STAGE REVIEW: Ghost The Musical - at the Festival Theatre, Malvern, from Monday, April 3 to Saturday, April 8, 2017.

GHOST was a massive box office success as a movie back in 1990 - the highest grossing of the year and it provided one of the truly stand-out screen performances of the decade.

Now this stage musical version is managing to achieve much the same on its UK tour.

So with due deference to Whoopi Goldberg’s memorable Oscar-winning performance as the crackpot medium, Oda Mae Brown - it has to be whoopee, this is a blockbuster of a show!

Opening night at Malvern brought in a full house and it’s that way for the rest of the week. It’s also been happening all over the place on this musical’s travels.

The story’s the same as the film, so are the characters, but now - unlike the film - there’s more than one song that sticks in the mind. That’s because Oscar-winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin has adapted his on-screenplay for this musical and, with the help of Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart's songs and Glen Ballard, has pulled it all together with almost near perfection.

So we have Sam and Molly walking back to their apartment. Originally it was the late Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore on the big screen, this time time it’s Carolyn Maitland and Sam Ferriday, which was a late switch in the cast when regular Sam, Andy Moss, was put out of commission by a sore throat. And what outstanding performances from both of them. Powerful voices, plenty of emotion and warmth.

As they near home a tragic encounter sees Sam murdered and trapped between this world and the next. While Molly is left broken and in despair.

Along comes phoney psychic Oda Mae Brown whose unwitting help enables her to link up with dearly departed Sam to help him warn Molly she is in grave danger.

The big question at this point - how do you follow Whoopi Goldberg’s wonderful Oda Mae? Well, all you need is Jacqui Dubois. What an exquisite performance from this comical and bouncy character. Whoopi would probably have applauded her too for her efforts in recreating such striking similarities.

While Sam Ferriday stepped up to the plate, his role of Carl was filled by Ethan Bradshaw. Both made it appear the roles were just as much theirs. Totally assured, and much to admire with their vocal range and delivery.

Apart from the show’s moving anthem, Unchained Melody, sung with great emotion by Sam and Molly, a couple of other delightful numbers were Nothing Stops Another Day from Maitlands’s Molly and I Can’t Take It Any More from Ferriday’s Sam, who at certain times looked a double for chisel-chinned Swayze.

On stage you’re limited with what can be achieved against all the trickery and editing enhancements available in the world of film, but many of the key moments were there and carried out not only convincingly but also with considerable panache.

Ghosts rising from bodies, the subway experience, photos and newspapers suddenly moving by themselves. It’s all there from the film but scaled down to fit the stage.

Director Bob Tomson has clearly brought out the best from the cast as a whole, who are backed by a talented group seven musicians.

It’s loud, it’s all action and it’s first rate entertainment. It easily challenges for the title of one of the productions of the year at the Festival.