Chasing Bono

Soho Theatre

Reviewed – 11th December 2018

★★★★

“A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy”

The legendary writing duo Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais who are behind such TV comedy classics as The Likely Lads, Porridge, and, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, are now trying their hand at the stage. Similar to their biggest hit, The Commitments, Chasing Bono is an Irish play with music looking at the ups and downs of being in a band. Taking inspiration from Neil McCormick’s memoirs, I Was Bono’s Doppelgänger, which back in 2011 was turned into the film Killing Bono, Clement and La Frenais manage to keep its heart and hilarity for this new adaption.

McCormick (here played by Niall McNamee) wants to become a musical legend, known by all. So does his good mate Paul (Shane O’Regan). Both decide to start up bands, making these two pals become (friendly) musical rivals. Paul tries poaching Neil’s guitar-playing brother Ivan (Dónal Finn) for his crew, but Neil persuades his younger sibling they’re better off sticking together. The public love a family affair. It doesn’t take long before Paul’s band takes off after changing his name to Bono, and the band’s name to U2, and the rest, you can say, is history. Whilst U2 are playing Wembley Stadium, Neil and Ivan are stuck playing pubs and ‘titty bars’. The McCormick brothers’ musical luck goes from bad to worse as their confidence in reaching stardom begins to wane.

Clement and La Frenais’ sharp, witty, dialogue is the driving force to the production. Some of their one-liners are pure comedy gold, erupting laughter from the audience on numerous occasions. You can tell you’re in the safe hands of comedy writing pros. It feels clean and polished, but sometimes too much so. There is a sense of lacking a final ingredient, possibly in the plot line, which is stopping this from being a brilliant production. What that special little extra is, I can’t quite put my finger on it.

The realistic country cottage kitchen set plays multiple different locations throughout the story, without ever really changing. The highlight is the high-level wooden beams of the cottage giving way to present the recording studio/radio booth/record company office that looms above the stage and audience with ominous arrogance.

The music that’s incorporated into Chasing Bono, performed by McNamee and Finn both on guitar and vocals, are the original compositions by the real McCormick brothers from their various bands such as Yeah!Yeah! and Shook Up! The songs are all fairly mediocre. It’s understandable why they never quite made it in the music biz. Regardless of song quality, the actors do give credible renditions of them.

McNamee embodies both fearlessness and fragility as the protagonist Neil, with the story moving back and forth from the past to present. Denis Conway and Ciarán Dowd as notorious Dublin gangster Danny Machin and his henchman Plugger are quite the Laurel and Hardy double act. O’Regan’s uncanny resemblance to Bono is a sight to see. The small amount of singing that he does proves vocally he isn’t a complete mimic, but this doesn’t detract from his excellent portrayal.

A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy – nothing ground-breaking, you know what you’re getting, but by God is it enjoyable.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Helen Maybanks

Chasing Bono

Soho Theatre until 19th January

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Francesco de Carlo: Comfort Zone | ★★★★ | May 2018

Great British Mysteries | ★★★½ | May 2018

Sarah Kendall: One-Seventeen | ★★★★ | May 2018

Flesh & Bone | ★★★★★ | July 2018

There but for the Grace of God (Go I) | ★★★★ | August 2018

Fabric | ★★★★ | September 2018

The Political History of Smack and Crack | ★★★★ | September 2018

Pickle Jar | ★★★★★ | October 2018

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

★★★★

“a highly entertaining, titillating beast of a show”

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…. Especially now that Panto season has come upon us. That’s right boys and girls, the time for inneundos, “he’s behind you!”, and more glitter than you can shake a bauble at, has come around again. For the 12th year in a row, Charles Court Opera (CCO) are mixing up the Panto festivities with their imaginative retelling of a classic fairytale. Buttons: A Cinderella Story is full of the camp charm you would expect, but flogging saucier double entendres for its ‘adults only’ performances that admittedly don’t always hit the mark. Although some parts fall rather flat, this is overruled by the good … which is really very good. With inventive lyrics to songs and twists to the well-known story, CCO create a refreshing new take on the often stale Panto form.

Cinderella (Eleanor Sanderson-Nash) does not take centre stage in this telling. Gone is the glass slipper. Gone are the evil stepmother and stepsisters. Instead, we follow Buttons (Matthew Kellett), Cinderella’s teddy bear, who wishes he could be a real boy so that he could tell Cinderella how much he loves her. Poof! In a cloud of smoke Buttons’ Fairy Godfather grants him his wish. But, making Cinderella fall in love with him proves a challenging task. She has her heart set on marrying a prince. By luck the smug yet suave Prince Charming (Jennie Jacobs) has ridden into town with his manservant Dandini (Emily Cairns) but there’s an unnerving, darker side to his Royal Highness yet to be discovered. All comes to a head at the Prince’s ball, with romantic dilemmas, shenanigans galore, and a whodunnit mystery.

David Eaton does an excellent job in reworking the lyrics of existing pop songs to much comic effect. The reimagined use of Bohemian Rhapsody is inevitable with the recent release of the film with the same name. The new version of Thriller is a particular highlight, cleverly reinterpreting not just the lyrics but also the iconic dance moves to fit the storyline. Matthew Kellett as Buttons wins the prize for tugging on the audiences heart strings with his rendition of Radiohead’s Creep. Overall, the singing in the show is of an exceptional standard, with harmonies to die for.

Being an adults only performance, with no kids to do all the shouting back and participation, there was some reluctance from the audience to take part (some people almost forcibly dragged onto the stage). However, in spite of this, the audience did warm into spurting the usual comeback lines.

As much as an outrageous retelling was promised, the final product is actually rather tame. There are some surprising twists from the usual Cinderella story, however, it could have been made darker and stranger in other places. Nevertheless, this is still a highly entertaining, titillating beast of a show. It certainly beats some of the typical Panto fare that can be rather nauseating. Raucous festive fun to get you in the Christmas spirit.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Bill Knight

Soho Theatre

Reviewed – 11th December 2018

★★★★

“A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy”

A highly entertaining tale that already feels like classic comedy – nothing ground-breaking, you know what you’re getting, but by God is it enjoyable.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Helen Maybanks

Chasing Bono

Soho Theatre until 19th January

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed – 27th November 2018

★★★★

“a highly entertaining, titillating beast of a show”

Being an adults only performance, with no kids to do all the shouting back and participation, there was some reluctance from the audience to take part (some people almost forcibly dragged onto the stage). However, in spite of this, the audience did warm into spurting the usual comeback lines.

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Bill Knight

Buttons: A Cinderella Story

King’s Head Theatre until 5th January

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: