Taken from David Heppell''s London Trip
THE BIG LIFE - Apollo Theatre
A last-minute addition to the schedule.
Lively, bouncy, fun music, in the style known as ''ska'', makes this
entertaining stuff and puts a big smile on the face. But the show is lifted
by the laughs - particularly with a Jamaican ''mother'' figure (Tameka
Empson) perched in one of the boxes (rather like Statler and Waldorf from
the Muppet Show) filling in over the scene changes and splitting the
audience''s sides with laughter in the process, commenting on the scene just
gone and lots more besides. The actors on stage also bring out the humour
of life as an immigrant in ''50s London, but there are barbed allusions to
the not-so-funny side of it all as well. Overall, for the fun and the
frolics, a really different and enjoyable evening''s entertainment.