Critics savage Spice Girls stage musical

LONDON (AP) - The critics have spoken - Viva Forever did not spice up their lives.

British reviewers were scathing on Wednesday about the big-budget stage show built around the songs of 1990s 'Girl Power' pop group the Spice Girls.

"I'll tell you what I wanted, what I really, really wanted - I wanted this terrible show to stop," said Mr Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph, riffing on the group's biggest hit, Wannabe. "This musical is tawdry, lazy and unedifying," he said, awarding the show one star.

The Independent newspaper's Paul Taylor gave the show two stars out of five, calling it "lacking in any truly original or challenging spark," while the Daily Mail's Quentin Letts dubbed it "a prize Christmas turkey." A celebrity-studded audience that included soccer star David Beckham - there with wife Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham and sons Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz - gave the show an opening-night standing ovation on Tuesday at London's Piccadilly Theatre.