When the musical based on Nick Hornby’s well-loved novel High Fidelity (and the film of the same name) opened on Broadway in 2006, the New York Times review claimed it deserved to be “on the roster of All-Time Most Forgettable Musicals”. It’s a credit, then, to the team at the Hayes, that they have been able to take this material and turn it into such a fun night in the theatre.

Set in what the opening number describes as The Last Real Record Store – a dingy second-hand vinyl shop in the era of CDs and cassette mix-tapes – the show centres on store owner Rob (Toby Francis) and his misfit employees Barry (Joe Kosky) and Dick (Dash Kruck), whose lives are slipping away one Top Five list at a time.

Toby Francis as Rob in Hayes Theatre Co’s High Fidelity. Photos © Robert Catto

Toby Francis finds an effective balance between self-pity and arrogance as the self-absorbed Rob – who laments all the women who have ever left him – charming the audience as narrator and protagonist, his dialogue drawing heavily on Hornby’s novel. If the delineating lighting changes between narration...