Fourteen Again review – make a new musical out of Victoria Wood’s warmly witty songs? Let’s do it!

The Victoria Wood theatre, Bowness-on-Windermere
Marking 10 years since the late comic’s death, this affectionate show blends her songs with a time-slip tale of friendship, regret and middle age

This Lake District venue was called the Old Laundry theatre before it was recently renamed in homage to Victoria Wood. The late performer, writer and lyricist would surely have loved that former title: she made an art out of portraying female domesticity and the foibles of ordinary people with humour and compassion.

Marking a decade since Wood’s death, this new production interweaves 12 of her songs with a story about two women, disappointed in middle age, who meet in a diet club. Wood so often pilloried the weight-loss industry and this setup seems designed to showcase her song Don’t Get Cocky, about diet culture. Peggy (Sally Ann Triplett) and Lou (Ria Jones) reminisce over their school friendship and speak ruefully of the disappointments that followed in their lives. Then Peggy finds herself waking up in the past, aged 14 again. She decides to make better choices this time around.