One Love: The Bob Marley Musical packs an awful lot into its running time, not only performing a greatest hits of the man’s music, but of his life: the break-up of the Wailers, his Rastafarian journey, his adventures in England, his relationship with his wife Rita (Alexia Khadime), and the politics of his home country, Jamaica.

Rather than feeling like it is overstuffed, the production feels like it is painting in broadish strokes and either expecting its audience to know the other information, or to seek it out after the show closes. My guest and I both discussed on the train home how we couldn’t wait to Wikipedia all the questions that we had. This is not meant as a slight, but an indication of how the show encourages you to want to know even more about Marley, his beliefs, and his impact.

That One Love covers a lot is not a bad thing, nor has its breadth inspired laziness in its actors. Many of the roles are played with more nuance than one might expect in a show so guaranteed to get bums on seats. The scenes in between songs are not merely place-setters. There is a clear commitment to conjuring the sense that, though the audience are seeing select snippets, these characters live outside those snippets too.

I was also glad to see that the accents were not “tempered” much. The actors sound authentically Jamaican, and if occasionally that means you have to pay closer attention to catch what they are saying, then so be it. I’d rather that than ever hear Bob Marley doing RP.

Mitchell Brunings plays Bob, and does so in an interesting way where he leans into some of his more negative qualities: his stubbornness, selfishness, womanizing, indecision, and dishonesty. It’s a great decision. Brunings draws the man out from under the weight of his music, and in that way buoys each of his performances, making them feel realer. The audience are able to empathise with the mega-star.

I don’t listen to Marley that regularly, but when I came home from the show yesterday, I instantly put on YouTube and listened to his back catalogue for a good hour or more. The show reminds you of the magic of the music, and makes you believe in it. Surely that is the sign of a successful jukebox musical.

All of the numbers were well performed, and those that were reimagined (or repackaged, rather) were fitted into the show imaginatively and with ease. No song felt shoehorned in. There could be plus points doled out for each rendition, but I will only pass special comment on the “Waiting In Vain/No Woman No Cry” track, which was beautifully done. Khadime has pipes, and her and Brunings really convinced the audience of the relationship between Rita and Bob. It felt lived in a believable way.

Standing ovations are often an exercise in hesitancy for me, perhaps more than I should admit, as if my verticality is one stamp of approval too far. But the show (and particularly its leading man, Brunings) more than deserved theirs yesterday, and I was upright with the rest of the audience. People danced, clapped, swayed, and sang along for the entire encore performance. What joy there was in that theatre!     ★★★★★     Will Amott     16^th March 2017