Northern Ireland

Review: Miami Showband Story

The Miami Showband Story at the Grand Opera House
The Miami Showband Story at the Grand Opera House The Miami Showband Story at the Grand Opera House

THE MIAMI SHOWBAND STORY

How do you deal artistically with the Troubles? There are lots of answers from great works such as the movie Cal to a couple of shows I've seen recently, Paperboy (entertaining) and the magisterial Belfast Blues. The Miami Showband Story by Martin Lynch and Marie Jones, which premiered in front of an enthusiastic mature audience at the Grand Opera House yesterday, will be a great show. It isn't quite yet, although the story of the formation of this seminal showband has some amazing scenes. And of course music. The moment when Fran O'Toole, Brian McCoy and Tony Geraghty were casually killed in a grotesque bombing and shooting after a Banbridge gig in July 1975 was both harrowing and theatrical. We heard and saw the band members being obliterated before the gunfire soundtrack morphed into the remaining musicians drumming on boxes and dustbins.

The ending was ace in a different way, joyous, with original fans boogieing in the aisles to Miami hits like Love is. That is their legacy and this much anticipated piece of music theatre (not exactly a musical) underlined it.

At the start, there was an over-long trendy piece of improv before we got the genesis of the great Miami Showband. We saw the try-out bands, the fallings out with managers and parents, but it was slightly clunky. Once the band members we remember assembled, everything came together.

Dubbed the Irish Beatles, the Miami guys wrote and performed a string of number one hits and attracted a serious fan base. The female actors, Aileen Mythen and Fiona Carty, were excellent. Their reprised hysterical groupie act was entertaining, also chilling. At the end of the first act, the girls sobbed their way onstage. Was this the moment of tragedy? Yes and no; one girl said she couldn't bear the news that Dickie Rock (dreamboat Chris Mohan) was leaving the band.

While not as gutsy as the punk musical Good Vibrations, part two rocked on. Gary Crossan as Des Lee, seen drowning his survivor guilt in whisky, was a bit Ringo and totally outstanding. His scenes with Fran's ghost (a fab interpretation from Niaill McNamee) worked brilliantly. I feel the show might have ended better here without the South African excursion. The two men movingly summed up the band's achievements. Des says to his dead bandmate, still in sharp show suit, at one point 'We did good, didn't we?' Yeah, they really did. We exited to a burst of Simon Says.

Jane Hardy

The Miami Showband Story runs until August 17 at the Grand Opera House, then is on an all Ireland tour, booking details at gblproductions.com

By Jane Hardy