By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Wednesday 15 May, opens 21 May and running through 6 July 2024 RUNTIME: 155 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Spring into summer feels like the perfect time for this coming-of-age musical with a sting in its tail to debut in London about an African American youngster – the Youth – who flees to Europe to find himself through sex, drugs and protest art.

• Read on for reasons including how this is entertaining and thought-provoking and well worth your time

It won a Best Book of a Musical Tony in 2008 on its Broadway debut after 7 nominations and this is, finally and fruitfully, its European premiere or roadtrip.

You join us in a late 70s middle class Los Angeles church where our teenage hero, Keenan Munn-Francis giving us a mix of youthful naivety and bloody-mindedness, has ‘a religious experience’ in the choir pews thanks to the intensity of the gospel and blues he is hearing.

He lives with his mother, an occasionally nagging but hugely sympathetic Rachel Adedeji in fine voice, and smokes weed with the rebels in his choir under the gaze of choirmaster Franklin Jones, the closeted gay son of the church’s Reverend given life by Caleb Roberts in a memorable series of roles.

Terera, who won an Olivier Award for Hamilton and recently starred in Power Of Sail at the Menier, plays the Narrator and this is very much his gig.

He strolls the stage for much of the action with electric guitar over his shoulder playing a score that we fell in love with that reminds of the 70s-inspired funk and rock of stars including Prince and Lenny Kravitz.

There’s a reason why we spot Simon Russell Beale in the audience because the cast is very strong and we won’t forget Terera’s humanity easily at the show close and the way scenestealer Renee Lamb (Be More Chill, Shaftesbury Theatre) plays a variety of instruments live onstage.

There’s also a 4-strong band performing live with the Narrator wandering unseen through a variety of scenes commentating on the action but also providing a grown-up voice as we see the mistakes Youth makes with his 1st band and as he finds chosen families in both 80s Amsterdam and Berlin.

There’s plenty of humour here as Youth pops his cherry in a 3-some with all participants contributing to song We Just Had Sex and Youth bowled over by the generosity of his hostess who easily parts with the Keys to her flat to offer him a roof above his head in an unfamiliar city far away from home.

As we emerge from the venue to enjoy an interval in the setting sun on The Cut we reflect on the joys of summer, European travel and falling in love but things get a little more complicated and less satisfying as we head towards a Christmas in Berlin where Youth finds himself with radical revolutionaries in the Nauhaus.

Director Spike Lee made a film of the Broadway production as a permanent record and it’s easy to see why this musical with book and lyrics by Stew and music by Stew Stewart and Heidi Rodewald strikes such a chord.

It’s title is actually very central to the premise here about people who pretend to be 1 thing when they are not actually being their authentic selves.

It’s taken a long time to find its way to London but this is entertaining and thought-provoking and well worth your time.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Young Vic Tickets
• Have you seen a Young Vic show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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