Jukebox musicals tend to arrive with a whiff of suspicion. Too often, they’re little more than a threadbare plot stitched together to parade a back catalogue of hits. Sunny Afternoon, to its credit, mostly sidesteps that pitfall, though not entirely. The songs generally feel earned rather than crowbarred in, sitting naturally in the story and doing actual dramatic work.

The actor-musician cast is undeniably excellent, and musically, the show has real bite. Unfortunately, the sound at Oxford’s New Theatre was a serious let-down. The onstage acoustic drum kit dominated to such an extent that everything else had to be cranked up in self-defence. Lyrics blurred, textures disappeared, and more than once it felt like a badly mixed student showcase rather than a tight touring production. For me, that alone dulled the evening’s shine.

There were bright spots. Oliver Hoare’s Dave Davies was magnetic; effortlessly cool, sharply comic, and visibly relishing every entrance. Yet the script glosses over the deeper frictions that surely defined Dave’s relationships within the band, especially with his brother. The tensions are gestured at, then swiftly tidied away.

Danny Horn’s Ray Davies was another highlight, balancing creative intensity with emotional fragility in a performance that felt thoughtfully shaped rather than merely imitated. Vocally, he was consistently assured and musically precise.

The score, of course, is strong; it would be hard not to be, given its source. With Ray Davies himself so closely involved in shaping the piece, his presence looms large, both musically and dramatically. Still, the book struggles to match the quality of the songs. It leans heavily on the Ray/Dave dynamic, leaving the rest of the band dramatically underfed, and the pacing is uneven enough to expose the seams. Add a few more moments of muddy dialogue balance, and the production’s polish starts to wear thin.

I left torn: is this a once-electric hit that’s lost voltage on the road, or have we simply outgrown this strain of jukebox nostalgia? Either way, this Sunny Afternoon felt more overcast than golden.