Once upon a time Jack Rosenthal’s Bar Mitzvah Boy won the BAFTA Best Play Award, among others, and it was assumed that the musical would be a smash hit in the West End. Well, it wasn’t. The critics did a neat job of crucifixion an the show came off in the twinkling of an empty cash register. The same Mr Rosenthal went on to win other awards and his wife Maureen Lipman became a top TV star with her own long-running series, Agony. Early this year they combined their talents in a play that tells of the agony of putting on a musical that everybody loves but the critics. It is the archetypal backstage musical virtually without music, and, bravely aims to translate the title into fact.

Alas, again it seems not to be, this time around, anyway. The play has reached no nearer London than Richmond’s Theatre on the Green, where it was ecstatically received on the opening night. A thousand pities, as it has pace, witty dialogue and some delightful performances – all the ingredients for a hit, except, perhaps the music, for which one seems, subconsciously, to be waiting. The role of the arrogant composer, Bebe, was played well by John Bluthal, deputising for Larry Adler who was to play this as his first straight part in theatre, but withdrew the first week of rehearsal. And there was a touchingly funny performance by Maureen Lipman, one of the most exciting comedy discoveries of recent years, who paints a life-like picture of the timid, but ultimately gutsy, Yorkshire authoress, Liz. Peter Blake nicely understates the other British member of the team, Mike. Nigel Hawthorne brings vividly into focus the wheeler-dealer entrepreneur Theo, and Stephen Moore is equally right as the whizz-kid director whose main talent seems to be for wearing trendy outfits. Jean Rimmer, in the tiny part of a waitress, neatly steals her scene, and Barry Davis, the real director, has done a commendable job. Robin Archer scores with no less than six effectively different sets.