It is 1959. Eighteen-year-old Jordan Brown, sent by his vengeful mother to look for his father, who has emigrated to England, drowns when he falls off the boat taking him from Trinidad to Britain. Instead of finding himself clutching his British passport at immigration control, Jordan finds himself facing St Peter at the pearly gates. Getting into the promised land is difficult, whichever way you look at it.
Felix Cross's musical about those who came to Britain in search of a better life spans time (from 1959 to the present day) and place (heaven and earth) to tell the story of two families - their feuds and loves and, above all, their experience of immigration. The music is always better than the drama, but the evening has such a tongue-in-cheek good humour and brings its protagonists' personal histories so vividly to life that you can't help feeling well disposed towards it.
There is a generosity of spirit about this musical and a sense of sad truth too. It always paints in bold strokes, whether dealing with the black civil servant who knows Greek and Latin but never gets promoted from filing clerk because of his skin colour, or the woman who buys a large old house nobody wants in Notting Hill in 1959 and 40 years later finds herself sitting on a gold mine that will pay for her retirement in Trinidad. There is fun to be had from the snobbish Gloria, who goes native, taking a job in the Upper Crust tea rooms in Weybridge and speaking like the Queen.
Best of all, though, is Cross's music, a wondrous, distinctive melting-pot of melodies and styles. It draws on traditional Caribbean music as well as religious requiems and chants to create a seamless piece of contemporary black music theatre that is both celebratory and reflective, populist and musically sophisticated.
The raggedness of the rather contrived storyline can sometimes grate, but the dynamic cast paper over the cracks and sing like angels as they tell how the struggle really begins once you enter the promised land.
• Until March 10. Box office: 020-8858 7755. Then touring to Manchester, Ipswich, Exeter and Sheffield.
