Sweeney Todd aside, a serial murderer seems unlikely material for a musical.

Yet in the hands of Rufus Norris (Broken), the story of six dead hookers in an English suburb turned into a West End success, if one that was rather offbeat, and some wags would say, off key. Because this defies convention as interview transcripts of the women's colleagues and their put upon neighbours were used not so much as raw material but as the finished product. Think Creature Comforts set to music.

Which is not to make light of gruesome deaths nor the plight of inhabitants of London Road where the women plied their trade. Their murders, the man-hunt and ensuing court case first overwhelmed the road, then the town, then the country and makes for magnetic story telling. That the story is told using their words adds great depth and resonance. That they do so in song is remarkable. For here are words manhandled into music that, on paper, is impossible yet once performed, is bewitching. Dispel any thoughts about convention or hit songs, this aint that kind of musical.

Events unfold in a mostly linear fashion, and are profound one moment, banal the next. That in itself a remarkable commentary on the public commentary and media circus that engulfs London Road. That it manages to rise above gimmickry is London Road's greatest success. For the production is a most variegated affair. Opening in sombre greys and greens with everyone second guessing everyone's motives, the mood slowly opens out to brighter colours as the neighbourhood seeks to turn adversity into social change. Fear gives way to optimism, despair to hope, revenge to, well, that stays more or less the same. It's hard to forgive a serial killer.

Your enthusiasm for London Road depends a lot on your enthusiasm for musicals and a film that does its best to break down convention, for there's nothing conventional about this at all. Yet it's far from a daunting experience with the always compelling Olivia Coleman (Broadchurch) leading the charge. She heads a strong cast of British staples whose conflicting positions raise powerful concerns about the consequence of social selfishness, isolation, NIMBYism and media persecution. All this through the prism of one man's heinous crime.

Not all of it works, but when it does, it has a forceful, disquieting effect. And while it ends on a frustratingly flat note (there's an argument that banality finally wins out), it is the journey along London Road, rather than the destination, that makes this unique work well worth your time.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at the Roadshow Theatre, Sydney, on 14 September 2015