It must say something when a musical’s irritating, infernally catchy tunes are still with you the day after you’ve seen it. And for all its boisterous fun, its paper-thin characters and its preposterous plotline, ‘Potty The Plant’ is indeed a very clever, beautifully crafted show. The eponymous talking shrub lives in Little Boo Boo’s Hospital, where blood-sucked kids are going missing. Could sashaying surgeon Dr Acula have anything to do with it? Little Big Stack mine their ridiculous tale for all the knowing humour they can find, with larger-than-life performances from the all-singing, all-high-kicking five-person, one-plant cast. And should the feedgood sweetness ever get too cloying, they’re sure to undercut it with some smut or surprise. It’s a wickedly funny, uplifting joy.

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [David Kettle]