There are few things the theatre likes more than a story about itself, that lovable old business called show, and if everyone can go home having thwacked adversity on the nose at the end of act five, so much the better.
The late, lamented Jack Rosenthal was far too sophisticated a writer to subscribe to all these clichés but nonetheless this 1981 comedy about the struggle to turn a hit novel into a stage musical doesn't make it into the premier league of his admirable back catalogue.
Rosenthal wrote from bitter experience here, having watched his own much-loved television play Bar Mitzvah Boy die a death when it received an ill-advised musical treatment. Thus he sets before us producer Theo (Tom Conti), writer Liz (Natalie Walter), director Stacey (Cameron Blakely), lyricist Mike (Josh Cohen) and composer Bebe (The West Wing's Richard Schiff) and over a series of scenes has them talk each other up the walls and down again, until no one has a shred of their original conviction about the show left.
Enjoyable as this basic scenario is, it does have drawbacks. The whole project has the air of doom about it right from the start, which makes it tough to invest emotionally in the fate of Whatever Happened to Tomorrow? It is, of course, a title that cries out for multiple cynical ripostes. Although there are some cherishable one-liners - "In a musical, nothing's alright until it's too late to be changed" - Tamara Harvey's occasionally underpowered production struggles to maintain a consistent level of laughs. This isn't a high backstage comedy in the manner of Noises Off and the clash of big male egos demanding the scrapping of sets, scenes and songs becomes wearisome.
Rosenthal understandably makes the writer the most sympathetic character and that fine comic actress Natalie Walter anchors the evening as the ever more bewildered Liz, drowning in a sea of rewrites and coming to wish she'd never thought about G.I. brides in the first place. There's a hint of a flirtation with both Stacey and Mike but, disappointingly, this potentially fruitful emotional arc is downplayed. Conti gives a characteristically engaging turn as the canny Austrian producer and there's some delightful scene-stealing from Carrie Quinlan, doubling as a dancer and a waitress. She generates the biggest laughs and looks set to be a smash of a comedy performer.
Until May 8 (020 7907 7060, menierchocolatefactory.com)
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