The Glenn Miller Story: Sunderland Empire

IT comes as no surprise that no one is credited in the programme as writer of this production. The script is so thin and predictable that if an author had been lurking around he or she probably thought it best to maintain a low profile.

Nothing more than the bare facts of Glenn Miller’s life and his mysterious death are given, and these more often than not simply provide a convenient lead-in to the next piece of music: Miller meets Helen Burger who is to become his wife so cue Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart. Miller disappears into the stage fog, departing on his fateful journey, as the telephone rings. It’s his wife, so cue Pennsylvania 6-5000.

This all leaves a perfectly able company with the job of making something from the scant material, and thank goodness they have Miller’s music and an array of excellent musicians to conjure up the distinctive period sound. Tommy Steele not only leads this company, but on Tuesday marked exactly 60 years since his debut on the very same Sunderland stage in 1956. He remains as chipper as ever with a winning smile and a way with the audience that earned a good old-fashioned round of applause on his first appearance.

In the second half the familiar numbers come thick and fast, and under the musical direction of Richard Morris the musicians come into their own.

* Runs until Saturday, November 5. Box Office: 0844-871-3022 or ATGtickets.com/Sunderland

Laurence Sach