A ROLLICKING rollercoaster of emotion keeps you spellbound while watching Spend, Spend, Spend with its sizzling script, beautiful ballads and marvellous cast.

When she won £152,000 on the pools in 1961 - today's equivalent of £3 million - Yorkshire girl Viv Nicholson declared she would 'spend and spend and spend' - and she did. Based on Viv's autobiography, the musical version by Steve Brown and Justine Greene tells of her rags to riches and back life, five marriages but only one real love and her great passion for partying.

Barbara Dickson gives a superlative performance as the older Viv looking back at a kaleidoscope of her amazing life, and raunchy Rachel Leskovac as the young Viv dazzles with vibrant energy, often outshining everybody else.

Set against a backdrop of a Castleford colliery, Viv's mundane life takes on celebrity status when Bruce Forsyth hands over the cheque (watch out for the conveyor belt) and the incredible partying begins. It's 'all aboard the gravy train' with high-kicking bunny girls and pink cadillacs, and with love of her life Keith (the handsome Grant Anthony) Viv sets off in a euphoric state towards a hoped-for rosy future.

The funniest scene shows Viv and Keith moving house to posh Garforth, 'the Shangri-la of the North' where 'it's considered demeaning to do your own cleaning.' There are some knock-out songs (listen carefully to all the wonderful words) but best are Barbara's beautiful 'Scars of Love' and Rachel's heartrending 'Who's Gonna Love Me Now' which can't fail to bring out the hankies.

The musical stays true to the spirit of the Sixties with its new optimism and freedom but one thing jarred - party revellers drank out of glasses, not straight from the bottle.

Perhaps it's a cautionary tale to anyone fancying a flutter, but who wouldn't, given the chance, embark on a wild spending spree?

One chance is all you get, so why not live life to the full? So cheers, Viv, wherever you are now!

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND

Manchester Opera House

Until December 8