Not long after World War I and the devastating “Spanish Flu” pandemic, Charlie Chaplin wrote a hit tune that is now largely forgotten but provides an upbeat message still relevant in 2020. “The while you sing a song, your troubles fade away,” it goes, urging us to “just smile and swing along”. It is one of the songs featured in Peter Polycarpou’s new musical revue, Falling Stars, which mines the vast American and British (and sometimes French) songbook of the 1920s and 1930s. Originally due to be staged at London’s Union Theatre in November, it has been filmed for streaming online to help us through the dark days of lockdown.

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