This isnt, Helen Arney tells us at the outset, a high-energy show. After a curiously tentative beginning, as both Arney and the audience take time to warm up, Songs for Modern Loving is instead a whimsical wander through the minefield of love. Arney makes a slow start, reliant on audience participation that never arrives, and ten minutes into the show I felt as if I was still waiting for it to begin. Arneys gentleness beguiles, though, and when she reaches the territory of mathematical love she reaches firmer ground. Theres real invention in these songs, and the rich intelligence of a riff on having sex like animals (like hedgehogs carefully) belies Arneys scientific background. Once she hits her stride, Arney charms the room effortlessly, and a short song on her jealousy of Vorderman-lite Rachel Riley reveals a sting in some of these tales. Arneys closing number is the darkest of the hour, the story of four failed proposals: from an oyster allergy to a dolphin/shark confusion, her aspirant finance repeatedly botches his attempts to propose in ever more disastrous ways. This is Arney at her best: high-class musical comedy with soul, intelligence and wit.
