The Big Life - Review by David Heppell

THE BIG LIFE - Apollo Theatre

A last-minute addition to the schedule. Lively, bouncy, fun music, in the style known as ''ska'', makes this entertaining stuff and puts a big smile on the face. But the show is lifted by the laughs - particularly with a Jamaican ''mother'' figure (Tameka Empson) perched in one of the boxes (rather like Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show) filling in over the scene changes and splitting the audience''s sides with laughter in the process, commenting on the scene just gone and lots more besides. The actors on stage also bring out the humour of life as an immigrant in ''50s London, but there are barbed allusions to the not-so-funny side of it all as well. Overall, for the fun and the frolics, a really different and enjoyable evening''s entertainment.