PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED

LONDON – Going to almost any new musical in London is somewhat like attending a Broadway preview – since so many of the shows here eventually end up in New York. It’s a guilty pleasure – like sneaking into the movies in the morning.

The simple fact is that the West End is a test market for Broadway – and vice versa. London’s entire theater world is anxiously awaiting news of when “The Producers” is to arrive – or whether “Urinetown” is any good.

On the other hand, New Yorkers probably want to know whether the new American musical “Peggy Sue Got Married,” newly arrived at the Shaftesbury Theatre, is any good.

I call it “American” because, although it has opened in London, everything else about it – apart from the cast – is American, and even that cast is headed by a Broadway diva-in-progress, the formidable Ruthie Henshall.

For starters, “Peggy Sue” is based on the eponymous Hollywood back-to-the-future movie starring Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage.

Secondly, it has a whole crew of transatlantic producers attached to it, and, of course, the creative team is American.

It seems that before the husband-and-wife screenwriters Arlene Sarner and Jerry Leichtling sold the original movie script, they envisaged the property as a Broadway musical.

Then they got mainstream pop composer Bob Gaudio, formerly of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, to provide the rockish music; Leichtling himself took responsibility for lyrics, and the project was on its way.

An appealing premise – getting a second chance to arrange your life differently – drives this largely plot-driven musical, which carries its ordinary but period-apt music and pedestrian lyrics cheerfully along like amiable passengers.

Peggy Sue, her life in turmoil at 42, finds herself at her 25th high school reunion, where she unexpectedly encounters her recently estranged husband, once her high school sweetheart.

She faints, the years melt away and she finds herself 17 again but – and this is the cute part – with all the knowledge and experience that 42 years had brought her.

We should all be so lucky.

The story is really sweet;Sarner and Leichtling have tailored it neatly, and Gaudio’s music – in the sense that it all sounds as if you have heard it before but haven’t quite remembered it – is suitably nostalgic.

Kelly Robinson’s direction, like Sergio Trujillo’s choreography, could be tautened, tightened and generally made more shipshape for Broadway, while the designs by Ruari Murchison look like a narrowly won victory of imagination over economy.

Nor are most of the performances – despite overall good singing – up to the standards of a Broadway hit.

The shining exception is Henshall as Peggy Sue, who not only got married but is expected to carry most of the wedding reception on her slim but capable shoulders.

Henshall, who has already fitfully glittered in New York, is a Broadway star waiting for some astronomer/producer to discover her. This could be her moment. Or perhaps not.

The show itself, despite its good intentions and golden-oldie moments, needs work. But isn’t that why God invented previews – and possibly even the London theater?