DENISE VAN OUTEN’S new stage offering, being premiered in Leeds before touring, is a play with music – a label that hints at schizophrenic tendencies.

The piece, co-written by the former Big Breakfast presenter and Strictly contestant with Terry Ronald, is neither one thing nor the other.

The songs, lifted from the 1980s and 1990s and rearranged, provide the best bits because Van Outen is a fabulous singer.

The dialogue is on shakier ground because it only scratches the surface of Stephanie Canworth, alone in a hotel room musing over the two men in her life. Neither of them are seen and, from what she says, they are an unpleasant pair. I felt like telling her to move on and get on with her life.

The comedy veers toward the type of humour that you’ll find in shows aimed at female audiences. Indeed, Stephanie is a character with whom women will find most affinity through her love, pain and the whole damn thing.

Van Outen does well with what she’s given, but the writing lacks depth, reporting back to girls’ night out comedy when it should be getting more serious.

Still, this is the start of the tour and there’s time to really focus on the emotional impact.

It’s already there in the wellchosen songs but not in Stephanie’s monologue.

  • Until Saturday. Box office 0113-2137700 and online wyp.org.uk