You’d be hard pressed to find a more cynical bunch of people than a group of theatre critics.  So how do they approach a feel good musical about life changing disability happening to a 17 year old destined to play rugby for England?  In all honesty, Musicals really aren’t my thing and the ones I prefer have a darker side, Parade is one of my favourites with its ending, a lynching, of a probably innocent man.  However, Little Big Things largely won me over.

This musical takes a teenage boy who, on holiday with two of his rugby playing brothers in Portugal, dives into the sea and hits the sea bed fracturing his fourth vertebra. At 17 he is paralysed from the shoulders down.  He faces months, really years in hospital eventually making the best of a disability when he is totally dependent on others. Until his physiotherapist discovers he can move his shoulders and so can control a specially developed wheelchair, he can’t steer the chair. 

Joe White’s book for the musical is based on Henry Fraser’s autobiography and unusually casts two as Henry, Ed Larkin who is a disabled actor is Henry after the accident and Jonny Amies plays 17 year old Henry before he was paralysed.  The interaction between the two is an interesting focus but I don’t think I really get it when the earlier Henry says he can’t wait to become his future self.