‘Local Hero’ Review: A Sweetly Delightful New Musical, Despite Lackluster Songs
David Benedict Charm, a sadly rare theatrical quality, is scarcely a fashionable theatrical virtue, but it’s nonetheless valuable. And, to audiences’ evident delight, it’s there in spades in director Daniel Evans’ wonderfully fluid farewell production at Chichester Festival Theatre. Turning Bill Forsyth’s 1983 Scottish eco-comedy-drama “Local Hero” into a musical, Evans and every member of his first-rate production team create an often-idiosyncratic delight, the stage equivalent of one of British cinema’s tender-hearted, quirky-yet-cosy Ealing comedies. What even he cannot give the show is true theatrical liftoff. An earlier version, directed by John Crowley, played Edinburgh to pleasing reviews in 2018. Crowley left the project during the pandemic and Evans took over, keeping no one but Scots playwright David Greig, the music and lyrics of Mark Knopfler (formerly of Dire Straits), and lighting designer Paule Constable.