Review: The Harder They Come ****

I always thought the term "feelgood theatre" was a clich.

A piece of theatre can make you feel lots of things, but if all it makes you feel is "good" then something, somewhere is lacking. Then I saw this show.

At the end of the performance, when everyone was dancing in their seats, someone who works at the theatre said: "When did you last see the Quarry Theatre like this?"

I looked around at the 600-plus people dancing to the music, and thought that it was a very long time since I'd seen the audience so enthusiastic.

Bravo for this show, therefore, but with a rather strong caveat. The Harder They Come earns its four stars because it contains performances that are among the best I've seen in a theatre.

Matthew J Henry, as Ivan, is one of the warmest and most energetic stage performers around, and Marlon King has a voice that will send shivers down the spine. In fact, the voices are stand-out brilliant all round.

Based on the Seventies' movie of the same name, it tells the story of innocent country boy Ivan who moves to the bright lights of Kingston, Jamaica, to discover his fortune as a reggae singer-songwriter.

He needs money to make a record, gets involved in selling ganja, records his song, gets hunted by the police, gets gunned down.

I probably spent as long on that sentence as the writer did coming up with the concept note – you take the point.

But it really doesn't matter, because the story is entirely secondary. When you have songs like You Can Get it If You Really Want and, of course, the title tune – and when they are performed with this kind of skill and exuberance – you can get away with a story as light

as this.

To June 5.