On my visit to Liverpool to review this new musical, I stayed at the titular hotel, and having experienced its erratic lifts and tatty decor I can attest that it is no longer the most glamorous of locations. Phil Willmott’s determinedly feel-good show, however, revisits the Adelphi’s glory days, when its gleaming marble and crystal chandeliers were a magnet for the rich and famous.

His piece has a celebratory air suited to the buoyancy that the title of European City of Culture seems to have brought to Liverpool. Nevertheless, there’s a huge amount wrong with it. The music is a bland mix of pop and synthesised period; the lyrics and dialogue are corny. The singing is at times overstrident and occasionally out of tune. The plot lacks focus and impetus, and the second act is weighed down by a preponderance of syrupy and lachrymose ballads. Yet somehow, by dint of camp, cheek and charm, Willmott just about gets away with it.

In the present, Jo (Julie Atherton), an ambitious young manager torn between her career and a new romance, is alerted to the presence of a stray guest on the Adelphi roof. Silhouetted against the skyline she finds the mysterious Alice (Natasha Seale), who used to meet her long-lost lover Thompson (Simon Bailey) on that spot decades before. As Alice recounts her memories, Jo is transported back to the 1930s, when Alice had her chance of happiness.

Christopher Woods’s revolving set slickly transforms from rooftop to plush foyer. In one of the best sequences, when the action shifts to the impoverished neighbourhood where Alice and Thompson grew up, washing lines festooned with photographs of grimy terraces descend, and Andrew Wright’s effective choreography delivers an exuberant street dance featuring dustbin lids and washboards. Such joyous moments are the musical’s strength, and even some daft excesses drawn from the Adelphi’s colourful history, including a visit from Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger, have their place.

It is when Willmott attempts to tug at our heartstrings that the show loses its footing, with dollops of mawkishness sapping the pace and zing. The cast, most of whom play two roles, are zestful, and Atherton is appealing and full-voiced as Jo and the young Alice. The scene-stealer, though, is Helen Carter, who doubles as Alice’s fortune-hunting best friend Babs and a brassy Hollywood wife, and turns in a couple of terrific comic turns. Much of the show, not unlike the Adelphi itself, is threadbare; but parts of it still shine.

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