It might be unkind to say that Darryl Van Horne, the slimy devil who does the dirty with the each of The Witches of Eastwick, is the role that Marti Pellow was born to play, but it’s certainly an example of inspired casting.

In truth, it was the role that Jack Nicholson was born to play — nobody does smarmy quite like Nicholson — but Pellow has all the qualities — disarming charisma, the ability to raise one eyebrow higher than the other — to portray the devil in disguise.

As a pop star in 1980s combo Wet Wet Wet, Pellow was a confident and engaging performer with a flair for show business, which has made his transformation into musical theatre star a no brainer. Pellow was starring in the stage version of Chicago during the original run of The Witches of Eastwick in 2000, when Ian McShane starred as Van Horne.

The story, set in the fictional town of Eastwick, Massachusetts, follows the romantic travails of three amateur female Wiccans whose burgeoning powers grow to the point at which they can summon Van Horne to spice up their dreary love lives. Van Horne seduces all three the first chance he gets, hoping to sire baby demons.

The Witches of Eastwick was hardly an obvious choice for a musical adaptation but in this Sir Cameron MacInntosh produced version of the John Updike novel — which itself was toned down for the big screen — works surprisingly well, mainly as a result of the excellent score. Written by the relative newcomers John Dempsey and Dana Rowe, The Witches of Eastwick has a collection of songs that is the envy of every West End musical of the past eight years. Gone With the Wind, which starred Darius Danesh as Rhett Butler, was just one of a serious of high-profile flops of recent years.

Songs like the ludicrously catchy Dirty Laundry, and the hilarious Another Night at Darryl’s, strike just the right balance between comedy and scintillating sexual intrigue.

McShane proved to be an underwhelming Darryl with the cyrics, who found him too old and not charismatic enough for the role. Pellow may find it equally daunting to follow in the footsteps of Nicholson but he has the raw materials in abundance.

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