Theatre review: Bend It Like Beckham

With screen-to-stage adaptations the most common form of new musical, it's not always the most obvious candidates that work best. But while a story about women's football and clashing generations doesn't seem like an obvious candidate, in fact the different cultures coming together in Bend It Like Beckham make for an interesting mix of musical styles. Gurinder Chadha adapts (with Paul Mayeda Berges) and directs her own film, with songs by Howard Goodall and Charles Hart. Jess (Natalie Dew) is a teenage tomboy who enjoys playing football in the park, where her talent is spotted by Jules (Lauren Samuels,) who asks her to try out for the local women's team. The two girls become friends and teammates, although the fact that they're both interested in their coach Joe (Jamie Campbell Bower) could put a wedge between them. But just as Jess discovers that football doesn't have to be a dead end for her, her family decide otherwise.

Theatre review: Made in Dagenham

The film-to-musical adaptation has well and truly become a West End fixture, but when the end result is as fresh and downright eccentric as Made in Dagenham, it's clear there's a labour of love involved, not just a cynical recycling of a familiar property. The story of the 1968 strike by female workers at the Ford plant in Dagenham now has a book by Richard Bean, music by David Arnold and lyrics by Richard Thomas, and gets a typically inventive debut production from Rupert Goold. Gemma Arterton plays Rita, who works as a machinist sewing chair covers for Cortinas. As part of a larger deal with management, the workers' union has agreed that this job can be downgraded to "unskilled" and, reluctantly at first, Rita joins in the talks to get their pay grade back. But even if the women's skill is recognised, they will still earn significantly less than men on the same grade, so she aims higher: The women's demands have now changed to equal pay with the men.

Theatre review: Gay's the Word

Occasionally the Finborough Theatre's Sunday-Tuesday shows get a further life, and so it is with Stewart Nicholls' production of Gay's the Word, now taking up residence at the Jermyn Street Theatre (which has replaced the ratty seating with something a bit comfier - although you still have to cross the stage to go to the loo.) Ivor Novello's final show attempts to blend his traditional operetta style with that of the American musicals that were pushing them out of theatres in the 1940s and '50s. And this theme feeds into the storyline, as the fading popularity of old-fashioned musical theatre spells trouble for Gay Daventry (Sophie-Louise Dann,) a stage star for the last 30 years, but now in dire financial straits after investing everything in a massive flop. Her co-star suggests she open her own drama school, but within months that too is struggling to make ends meet, and they may have to rely on some dodgy characters to bail them out.