Lovelace - a Rock Musical

Charlotte Caffey and Ana Waronker have created a two-backed beast of a rock musical in Lovelace.

On the one hand, this is standard rock fare with big shrieks of melody and powerpop-driven rhythms. Its book is a comic and titillating – in a girls in their scanties kind of way – depiction of the porn industry in general and Deep Throat, the most profitable movie ever, in particular.

On the other, the flash music is something of a flashback to the late sixties and early seventies, when the reality of life for middle Americans had not caught up with the dream of sexual liberation. While the glibly vanilla depiction of sexualised bodies ensures that the focus moves away from voyeurism to the stark reality that the movie's famous star, Linda Lovelace, was a sex slave, owned by her husband, who received nothing for her work.

Katrina Lenk as Lovelace puts in a big, complex performance, while Jimmy Swan as her husband Chuck Traynor is positively sleazy. The chorus all work hard to create director Ken Sawyer's quick-witted telling, with Josh Greene particularly strong as her well-endowed co-star Harry Reams.

Fun to watch and without browbeating its audience, Lovelace reminds that sexual slavery in our modern society is not confined to the trafficking of women, but can become manifest within the confines of its institutions.