"Forever Young" by Erik Gedeon.

Spotlight Theatre Group.

MMC (Mountsorrel Memorial Centre).

If you've seen this play/musical before, then you'll know just how funny this show is. But wait, there are extra characters and more songs have been added to the show to incorporate the more recent residents of the care home.

The play is set in the future and the MMC is now a retirement care home for retired actors and musicians and has been renamed to Routledge Manor. But do retired performers take retirement to a relaxed life of being cared for? Not this lot!

Their days are filled with reliving their past glories, or as they see their past glories which includes sex and drugs and rock n roll, all with an open eye for Sister Sara, the perfect nurse for these young at heart veterans as she treats them to her operatic outbursts, some with alarming lyrics. Her whistling of the death march as she vacates the room doesn't give much faith in her care for the residents.

Sara is played wonderfully bossy by Lisa Mills, who is also the Producer. (I'll let you into a secret... this is not Lisa's first experience of this play as she has also directed the play and been Musical Director a few years ago). The fact that she holds so much power over the residents shows as deep joy in her face. I love the patronising start with the "Clappy Hands" song but we have to wait until the end to hear what a lovely singing voice Lisa has when she sings "I'll Be Seeing You" as she bids them all goodnight. The showbusiness side of Sister Sara comes around with her performance of "Cabaret".

Elliot Paulson is Mr Paulson, a retired magician who now just wants to enjoy his twilight years with the new love of his life, Ms Bladon. We get a section where Mr Paulson gets to show off his "magic skills", and the "trick" with Ms Bladon as his lovely assistant is obvious but such fun. Mr Paulson and the male residents do a brilliantly comical version of Tom Jones' "Sex Bomb".

Georgie Bladon is Ms Bladon, former actress, who now suffers from dementia. Her favourite play is Chekhov's "The Seagull", which she "performs" an extract of to entertain her fellow residents. Mr Paulson and Ms Bladon make a lovely couple, especially when we got to the poignant section where Miss Bladon sang Nilsson's "Without You". I won't tell you what brought this song on because, while it has its' funny side, it was quite a sad moment in the play, which caused the perfect reaction from the audience.

Paul Mills is Mr Mills, an ageing rockstar who once performed at Glastonbury and now croons the Queen song "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" while passing the dooby round. Mr Mills is the rocking hippy in this production and is also part of a brilliant comedy double act which closes Act One with Mr Holtom in a shocking manner! I remember seeing Paul play this very same role nine years ago at the Guildhall Theatre in Derby. 

Martin Holtom is Mr Holtom, a former Shakespearian actor who once performed at The Globe and Swan Theatres. He is still dreaming of the final performance, but is he too late? There's a section in this show which features several performed Shakespearian quotes performed by all of the cast. One of my favourite scenes include Mr Holtom and Mr Mills leading up to the close of the first act.

Jennifer Richardson is Miss Richardson, aka Miss R, a former music teacher who once met Mick "Romeo Rubber Lips" Jagger. Miss R likes the 80's, rap music and knitting strange looking things!

Mr Wrightovski, is a Russian concert pianist who has no grasp of the English language. Played by  Jason Wrightham, another wonderful character driven performance with the physicality in this role never faltering. Even though his former occupation was playing the piano, he begrudgingly plays the keyboard for Sister Sara to vocalise to.

Jemma Bennett is Mrs Bennett who used to be an artist, who specialised in painting nudes. She likes a boogie, but only because it gives her a chance to get up close and personal with the male residents.

Mina Holtom is Miss Pegg, a former activist and professional actress whose nickname was "The Dreaded Diva". My favourite character in this musical comedy play is this foul-mouthed character. A wonderfully politically incorrect potty mouthed character, who has a wonderful story to tell from her activist days, complete with local references. Miss Pegg starts the musical ball rolling as soon as Sister sara leaves the room with a raunchy, rocking version of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". Her version of Aqua's "Barbie Girl" is the result of another inspired piece of comedy.

Some of the comedy may not be politically correct but who cares as it’s very funny with some clever arrangements of popular songs. “Barbie Girl” has never sounded so good. This comedy also takes in “I Got You Babe”, “I Will Survive”, “ Uptown Funk”, "Hey baby" and of course the poignant title of the play “Forever Young” among this new and refreshed score.

The make up is excellent as are the costumes and wigs. 

Sound for the show is by Ryan Heath. The MMC's acoustics are excellent so you got to hear every word spoken and sung; the backing tracks are lovely and clear and sound lovely in this performance space. Sound effects are well used and timed perfectly.

Lighting is by members of the MMC venue.

Choreography for these musical numbers have been created brilliantly for these aging characters, especially the dance sections for two of the big funky numbers, "Sex Bomb" and "Uptown Funk".

The original script is by Erik Gedeon and this adaptation, which takes what I had seen before to another level, is by Giles Croft and Stefan Bednarczyk.

The Video montage at the end is brilliantly conceived, showing the cast members as children alongside the way they look at the moment in that clever way that you see on Facebook/Youtube videos where both young and current actors embrace the other. Clever stuff. There are also a collection of other pictures of the cast over the years creating a lovely time line of them all, all proving that with the right mindset, we can all stay forever young.

"Forever Young" has another performance on Saturday 25 July, so make sure that you don't miss this hilarious and heartfelt piece of theatre. A wonderful lesson in how to grow old disgracefully.

Photography by Ben Sherwin.