Review: The Commitments (Tour)

Grand Opera House, York. Saturday 18th February 2017.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

There’s no denying that this production of The Commitments, directed by Caroline Jay Ranger, has that classic feel-good factor. Complete with high-octane musical numbers and some incredible voices, it’s certainly a glorious feast for the ears and features classics like ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’, ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Mustang Sally’. However, the show is on the underwhelming side of the fence when it comes to the complete package.

Brian Gilligan, playing Deco, and Amy Penston, playing Natalie, steal the show as the generously talented star performers of the group. Gilligan has that envious quality of being able to belt out song after song while making it look effortless. Likewise, Penston’s vocals are fantastic; her range being particularly impressive as she croons songs in an impressive array of styles. Leah Penston’s Imelda and Christina Tedders’ Bernie join Penston for some of the best female hits of the 60s and 70s and their synchronised minimal choreography perfectly captures the popular moves of the time.

Kevin Kennedy provides some great comic moments as Jimmy’s cantankerous Dad, with his one liners seldom failing to raise a collective laugh from the audience. Mickah (Sam Fordham) is also a brilliant comic character as the somewhat mentally unstable bouncer who has no concept of personal space or how to keep his head in the upright position. Andrew Linnie does exude some cheeky chappie charisma fitting to the character’s narrative, but unfortunately that clarity of characterisation wasn’t matched by others.

For me, the issue with this show is that it focuses so much on the (albeit fantastic) quality of the songs that the narrative itself suffers from a clear negligence. There’s very little depth to any of the characters, with no real tension to engage between the tunes. I saw the film years ago and I only remember it vaguely so I’m not sure if this flaw is mirrored in the screen version of whether the story simply loses quality when transposed for the stage. I can’t fault the cast because there were no poor performances, but it definitely felt tepid watching the flat filler scenes seemingly designed only to string a very generous set list together.

During the finale, the audience are on their feet, singing along and whistling their appreciation. This show is definitely a crowd-pleaser, but the musical performances are very much at the expense of other aspects of this show. If you love the music and you want a great night out to enjoy it, go and see this show, but if you want a musical with strong characters and plot, maybe think twice before picking this show…