By Isobel Lewis

Copyright independent

Before there was One Day (the TV show), there was One Day (the beloved book)… and One Day (the critically panned film). David Nicholls’s 2009 novel is considered the gold standard of 21st-century love stories, but I’ve always had a softer spot for his debut, Starter For 10. This 2003 book, about a likeable and nerdy teen from Southend-on-Sea who dreams of appearing on University Challenge, might have less broad appeal, but it’s a similarly sparky story, and even spawned its own film starring a baby-faced James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall and Alice Eve. A musical adaptation by no means felt inevitable, but it’s certainly an exciting prospect.

Directed by Charlie Parham (who wrote the play with Emma Hall), Starter For Ten (the musical) has a similar selection of fresh talent on display, many of them recent drama school grads and future West End stars. Mel Giedroyc, meanwhile, is on hand as the show’s trusty comic relief, squeezing every last drop of physical humour out of her multiple characters. The Bristol Old Vic’s latest production – with new songs and staging compared to last year’s premiere – makes for a delightful night at the theatre. Starter For Ten is silly but not stupid, sentimental but not maudlin, with an Eighties-inspired original soundtrack containing some of the best musical theatre numbers I’ve heard in years.

Our hero – the floppy-haired Brian (Adam Bregman) – is introduced as a child, then as an 18-year-old en route to Bristol University. Brian wants to live life and get an education, sure. He’s happy enough to meet the campus characters: the poshos, the socialists, the homoerotically-charged rugby lads. But it’s the University Challenge try-outs he’s really here for, even if his status as an English Literature student is frowned on by team captain Patrick Watts (Will Jennings). “Everyone knows what a metaphor is; no one can build a power station,” Jennings grumbles. He, of course, is studying for a PhD in economics.

In both the musical’s real world and its imaginary realm, University Challenge is woven through Starter For Ten. The quiz show inspires Lee Newby’s slick, colourful design; Brian’s family eat their Christmas dinner on the panel, while train departures and flashbacks are marked on the scoreboard loitering above the stage. When quizzing actually happens, the teams appear parallel to one another (à la the infamous The Young Ones sketch), while Stephen Ashfield’s Bamber Gascoigne is a spectral presence that haunts Brian throughout his journey to adulthood, bizarrely popping out of desks and wardrobes at major teaching moments to great comic effect.

The students are the heart of the show, with the young actors expertly capturing the heady dichotomy within the late teen who claims the utmost knowledge but actually knows very little. Bregman brings an immense likability to Brian – even when he’s frustratingly eager to scupper his own chances at making the team for a shot with vapid ingénue Alice (the hilarious Imogen Craig). Asha Parker-Wallace finds a softer side within the outwardly prickly Rebecca that Hall never achieved in the 2006 film; her duet with Dr Bowman (Hamilton’s Rachel John) is a particularly warm addition.

Of course, it is Giedroyc that many will be here to see. The former Bake Off host’s parts – Brian’s mother Irene and Bamber’s second-in-command, Julia Bland – are roles I would guess have been written with Giedroyc in mind, or at least fleshed out to demonstrate the breadth of her comic ability. Compared to the other more nuanced characters, these feel like broader archetypes (Irene in particular instantly brings to mind Mrs Wormwood from the Matilda musical), and the limits of Giedroyc’s vocal ability are felt on the sweet (if slightly schmaltzy) “Everything Grows”. Still, Giedroyc more than delivers on the laughs, insisting that Brian should take turkey to his vegetarian love interest Alice’s house at Christmas because, well, “it is white meat, Brian”. Ultimately, that’s what she’s here to bring.

What you will take away from Starter For Ten, however, are the songs. Hatty Carman and Tom Rasmussen’s soundtrack has a heavy Eighties influence, where a shimmering synth is never more than 30 seconds away. Certain songs are out-and-out pastiches, like Alice’s “Material Girl”-inspired “For The Story”. Elsewhere, you’ll find a respectful reverence for the musical theatre canon, with numbers that invoke everything from Chess to Legally Blonde.

There are two real standout moments on the soundtrack. Second act opener “Weightless”, a throbbing electronic banger, is elevated exponentially through its Olivia Newton-John music video styling and Alexzandra Sarmiento’s lightning-fast choreography. And then there’s “Touched By An Angel”, Brian’s lust-at-first-sight declaration of desire that encapsulates his contradictory hormones and academic pretension (and love of Kate Bush) with the refrain: “I’m Heathcliff stuck at the window/Cathy’s sipping a Strongbow.”

At a time when there are so many new musicals but so few with actually memorable songs, Starter For Ten’s are real earworms. I predict, and hope, that the show has similar staying power.

On at Bristol Old Vic until 11 October and at Birmingham Rep from 22 October to 1 November; tickets here