The set for this new production of a poignant 2016 musical is all doors. Nik Corrall’s design suggests that its heroine, Ada Harris (Jenna Russell), might be opening up new opportunities or shutting foolish dreams away.
We’re in glum postwar Battersea, all rationing and making do. Ada’s husband died in the first war, and she sits with grief, working her fingers to the bone as a cleaner while chatting to hubby’s ghost (Hal Fowler). Long dormant feelings bloom when she encounters a client’s new Dior gown; entranced, she resolves to buy her own. “It’s like somehow I just found a piece of me.” With best friend Vi (incisive Annie Wensak), she scrimps her way to afford a New Look marvel.
