (old), Face (vain), Murdock (potty) and BA Baracus (angry), and justice overcomes corruption.

The extremely low-fi production values are turned into a running joke, with cars and the famous A-Team black van as cardboard cut-outs, and a helicopter becomes some tinfoil on a stick. So far, so tacky. But the audience loves the nostalgia, and still has a soft spot for this motley array of ex-Nam freedom fighters. From Hannibal’s trademark cigar, to BA’s odd haircut and Murdock’s imaginary pets, this ticks all the boxes.

But where are the songs? A couple are performed well and with gusto, but actors have been cast for their looks rather than their voices. Scratch’s production is not without its laughs, but there’s a fine line between laughing at it and laughing with it.