The Commitments – Milton Keynes Theatre and Touring

Picture: Johan Persson

The Commitments continues at the Milton Keynes Theatre, London until 5 November and then tours until 13 May 2017.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

It’s no surprise to discover that a show about an unlikely bunch of wannabe musicians and singers who come together to form the ‘world’s hardest-working soul band’ in mid-1980s Dublin has a large helping of songs played out in a performance setting (the pub, community hall, nightclub, etc). What is a surprise is that there appears to be little more to this production than its soundtrack.

First, in 1987, there was Roddy Doyle’s novel, followed four years later by Alan Parker’s film adaptation, then the West End stage version (2013), and now an extensive UK tour. Unfortunately, as each of these creative transitions have taken place, the dialogue which was so much a feature of the earlier work appears to have steadily diminished.

That means that the actors have far less to work with in order to create any kind of characterisation or chemistry with each other; giving the audience very little reason to care about what happens to any of them. Not only that, but director Caroline Jay Ranger (not Jamie Lloyd who staged the London production) creates such a pace that it is impossible to make much of a connection with the narrative anyway.

However, it has to be said that onstage chemistry is very much present when The Commitmentettes (the fabulously energetic and spot-on vocally Amy and Leah Penston and Christina Tedders) vie for stage time with the arrogant, smug but massively talented Deco (a consummate performance from Brian Gilligan who also played the role in the London production).

None of the reservations mentioned above should take anything away from the quality of the music played though, as the band – with members ranging from a medical student pianist to an ageing lothario fantasist trumpet player – grow in confidence and turn out to be a mighty fine ensemble.

The hits just keep on coming – ‘In the Midnight Hour’, ‘Papa Was a Rolling Stone’, ‘Mustang Sally’, ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ – and while sometimes I yearned for more substance in-between, there is no doubting how great The Commitments’ cover versions are. Until, of course, sex, power, ambition and personality clashes get in the way.

As Jimmy Rabbitte, the young working class music fan who pulls The Commitments together, Andrew Linnie sometimes lacks the guts and drive of a manager who supposedly inspires these musicians to play in public for the first time. But the performance is something of a slow-burner, and by the end of the evening he is really the only character that rises above the two-dimensional.

Kevin Kennedy’s appearance as Jimmy’s Da is also very much worth a mention. His onstage banter with Linnie is good fun and, thanks to a talent for comic timing, he manages to find some light relief in the limited libretto.

In the end, though, it ultimately comes down to the music and an extended finale packed with hits finally evokes some enthusiasm from a rather low key Milton Keynes crowd. And Gilligan’s first-class interpretation of ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ sends the audience out on a bit of a high.

Perhaps the next link in the chain will be a concert version with no dialogue at all. Time will tell.

Lisa Martland

www.thecommitmentsontour.co.uk