Viv Nicholson's life is the classic rags to riches tale.

From an impoverished Castleford upbringing, her mundane world was suddenly, and irreversibly, transformed by a win on the football pools in 1961.

Director Robert Readman has a strong, capable cast among the Rowntree Players, supported by a fine orchestra under the baton of musical director Mike Thompson.

Two actresses play Viv. Marie-Louise Scott as her younger self, and Sandy Nicholson the older incarnation, looking back on her life with the luxury of hindsight.

Both women cope admirably with their challenging singing roles, and their matching blonde bouffant wigs seem to mirror the story, becoming more and more dishevelled as the play wears on, perhaps symbolic of Viv's dreams unravelling as the money she and second husband Keith (the impressive Simon Brookshaw) won ends up destroying their happiness.

Images projected on to a large screen prove particularly effective as scene changes, especially a 1960s Formica advertisement bearing the legend "Isn't Life Colourful?" to illustrate the couple's new suburbanite status in well-to-do Garforth.

Strong chorus-singing steals the show on John Collier, while the signature tune is toe-tapping stuff - bluesy, ballsy and a frenzy of feathers and glitz.

For solo vocals, no-one quite comes close to the pure, soulful tone of Annabel Laplain in the role of Viv's drab and downtrodden mother.

The sniggering Sexual Happening, with its earthy lyrics and even racier choreography might warrant a PG rating, but otherwise this cautionary tale of the emptiness of material wealth is well worth shelling out for.

Updated: 15:27 Thursday, October 07, 2004