The Legend of Zorro: The Musical! has been receiving rapturous plaudits ever since it opened in July. It's not a difficult show to like: the choreography is stunning, the stunts are impressive, the music – a medley of Gypsy King floor-fillers – is either joyously lively or passionately doleful, and in the small time left spare, the plot whizzes back and forth between swashbuckling and romance with insouciant glee. It's all schlock of course, but self-aware, tongue-in-cheek schlock. And the audience loved it.
How can I say so categorically that they loved it? Well in the best traditions of Spoonfed ticketing, the internet 
date and I were seated in the midst of a huge block of teenage schoolgirls, one hundred sixty-three to be exact, and the tinnitus ring of their wolf-whistles is still echoing about my eardrum.
Diego (Matt Rawle), the son of Don Alejandro, supervisor of the California hacienda, is sent to Spain to learn discipline at the military academy. Once there, however, he runs away to join a gypsy circus—only to be fetched home by childhood sweetheart Luisa (Emma Williams). She tells Diego of his father's disappearance and the rise of the brutal Captain Ramon (Adam Levy). With gypsies in tow, including new-flame Inez (Lesli Margerita), Diego travels home. Once he sees Ramon's dastardliness firsthand, he invents the Zorro alias in order to fight Ramon without putting Luisa at risk. You could direct the Pamplona Bull Run through the holes in the remainder of the plot but with the premise established it scarcely matters. The leads all impress. I especially enjoyed Levy's thoroughbred RADA vowels, and though Matt Rawle frequently reminded me of Russell Brand, I was assured by the internet date that 'he did for me, I mean he really did it'.
The strangest thing about the Zorro legend is that there isn't one. Created by the American pulp fiction writer Carson McCullers in 1919 the original story was a scarcely disguised 'borrowing' of the Scarlet Pimpernel (with a dash of Robin Hood), relocated to California and turned Hispanic. Since the first outing there have been several book sequels, a dozen films and a couple of long running TV series. But there was certainly no historical precedent for Zorro and the idea of the son of landed imperial gentry, donning a mask to fight on behalf of some colonists against another bunch of colonists, is not unproblematic. In fact the whole Zorro industry is crying out for a thorough post-structuralist critique, for what is Zorro but a Ballardian triumph of the sign over the symbol; the denuded essence of heroism stripped of context and backdrop; the original hyperreal hero?
Though I'd love to deconstruct the latest rendering of concept of the heroic as presented via Zorro, (noting how little heroism has to do with morality, and how much with violence, selective deceit, androgynous clothing, bravado and pointy swords) I'll save all that for another time. Except to point out the script consistently negates any question of psychological depth, for example the most interesting question—about why Diego should disguise himself and how he should choose his disguise—are both circumvented by the script. The disguise is an absolute necessity, the costume comes straight from the gypsy dressing-up box.
And for that I can't give this slick, stylish and witty production top marks. Nevertheless 4 out of 5 stars ain't to be sniffed at. Go. Enjoy. And pack ear muffs for the audience ovation.
Check out Zorro the Musical preview and buy tickets for the Garrick Theatre
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