Man Booker Prize winning Irish writer Roddy Doyle has turned his novel The Commitments into a major West End musical, 26 years after it was first published. The show is on at London’s Palace Theatre.
The Commitments has also been adapted into a film in 1991 by writers Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais and Roddy Doyle himself. The film was very well received, winning a BAFTA for Best Film in 1992, as well as Best Direction – Alan Parker, Best Screenplay Adapted and Best Editing. It was also nominated for Best Sound and Best Supporting Actor – Andrew Strong. Featuring classics such as “Chain of Fools”, “Mustang Sally” and “Try a Little Tenderness” the hit movie also launched the careers of Andrea Corr, Angelina Ball, Glen Hansard and Maria Doyle-Kennedy.
The Commitments – the first part of the Barrytown Trilogy – follows Jimmy Rabbitte, who aspires to manage the world’s greatest band with only one form of music in mind; soul. Jimmy places an ad in the local paper reading “Have you got soul? Then Dublin’s hardest working band is looking for you!”. Holding auditions in his parent’s house Jimmy assembles a mismatched group of seemingly untalented musicians, led by the mysterious Joey ‘The Lips’ Fagan, aptly named – The Commitments. The band plays a number of local gigs and gradually becomes more musically competent, drawing bigger and more enthusiastic audiences. All seems to be going well but clashes of egos threaten to split the group…
Cast of the film were picked based on their musical ability over their acting ability which certainly showed as the soundtrack from the film, which reached no. 4 in the UK Albums Chart and sold 12 million copies, was performed by the cast band.
Roddy Doyle first wrote and self-published the novel in 1987 while working as a Geography and English teacher in Dublin. His books focus on working-class Ireland and are notable for their heavy use of dialogue written in slang and Hiberno-English dialect. He was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and has been recognized as one of Ireland’s greatest living writers.
Rehearsals for the cast will be held in August, with Olivier Award-winner Jamie Lloyd set to be directing. His CV includes directing: Macbeth – starring James McAvoy, Laurence Olivier Award-winning The Pride, Three Days of Rain, The Duchess of Malfi, Piaf, She Stoops to Conquer and Passion, to name but a few.
Open auditions were held in mid-March at Troubadour Rehearsal Studios in Dublin, Ireland. Producer Grindrod revealed in The Irish Times that a list of potentials had already been invited to the next stage of auditions, adding “We came here in search of authenticity and we’ve found it.”
The Commitments tickets in London:
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