Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – a musical based on the film by Pedro Almodovar

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – a musical by Jeffery Lane based on the film by Pedro Almodovar

Playhouse Theatre London – booking until August 2015

Pedro Almodovar’s 1988 wacky film is transformed into a musical by Jeffery Lane and David Yazbek. Tamsin Greig takes the lead role of Pepa Marcos, a lovelorn actress with a penchant to mixing gazpacho with sleeping pills.

The first half of the show treads heavily as Tamsin Greig works hard to hold the spectacle together (co-star Haydn Gwynne was missing that night) but struggles as much of the film’s original Spanish madness has been lost in this stage adaptation. The drama descends into farcical chaos in the second part to produce many more laughs as sleeping bodies result from an over dose of Pepa’s gazpacho. Overall Greig, who excelled in the Royal Court’s production of Jumpy, holds her own and has a surprisingly good singing voice. She is well supported by Ricardo Afonso who plays a quirky cab driver. However I couldn’t help thinking that comedy actress Michelle Gomez, who co-starred with Greig in the TV series Green Wing, would have been a great addition to the production.