WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN Playhouse

Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek’s musical adaptation of Pedro Almodovar’s film didn’t work in New York. Will it, now that it has been reworked, succeed in London? The characters are outrageous, obsessive cartoon figures and their behaviour is frantic, insane and suicidal. The 1988 film, a gaudy, knockabout, feminist farce, full of exaggerated kitsch, is one of his best. The songs get in the way. Greig and Gwynne, two witty ladies who really do know how to play High Comedy, certainly have their funny moments and Gwynne has the best number, “Invisible”; but their scenes are too often hit-and-miss. Ricardo Alfonso is a hit as the taxi-driver.