It should have been a contender. The idea of a show about music hall, staged in the crumbling elegance of the world's oldest surviving grand music hall, was as ripe with possibilities as Burlington Bertie himself. Instead, Wink the Other Eye blinks and misses its chance, with a tedious, rambling narrative and not a flying trapeze artist or escapologist in sight.

According to the publicity material, writer-director Angus Barr's drama spans nearly 70 years, from 1859 to 1922. You'd be hard pushed to gather this from what happens on stage, which means we understand only belatedly - and more than somewhat obliquely - that years are passing and tastes in entertainment and morality are changing. It's probably best not to ask how some characters manage to age only a decade or so over this time span.

The story, such as it is, centres on John Wilton, real life founder of the "handsomest room in town" and his various acts, all of whom are keen to engage us in a sing-along. I'm as partial to a communal burst of My Old Man Said Follow the Van as anyone but these interludes of audience participation uniquely manage to seem both lacklustre and desperate. We long for a gripping plot or, if that's too much to ask, just a little variety in the variety that's put before us.

The seven-strong cast undoubtedly work hard and have some fun with the innuendo-laden numbers but the strung-out script does them no favours. A potentially intriguing look at the Salvation Army's vigorous opposition to the "depravity" of Wilton's is abandoned in the boggy marshes of sub-Guys and Dolls parody. Simply calling a character Daisy so that a bicycle made for two - and I'm not sure Daisy perching awkwardly on the handlebars was quite what the songwriter had in mind - can be wheeled out is not good enough.

Barr the director would have done well to sharpen as well as snip Barr the writer's efforts. Despite the title's optimistic suggestion, this is not going to be the show that broke the bank at Monte Carlo.

Until 16 August (020 7702 2789, www.wiltons.org.uk).