I'm a huge fan of the film, The Commitments so when I saw the musical would be coming to the Mayflower Theatre, I had to get tickets. The stage musical is based on the 1991 film by Alan Parker based on the story of Jimmy Rabbitte, a young working-class music fan, who shapes an unlikely bunch of amateur musicians and friends into an amazing live act, the finest soul band Dublin has ever produced. If you haven't seen the film, I really urge you to do so as it is just incredible. I'd also be really surprised if you didn't recognise some of the songs in it.
The stage show has been adapted by Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle, from his original novel and directed by C Jay Ranger. The Commitments is packed with more than 20 classic soul songs performed live on stage including Try A Little Tenderness and River Deep which are two of my favourite songs from the movie. Showing at The Mayflower from 31st January to the 4th February, it has had amazing critical acclaim and been awarded numerous five stars.
I was introduced to The Commitments by my parents and so for Christmas, I bought them tickets to see the musical with us. It's not something we've done before since we were children but we had such an enjoyable night that it'll be something I'd love to do with them again when something just as special comes along, I'll be keeping an eye on any upcoming shows at The Mayflower for sure.
We took our seats ready for the performance to start at 7.30pm with the theatre full of chatter and excitement. The show started exactly as the film does, I was worried that it would be loosely followed but it was replicated on stage perfectly apart from one character. I really enjoyed the first part of the show, the characters were fab although I'd question as to why Deco was played the way he was. I found the way he was played really off-putting considering he isn't like that in the original film. That is my only complaint about the entire show though, everything else was incredible.
After the interval, we settled down for the second half and this was where those famous songs really came in to play. I held out all night to hear Try A Little Tenderness and it ended up being the very last song, but I didn't mind. I'd finally heard it. We had the most enjoyable evening and left the Mayflower Theatre with huge grins and lots of chat about what we thought of the show. I can totally see why this has received so much acclaim, I would go and watch it again and again.
Have you seen The Commitments film or stage show before? What did you think?
Complimentary tickets for purpose of review - see disclaimer.