The Commitments

If I could give this musical 0 stars I would. Truly awful. Not much of a story or character development, very little atmosphere and very thick Irish accents that were hard to understand throughout. Singers were mediocre at best, and the storyline wasn’t particularly engaging or inspirational.
Multiple people walked out at various stages of the performance and to top it all off there were two major mishaps — first one of the main characters was replaced randomly halfway through — with ten minutes of the curtain down and lights back on — and then in the sing-​a-​long at the end the drummers drum set fell apart.
Very poor show — not impressed or surprised that it is to end soon after a fairly short run!

As a musical, The Commitments fails on so many levels. As a story, it’s okay. As a collection of soul music, it does quite well. I kept going back and forth between three and four stars. It’s a solid 3 and a half, but given some of my annoyances about it, I decided to round down. (Sorry!)
In case you haven’t read the book or seen the film (I haven’t done either), it’s about a man in the 80’s who wants to bring soul music to Ireland. Because soul is the music of the people! So he collects his ragtag bunch of musicians/​singers and forms a band. Apparently there’s a lot of issues with people in the band not liking each other, but most of that seems to occur off stage. As a person does something one time, and then everyone gets outraged like it’s something that’s occurred on 100 occasions. Rinse and repeat. By the end of the show, you do see why one of the characters was hated, but the rest of the animosity of the band is glossed over quite a bit and people only seem to be upset about it at the tipping point so a person doesn’t understand what’s going on.
The music is fun and full of classics that I love. Unfortunately, about 75% of the songs are only song partially until the end of the show. And it was frustrating. I don’t like being left hanging, and that’s all I got until the second act. Partially sung songs. Because a lot of soul music is about the end of the song, I just felt really disappointed. The four main singers (the lead man and the three women) had fantastic voices and really could sing the songs quite well, so that was really helpful.
I did laugh quite a bit, so I think I’d be tempted to read the book or watch the film. It was also entertaining to be sitting with an Irish person and two Scottish people explaining to me what all the slang meant, since I apparently had no idea what they meant (as I found out later).
The last 30 minutes of the show is basically just a concert where they sing about five songs (to completion at least!) and expect audience participation with quasi-​synchronized hand clapping and dancing. Since we all had to get up at the end for this, they automatically get a standing ovation, which is unfortunate because the play in itself is only good because of the last 30 minutes. Otherwise, it’s quite lackluster with some funny bits thrown in.
Given the plethora of options in the West End, there are plenty of superior options if you want to have an amazing night out at the theatre. Unless you REALLY like the story and songs, I’d definitely suggest one of them instead.

Now may I start this review by saying that I normally avoid musicals based on existing pop songs as much as I possibly can … However… This musical is an incredibly fun night out and deserves 5 start rating for this very reason as I had a really really good time!
If you are unfamiliar with The Commitments you will not be unfamiliar with many of the songs featured in this musical. Based on the book and the film of the same name by Roddy Doyle, The Commitments tells the story of how a guy in Dublin wanted to bring Soul to Ireland and formed a band to do so. The band cover songs by The Supremes, James Brown, Otis Reading to name but a few but the story is also a look into how volatile they all were as members and as a individuals put in the same room playing music! You will definitely want to sing along and at the end you get the opportunity to do so as the band perform for you, the audience!
This doesn’t really feel like a normal night out at the theatre because really you are watching some incredibly talented singers and instrumentalist perform as this band for your pleasure, with a bit of a story thrown in for good measure. If I was to pick a negative it is that the portrayal of the story adds very little to the overall enjoyment of the music except for a notable performance by Killian Donnelly as Deco whose vocal talent is incredible. Looking at his bio alone you can see his vocal skills are incredibly versatile not to mention his comedic acting! Other performances were very good too but their musical performances were fantastic.
If you enjoy Soul and are looking for an incredibly fun night out the this is the show to go to. Laughs, good music, a very moving performance by Denis Grindel in the second half and a good chance to boogie away at the end. And if you are willing to part with ticket at the local O’neill’s you can get a free pint too!
Go, enjoy!
Xyz