THERE ARE plenty of soul music theatre shows around including Magic of Motown and the many Blues Brothers tributes.
So a stage version of Roddy Doyle’s creation The Commitments – the story of an Irish soul covers band in the 1980s – has to be more than just a glorified concert.
The show has to capture the gritty atmosphere, brash attitude and rude humour of the original novel, the hit movie and Southside Dublin itself.
And – as well as presenting a setting to believe in, a story to grab us and characters to root for – it does actually have to be a glorified concert.
For however much they enjoy the narrative aspect of The Commitments, nobody will go home satisfied unless they’ve stood, danced and clapped along to a blistering set of soul classics.
Thankfully every one of those qualities is in abundance as the hit West End show comes to the Bradford Alhambra for a week.
The story is quite simple: man forms band, band learns to play, band gains success, members fall out.
Coming from the pen of Roddy Doyle, The Commitments is never a fluffy, uplifting story of local boys achieving their dreams: it’s a story by turns dramatic, funny and bleak, and just occasionally romantic.
As a musical The Commitments certainly works: it’s not a classic of the genre but it’s better than many jukebox shows and you’ll leave the theatre buzzing.
Songs like In The Midnight Hour, Mustang Sally and Reach Out are phenomenal – never performed better than by this gang of powerhouse vocalists and actor-musicians.
• Bradford Alhambra, until Saturday. Visit bradford-theatres.co.uk or call 01274 432000 to book tickets.
- David Knights
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