Identical review – Trevor Nunn takes on The Parent Trap, with songs

That is an implausible musical, and you could spend the overlong first half feeling underwhelmed. However the ending is deeply transferring – proof of types that grasp technicians are at work.

Directed by Trevor Nunn, with music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe respectively, Equivalent relies on Erich Kästner’s novel Das Doppelte Lottchen, through which twin women separated as youngsters meet at a summer time camp and swap locations when returning to their respective houses. Display screen diversifications paid dividends for director Nancy Meyers in 1998 and for Disney in 1961, each utilizing the title The Mum or dad Entice.

The plain impediment to placing the story on stage is the need for twin actors. On the Nottingham Playhouse premiere, Eden and Emme Patrick, considered one of three units of twins forged for this manufacturing, took the highlight (and shared the curtain name with Kyla and Nicole Fox and Savannah and Sienna Robinson, all of whom will play the roles).

James Darch, Emily Tierney, Emme Patrick and Eden Patrick in Equivalent. Photograph: Pamela Raith

The manufacturing is blessed with the Patrick sisters, who're snug on stage and, importantly, likable; the primary half has little battle, inoffensive songs and lashings of sincerity. Once we meet a forged of pre-teens within the opening quantity, audiences will consider Matilda, however there the similarity ends. Whereas that present is subversive, Equivalent is earnest and performed with the straightest of bats.

All of it pays off within the second half, when Nunn, Stiles and Drew start to push the buttons they've so skilfully put in place. Nunn’s affinity with Shakespeare’s performs about twins is apparent to see: he mines the emotional connection to provide a satisfying, nearly Shakespearean denouement. There may be additionally an echo of one other story of twins separated at beginning when Emily Tierney, because the mom of the ladies, has a showstopper of a second with a tune known as Equivalent, which evokes Blood Brothers’ Inform Me It’s Not True.

It takes some time to get the engine going, however as soon as it’s at full velocity, you loosen up understanding one of the best within the enterprise have constructed this machine. This may absolutely switch, tighten and change into a agency household favorite.

• At Nottingham Playhouse till 14 August