Luke Evans sparkles as Billy Tallon, favourite servant and confidante to the Queen Mother (Dame Penelope Wilton). A must-see for the casting alone, and a pleasantly amusing staging of this lesser-known royal scandal. ★★★★☆

Firstly, a shout-out to the ‘Luketeers’ of Instagram who gave me such an appreciative response to my curtain call post; I attended the second public performance of ‘Backstairs Billy’ on the Saturday evening and I believe was the first to capture the curtain call for social media. My notifications went wild with reposts that day! I am so pleased that I could get such close-up footage of Luke in costume as both he and the set are incredibly aesthetic and deserve to be shared!

If you have been following my gallivants around the theatre for a while now, you will know that I am by no means a high-brow reviewer. I like to think I am the reviewer for the ordinary theatre-goer, the type of patron who will gladly be sucked into seeing a show for a name alone. It doesn’t even have to be a particularly big name: just someone I quite like who may have been famous in the 80s. This was quite a different field altogether. How excited I was to see my favourite Dame on the poster (don’t tell Judi) and the real clincher: my beloved Gaston casually clutching a pair of corgis.

With a big name there is always an anxiety that they simply might not be in it on the day you book. To increase our chances, I booked very early in the run and was relieved and delighted when the curtain came up and Luke was present on stage from the very beginning. Looking dapper in his Page of the Backstairs ensemble, and backlit with a sea of pink wallpaper and Clarence House opulence, the richness of this production was guaranteed.

Entertainment ★★★★☆

An amusing script, stylish set and intrigue behind just how much of the plot line actually happened, makes for an extremely watchable production. I could have enjoyed more of Billy’s escapades for at least another hour. Behind the laughs of one of Billy’s lower class lovers trying to pass himself off as an African prince to the palace, complete with questionable accent and dubious name ‘Ian’, there is supposed to be a political comment about race against the backdrop of the pre-Thatcher era. However, when searching for any higher comment, I was left more with thoughts about how easily Billy was discarded by the palace for his intimate liaisons, despite being protected for years by the Queen Mother’s need for companionship, reminiscent of John Brown’s appeal. There was also something deeper about class barriers to be explored here and to what extent it can be truly transcended.

Star Power ★★★★★

Luke Evans pitches Billy extremely well, with enough of Luke’s smouldering charm to keep the fans happy (I’ve coined them Gastonisms), and a nod to the real Billy Tallon’s la-di-dah: camp cheekiness which has us cheering him on to lace the uptight teetotallers’ cordial with booze. Dame Penelope Wilton pleasingly plays the Queen Mother with an amused confidence, in a similar way to how Wilton has played her other regal characters. This is familiar and is a recipe for success, instead of trying to do an impersonation of the real Queen Mother herself which would have been unnecessary. Without these 2 stars, the script is still very good, but it is the charisma of the leads that really give the story a sparkle.

Value ★★★☆☆

Coming in at around the £100 mark for the better tickets, this is reasonably in-line with the current West End prices, although being a play, there is no orchestra to pay for. A bit of a sour taste was left in my mouth as the whole of the front row was greyed out on the booking screen for the entire run. I assumed this was being used as part of the performance, until my field of view was slowly being populated with punters. It transpired the whole of the front row had only paid £10 each for their tickets that had been reserved as part of a promotion. Brilliant for them! Annoying for us who had paid 10x the price for one row behind.

The guys I asked in-front couldn’t believe their luck either that their cheaper promotional tickets had prime seating, instead of somewhere discreet towards the back or obstructed by a pillar of some kind.

Thoroughly recommended for Luke Evans / Dame Penelope fans. The humorous true story is a welcome bonus!