***

My evening started eventfully enough, sat in front the Corrie cast - who had come to see Kevin Kennedy - and next to what had to be the most enthusiastic theatregoer I’ve ever encountered. Kennedy, by the way, played Curly Watts: one of the soap’s most prominent characters from 1983-2003. In The Commitments, he acted his two cantankerous roles of caretaker and dad with equal aplomb.

The woman next to me, meanwhile, sung loudly to every song, foot-tapped with force and clapped even when no one else did; prompting her subdued son to whisper to me in the interval ‘I bet you love my mum.’

When the show finally got started, it had an eventful beginning too: a drunken Christmas party in northern Dublin circa 1986, with everyone rowdily singing Rolling on the River. Unfortunately, after that things started to get a little flat. 

Based on the 1987 novel by Roddy Doyle, which sees a band of Dubliners attempt to form a successful band, The Commitments was an immediate smash hit on making its musical debut at West End’s Palace Theatre (yes, London has one too) in 2013. The 1991 film was also well-received. After all, this is a story with which many can empathise: the pursuit of fame and fortune, the downfalls of teamwork and a group of well-meaning working class lads wanting to break the mould.

All these elements are conveyed, but I felt the limitations of a musical hampered the characters somewhat. While personalities like Deco (the egoistical front man) and Joey ‘the lips’ Fagan (the philandering trumpeter with a dubiously famous past) are strong, others are sacrificed in favour of more musical numbers. Romances burst out of nowhere, as do indifferences, and some threads - like that of a possible record label signing - are never finished. I also found the end quite abrupt, maybe in part because the original story was one of a trilogy.   

That said, there are many positives to be found. If you prefer music over plot, you’re in for a treat, with an abundance of soul: You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Chain of Fools, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, Papa Was A Rolling Stone…and many more intergenerational classics. All are sung pitch-perfectly by Deco and ‘The Commitment-ettes,’ complemented by the able instrumentalists.

Comedy is a key element too, somehow enhanced by the thick Irish accents, and set design and costumes are spot on.

After the show finished, the cast played three more tracks - something I felt made them seem like an afterthought, that couldn’t be woven into the actual story - but it was all the motivation my neighbour needed to get up and dance, imploring me to do the same. Since every other person in the theatre remained seated, I politely declined - and Corrie’s Billy murmured something about having to stare at her back - but eventually everyone followed suit.

So yes, it got everyone on their feet in the end but I was personally a little disappointed. Maybe it’s a matter of priorities. 

The Commitments continues at The Palace theatre until 8 April