The Commitments is a musical written by Roddy Doyle, based on the 1987 novel of the same name, also written by Doyle. Like the novel, the musical is about a group of unemployed Irish youths who start a soul music band. It premiered in 2013 at the Palace Theatre in London's West End. The music within the musical consists of soul and rock & roll classics from the 1950s and 60s, including "Think", " Satisfaction", "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" and "Night Train".. The music is entirely diegetic, meaning that all the songs are performed by the band rather than being sung by characters to express an emotion. For that reason, Doyle has insisted that The Commitments is not a jukebox musical.
Background
The musical is based on the 1987 novel, by Roddy Doyle. Following the 1991 film adaptation, Doyle said he received 20 different offers to turn the novel into a musical. He turned them all down because he had become resentful of the success of The Commitments, to the seeming exclusion of his other novels; and because he was not a fan of musical theatre, having never seen a musical. He eventually changed his mind due to his children, who were fans of the 1991 film, and who took him to see musicals, including a production of the film-turned-musical The Producers, which he called "a revelation". Officially confirmed on 19 April 2013, in Ireland, producers announced that the show would play the Palace Theatre, with tickets going on sale everywhere on 23 April. Despite initially looking to hire another writer to write the book for the musical, Doyle ended up writing the show himself. The show will be directed by Jamie Lloyd, with choreography by Ann Yee, set design by Soutra Gilmour, sound design by Rory Madden and lightning by Jon Clark. Ticket prices for the show began at £10, with all preview tickets half price.
The Commitments began previews on 21 September 2013, at the Palace Theatre, London, before holding its official opening night on 8 October. On 20 August 2013, casting was announced with Denis Grindel playing Jimmy Rabbitte, Killian Donnelly playing Deco, Ben Fox playing Joey Fagan, Sean Kearns as Jimmy Rabbitte’s father and Sarah O’Connor, Stephanie McKeon and Jessica Cervi playing The Commitmentettes. A typical London performance ran 2hrs 25mins, including one interval of 15 mins. On 21 May 2015, it was announced that the show would close on 1 November 2015.
Upon the show's closing notice in London it was announced that a tour would commence in 2016. The production officially opened at Dublin's Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in October 2016, and closed at the Bradford Alhambra Theatre on May 13th 2017. It featured a number of cast members from the West End production, including original cast members Brian Gilligan as Deco and Andrew Linnie as Jimmy. Kevin Kennedy, best known as Curly Watts from Coronation Street, joined the cast as Jimmy's Da.
UK and Ireland Tour (2020-2021)
It has been announced that the show will be going back out on tour from September 2020. Casting is yet to be announced.
Musical numbers
The musical features nineteen main songs with a further nineteen short sound bites of soul and motown numbers. ; Main Songs
