Action-packed Dr Do-a-Lot; PANTOMIME Dr Dolittle/ Liverpool Empire.

Byline: BY PHILIP KEY Daily Post Arts Editor

WITH Tommy Steele now in the title role, Doctor Dolittle really needs a title change to Doctor Do-a-lot. Steele is rarely off stage, and even at 70 can demonstrate what show business charisma is all about.

The first thing to be said is that this is a new version of the Leslie Bricusse musical, and Bricusse himself has done the changes.

As before, he wrote the show's book, the music and the lyrics and - don't worry - all the best songs from the original are still there but now with a few additions, including an opening number Puddleby-By-the-Sea which introduces us to the fishing town where Doctor Dolittle works as a local GP.

Steele's Doctor Dolittle is a lively character with a wide and ever present grin, a good-humoured chap who just can't wait to talk to the animals.

The animals in this new stage version avoid the pitfalls of electronics as in previous productions by getting humans inside dogs, elephants and, of course, the two headed llama, the Pushme-Pullyou.

The creatures are at their most active in the doctor's home where fluffy animals of all sorts pop their heads through windows, dance on bookshelves and - in the case of a hedgehog - get under a local bigwig's backside.

It is that sort of show, where fun is the order of the day and nothing taken too seriously, even when the bigwig in question, General Bellowes (played by Halcro Johnston with a comedy gout bandage on his foot) takes against the doctor and, as the local magistrate, sends him to prison.

The doctor had been accused of throwing a woman in to the sea and his explanation that it was a seal he was returning to the deep is disbelieved (disbelief is something that has to be suspended by everyone, particularly when Steele sings a haunting love song - Look In Your Eyes - to the seal).

As fans of the original film and to some extent the Hugh Lofting books will recall, the doctor finally sets to sea to discover a giant pink snail with his companions Matthew Muggins (Conor Michael-Sheridan), young Tommy (played by a girl, the very exuberant Joanna Forest) and love interest Emma (Abigail Jaye) who just happens to be the niece of the general.

Scene-stealing all the time, however, is an Old English sheepdog Jip, played by James Deverell in a very realistic dog outfit. With his scratching, leg shaking and general leaping around, even Steele sometimes finds it hard to compete.

But Steele is a song and dance man, which a dog isn't, and the Bricusse songs are very special with their unusual constructions, very clever rhymes and general air of intelligence (some kids may have to look up a dictionary when they get home).

Fabulous Places, Talk to the Animals and After Today are just some of the highlights.

Produced by Liverpool's own Bill Kenwright and directed by Bob Tomson, this is a genuine family show, a captivating story - and Tommy Steele.

What more would you want?

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CAPTION(S):

Tommy Steele has a heart to heart with Polynesia, the talking parrot; Tommy Steele and Bill Kenwright with the Pushme-Pullyou; Part of the circus act in the show