Photo: WENN
The Spice Girls' musical Viva Forever received its London premiere this week and the reviews are in - but take it from us, it's not good news...
Accused of being boring and lifeless, it seems that producer Judy Craymer - who did so well with Mamma Mia! - just hasn't managed to find the spark to make Viva Forever! work. And some of that could be due to the fact that very few Spice Girls songs seem to be actually included, with those that are being almost unrecognisable.
Not to mention that the plot, which has according to Spice Girl Geri Halliwell is about "fame, adoption, growing up, growing older, fractured families and what's really important in life" (ambitious), is being labelled as dull with nothing happening - until the last half an hour, when too much happens. All at once.
The Daily Mail refer to Viva Forever! as "so drudgy, so sour and focused on failure," and it doesn't get any better, with the paper lambasting "the iffy performances, gloomy backdrops and a lamentably slow start" before finishing, "you have the makings of a notable West End flop. It’s almost as if the thing has a death wish."
The musical only gets a one star rating from the Telegraph, this time using the adjectives "tawdry, lazy and unedifying" to describe the musical and going so far as to mention a "miasma of disappointment emanating from an audience of up-for-it Spice Girls fans slowly realising that they had paid top whack to see a clunker."
Four-fifths of the Spice Girls with Judy Craymer, arriving at the Piccadilly Theatre
Caroline Frost of the Huffington Post is slightly more optimistic, giving the production a generous two stars and saying that it "just" needs more plot and, well, more songs. She also notes that the first three songs which are performed in the first half are "barely recognisable as Spice Girls' numbers."
The Mirror agrees, stating, "Many of the band's biggest hits have been turned into such dirges they make laughing Leonard Cohen's work seem like the theme tune to the Teletubbies."
"If you love the Spice Girls stay at home and listen to their greatest hits," finishes the Telegraph.
"[It] makes you wonder why the producers didn't just hire a nightclub and make it a Viva Forever!-themed night," adds the Huffington Post.
And the Mirror ends their review with the sarcastic comment, "Viva Forever? More like clapped-out Vauxhall Viva, five careless owners with far too many miles on the clock."
Ouch. Say You'll Be There? It doesn't sound like many people will be...
Listen to 'Spice Up Your Life' below:
Below, check out the Spice Girls reunion at the Viva Forever! premiere last night
