Lauren Hutchinson is outstanding.  Aida depends on the lead’s ability to carry her people, Radames’ love and the show, and Hutchinson’s voice soars in the title role.  Henry Jenkinson grows in confidence as Radames in script and on stage, performing to his best when really unleashing his vocal cords, while Rosalind Peters as his betrothed Egyptian princess, though not showing a particularly high proficiency with innuendo, thrives on the increasingly emboldening opportunities her role gives her as the play develops.

The leads were strongly supported by the beautifully soft voices and kindly manners of Matthew Elliot-Ripley and Lily Grieve, alongside some ADC stalwarts: Robbie Aird’s Zoser was domineering enough to make his omission from the cast-list print-out thoroughly undeserving.  The same goes for Edward Eustace as the pharaoh, even if he elicited mostly knowing rather than inclusive laughter, while the redoubtable Saul Boyer was unfortunately given little to do as Nubian King Amonasro.

It was a shame that these actors were not able to shine from the outset.  Things started slowly, with the script and the choreography at fault.  The script expects us to care straight away about people we’ve only just met, with a bland opening series of songs which make you feel like you’ve heard before.  This inevitably results in the protagonists singing from a corner of the stage, while the ensemble potters about in the background.  The arching set, if serving little aesthetic purpose, gives the stage potentially useful height differences, but the choreography gives the ensemble precious little of worth to do.  Instead it only manages to encumber them with white rectangles while asking them to do a great deal of slow leaning backwards.  More inspired than the blokes’ clenched-fisted routines were the girls’ doll-like handmaids, even though this characterisation was entered into with varying enthusiasm among the four of them.

However, as ever in musicals which take a sad rather than joyous turn, the second half was full of big songs.  The poorly utilised ensemble thankfully began to fade away altogether, leaving the band – complete with three keys players to cover the Elton John-ian score – and the big voices of the protagonists with the space to do their thing.  This may be more of an aural delight than an exciting spectacle, but the impassioned, high-quality music makes it enjoyable nonetheless.