Jason Donovan made an assured, if low-key, debut in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium. The former soap star sang sweetly, acted ably, and danced nicely enough in the hit musical.
His downbeat performance may not have been perfectly suited to a cold, wet Tuesday night in January. It was, though, a brave stab at making a mark on a show where everyone is upstaged by a flying car.
The sometime Aussie heart-throb plays widowed inventor Caractacus Potts as a fond but defeated father of two cute young urchins. Potts is cowed by failure until the wreck of the car - and a nice, pert girl called Truly Scrumptious - come his way.
This interpretation of the role may mystify younger members of the audience. Almost certainly, it is in direct contrast to Donovan's predecessors in the role, the perma-smiling musical stalwarts Michael Ball and Gary Wilmot.
Yet his performance works, perhaps because most of us know that Donovan is a man who has known both highs and lows. There he stands on stage in Potts's ragged and stained inventor's gear. He mutters and darts about distractedly until called upon to sing.
Then the voice that once wooed Kylie Minogue, that stormed the Eighties charts and was later relegated to the pub circuit, comes back into play. It is not the greatest voice in the world but it is impassioned and uniformly on-key.
Donovan even essays a sudden octave-shift in the late song, Teamwork. He seems sincere, even when struggling to maintain Potts's Edwardian accent. His Australian twang has been pummelled into submission by years of living here, but still occasionally comes through.
In the big dance routines, Donovan looks a little glazed, as if fearful of putting a foot wrong. But then, on closer inspection, so do all the professional dancers. And one can't criticise Donovan, or the other organic components of this show, too much.
The audience is, after all, waiting for a big lump of metal with wheels to take off. At the curtain call, Donovan grinned alongside co-stars Russ Abbot and Caroline Sheen, who play Potts's father and Truly Scrumptious.
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Both have been in the show longer than him, but gave him sterling support. Which just goes to show that, in theatre as elsewhere, everybody needs good neighbours.
