Theatre Review: A Night with Janis Joplin - The Musical

Unless someone invents time travel, this is probably the closest you'll get to experiencing Janis Joplin live on stage.

Jukebox musicals have a variety of viable routes to success. You either do a Mama Mia / We Will Rock You and just spin a weak story around the tunes - or you do a straight biography interspersing songs with whatever anecdotes the surviving members can agree on.

Janis treads a different path. It is presented as a gig, with Janis singing and telling stories. The "twist" is that she is talking about all the singers who inspired her and, as though in a dream, they join her on stage. It turns the show into "An Evening with Janis Joplin… and Friends".

That's no bad thing! The powerful screeching vocals playing beautifully against the classic soul singers.

The show is loud - with warning signs dotted around the theatre.

This may be in deference to the average age of the audience - what hear shall miss our stack of speakers turned up to eleven will toil to mend!

We were sat in front of this bad boy.

Every crack of the drums was like rifle-fire, every little piece of my heart got a thorough shake, rattle, and roll.

The band is a joy, the banking singers punchy, and Mary Bridget Davies as Janis sings like she's gargled bourbon and barbed-wire.

If you're happy with a gig-style show rather than a traditional musical - and if you like your rock and/or roll deafening - you'll love this show.