Not many redeeming features in ENO latest

Fashionable women everywhere wore The Merry Widow broad-rimmed hat. There were Merry Widow cigars, Merry Widow cosmetics, corsets and cocktails, even Merry Widow dogs.

The delightful score has one of the most famous waltzes in the world and its infectious, haunting, tender, slightly erotic melody is repeated again and again

The plot, which is very thin, concerns Baron Zeta's efforts to save his native Ponteverdia from bankruptcy by getting Count Danilo (John Graham Hall) to marry Hanna Glawri (Amanda Roocroft) and so ensure that her 20 million francs do not leave the country. The subplot concerns the Baron's young wife's flirtations with a French diplomat.

John Copley's production, conducted by Oliver von Dohnanyi, is traditional and uninspired. Dierdre Clancy's costumes are pretty when they should be sumptuously and wittily full-bosomed. Tim Reed's sets are poor and look as if they have been designed for touring rather than the West End.

It is often difficult to hear what is being sung and the show-stopping number Who Can Tell What the Hell Women Are? is appallingly choreographed. Avoid.

Plays until May 30. Box office: 0871-911-0200.

ROBERT TANITCH