Take the carefree days of the roaring 20’s, mix in some stylish songs, dazzling dancing, and flamboyant costumes and love is bound to blossom. That’s the basis of The Boyfriend, the hit Sandy Wilson stage show and later film musical, lovingly revived by the Tenerife Swallows Drama Group at the Sol Princesa Dacil in Los Cristianos.

The course of true love doesn’t run smooth and there are plenty of misunderstandings and family obstacles to overcome for the characters assembled at the Cote d’Azur in 1920’s France. The light frothy mood of the show fits the spirit of the bright young things from Madame Dubonnet’s Finishing School For Young Ladies, and there is plenty of humour weaved into the plot over three acts. This was a more ambitious project for the swallows after last years success with Oh What A Lovely War, lots of costume changes, big ensemble numbers, and much more lines between the songs.

Director Michael Huntington’s team did him proud, the chemistry between the characters is what drives the show and the players, mainly amateurs, brought out all the warmth and vulnerability of the hopeful lovers. Luke Carey as Tony (The Boyfriend) had just the right balance of shyness, awarkness, and innocence, while the object of his desires Polly was enchanting, pretty, and emotionally fragile thanks to Karen Holcombe. In contrast Bobby (Dominic James), the brash and self assured suitor of Maisie (Tracey Cutting) was a good match for his confident intended bride. All the shows dance numbers were excellent but Bobby and Maisie were particularly good in Won’t You Charleston With Me?

Director Michael Huntington was glowing with pride after the first of the three night run and filled in some of the background for me. “We chose The Boyfriend because it fitted nicely to our small cast of 15 and it has good memorable tunes. About half of our cast were new to public performance but we had a good team with musical director Paul Lowe and choreographer Jenny Grayston guiding them. “

I had to ask about the costumes, they were outstanding. “ In all we needed 45 costumes, Janet Roberts with Barbara Young and Janice Banks worked hard on them, they were all sourced from local rastro markets but needed lots of cutting and sewing to adapt them.”
I hadn’t seen The Boyfriend in any of its previous forms but several of the songs were familiar like “I Could be Happy With You” and the title song. The original stage show stormed London’s West End back in 1954 but there were some nice modern touches added for this production especially in the humour. It’s a joyous, uplifting show and that was certainly helped by the enthusiasm of the cast, they were all clearly enjoying it as much as the audience. Profits from the shows are going to Cancer Research Tenerife, last year they raised 1.700 euros but the slightly larger venue has raised this years return to 3,100 euros.