Sunny Afternoon – Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury

Book: Joe Penhall

Music and Lyrics: Ray Davies

Director: Edward Hall

The swinging sixties and anarchic rise to rock and roll stardom for The Kinks comes to the fore in this riotous jukebox musical, Sunny Afternoon.

Penned by Joe Penhall and Ray Davies, the production is back on tour after COVID-impacted plans thwarted an attempted revival in August 2020. The musical charts the chaotic rise to stardom for The Kinks, against a backdrop of the British music Invasion of America in the 60s and personal turmoils that threatened to tear the four-piece apart.

As iconic frontman Ray Davies, Danny Horn is superb in bringing out Ray’s fiery, determined personality while still maintaining a vulnerability, finding a good blend through the piece. It is an effortless frontman performance, oozing charisma with each strum of the guitar, that emphasises Ray’s pioneering, renowned sound.

Alongside Horn, Oliver Hoare’s delivery of Dave Davies, Ray’s outrageous, unpredictable brother, is full of frantic energy. Whether covered in lipstick, drunk or swinging from chandeliers, it is Dave’s behaviour that triggers a lot of the tension between the pair, resulting in arguments which are just as fierce as the band’s synonymous guitar riffs.

Making up the band are Harry Curley (Pete) and Zakarie Stokes (Mick). The pair work well to evoke their own frustrations with the Davies’ fractious relationship, working with Penhall’s script to look at the aftershocks of Ray and Dave’s clashes on the wider band. The script is effective in spotlighting these frustrations but not detracting the focus on the lead pair. All four, though, are electric when performing The Kinks’ back catalogue.

Indeed, it is when the four perform the musical numbers that the piece truly shines. While the musical is not the most intriguing in terms of dialogue, and it absolutely runs at least twenty minutes too long, this is more functional in bridging the gaps between the wide range of numbers that make up the production. When the four band mates work as a collective, the musical is loud, bold and brash and perfectly captures the energy of the band in a way that feels more authentic and more rewarding than the typical tribute act vibe a jukebox musical threatens to give.

In addition, the production’s ensemble, from the band’s grey-suited managers through to the screaming gaggle of groupies go a long way to draw out the creative chaos that surrounded the band’s rise to topping the charts. This is compounded by Miriam Buether’s 60s design, with a set emblazoned by big speakers and costumes with typical contemporary patterns, which quickly evokes the era. In this instance, design and performance combine effectively for a slick production.

While the rise of The Kinks is full of creative differences, violent confrontations and endless bickering, this jukebox musical is anything but confrontational. Sunny Afternoon, like the band, is a loud, pulsating production that absolutely delights fans of the band but is not inaccessible to Kinks novices either. By the end, they really got everyone.

Runs until 7 February 2026, then continues tour.