“Club Tropicana – The Musical”
Nottingham Theatre Royal

Club Tropicana is a fictitious hotel, the 1980’s version of “Love Island”, but with a more intelligent cast! At least the characters in the musical know where Barcelona is!

Set on a Spanish holiday resort, the show sees Garry and his staff prepare for a hotel inspection in order to be in with a chance of winning the Best Hotel of the Year prize, and hopefully beating their rival from across the bay. Meanwhile, after Lorraine leaves her fiancé Olly at the aisle, the pair find themselves at the resort at the same time

Club Tropicana sees drinks flowing, some are even free, and tans glowing, but will our young lovers decide to get back together and get married? Will the hotel inspectors finally get their way and close the resort, or will the staff save the day? All will be revealed…….

Joe McElderry (Garry) plays the Master of Ceremonies and the Entertainment boss, and you can just tell he has having a ball in this show. He is not afraid to take the mickey out of himself, even giving The X Factor a sneaky mention, albeit in another context. He is like a ball of energy exploding on the stage.The jokes are cheesy and that 100 watt smile is always on his face. His energy levels keep the flimsy storyline bubbling and you just can't help feeding off his infectious nature.

Neil McDermott (Robert) who many will recognise from playing Ryan in “Eastenders” gets to show off his dancing skills as well as a decent singing voice as one half of the Tropicana owners, along with Serena.

Amelle Berrabah (Serena), who I remember from being one third of the girl group the Sugababes, naturally gets to showcase her soulful singing voice. In the musical she is part owner of Tropicana but she has a secret crush on someone; someone who doesn't seem to know that she exists. Worry not though because this is the sort of musical that has happy endings all round.

Kate Robbins (Consuela) is brilliant as the hotel cleaner with a seemingly limited grasp on the English language - think Consuela from "Family Guy" and that is what you get in this musical. She still has a great voice and her impressions are uncannily accurate, and she was responsible for many of the laughs in this musical.

Emily Tierney (Christine) plays a brilliantly comical role. The staff are expecting a visit from the hotel inspector, and Christine seems to fit the bill, but is she all that she seems. A lot of old fashioned slapstick with this role, and the timing for this slapstick is well choreographed.

Karina Hind (Lorraine) and Cellen Chugg Jones (Olly) are just meant to be - we can all see that, and they have the highlight musical performance for me when they duet on a stripped back ballad version of Aha's "Take On Me". Both have strong and controlled voices, which is not really realised until this duet.

Rebecca Mendoza (Tracey) is a joy to watch as Lorraine's "best friend", and she has her share of some brilliant comedy scenes. Her fancy dress costume is mistaken for everything from Pirates of The Caribbean to Pete Burns from Dead Or Alive; she is dressed up as neither by the way. Her raunchy rendition of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is classic.

Tara Verloop (Andrea) plays Lorraine's other "friend", and you can see exactly why she wanted to go to Spain with Lorraine and Tracey. She is well up for the sunshine, sangria and... what was that other thing she was after?

Kane Verrall (Blaine) and Rory Phelan (Drew) are Olly's mates. Rory never seems to be able to keep his shirt on for long, and it's not long before he is stripped down to a pair of budgie smugglers for the Tropicana pool.

Blaine also manages to find love but not from a corner that we were expecting, and it's all presented in the best and funniest possible taste. Plenty of highlights with both male characters, especially with Blaine's flamenco dancing!!

One of the songs that is sung is Bucks Fizz's "Making Your Mind Up" and they pay tribute to the Fizz's whole routine, but this time with a bit of a twist.

The soundtrack is an 80’s fan’s dream with classics like “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, “Just Can’t get Enough”, “Oops Upside Your Head”, “Church Of The Poison Mind”, “Fantastic Day”, Look Of Love”, “I Could Be So Good For You”, “Relax” and so many more, but not “Club Tropicana” strangely enough and no Wham songs at all.

Choreographed by Nick Winston, who also Directed the show, and his choreography injected so much energy into this musical.

Fashion was also a big thing in the 80's of course and Diego Pitarch hit the nail on the head with some amazing costumes. Pitarch was also responsible for the set design.

This show will not win any awards but it’s not aiming to; It’s aim is to give their audience a great night out with some brilliant 80’s Top Tunes and to put a smile on everyone’s face and make you feel good. It brings fun and sunshine and there’s definitely enough for everyone, and as that is it’s aim, I can safely say that it succeeds.

The finale has everyone up on their feet and the energy levels from all on stage makes this show a candy floss extravaganza of cheese, and I loved it for just being fun and frothy.

“Club Tropicana – The Musical” is at the Nottingham Theatre Royal until Saturday 13 July.