Tony Macaulay has the gifts that make a great memoirist: wit, warmth, an eye for a good anecdote and a good back story, including the obligatory humble background. That has transferred from several slices of bestselling autobiography to now three musicals. And the All Growed Up offering from the enthusiastic British Youth Music Theatre cast which premiered at The Lyric Theatre this week certainly showed the energy of the original. Librettist Dean Johnson and composer Shauna Carrick’s musical also demonstrated a superb grasp of the vernacular and I lost count of the number of times ‘Wee lad’ was used in the opening scenes.
But it was slightly uneven in quality and while great fun, the show set in the 80s had ambitions which weren’t quite realised. But our hero, young Tony on the cusp of adulthood, is engaging in this actor’s interpretation. Initially nervous, he grew into the role and pinned totally the angst of freshers’ week at the new University of Ulster and the societies free for all where the boy from the Shankill signed up to everything including the Christian Union, fronted by the attractive trio of girl students, the ‘three Heathers’. Apparently, much of this is unembellished truth and the now grown women were in the audience.
What makes a good musical? Rites of passage work well and this has several. Macaulay encounters political discussion, meets people who talk freely of Derry rather than Londonderry, and girls. Most significantly Lesley, his first true love whom he married and we witnessed their early courtship. This was touching, well acted and believable. Although Tony Macaulay had an unfortunate introduction to his future mother in law via a duff takeaway and rapid exit offstage to be sick. Or boke, as he said, forgetting his assumed poshness to impress the Bellaghy set.
What was interesting was the production’s departure from musical naturalism. The Granny figure, a hell fire witch who affectionately haunts her grandson’s life, was a triumph overall. She appeared in Macaulay’s student life like a mythic figure, actually as he says later to her dead self, a projection of his fears and inhibitions. Her interjections were droll, representing a cultural and religious past he was escaping.
Musically, there were some belters and some quieter songs. I missed the original Duke Special-Andrew Doyle partnership but there were some special songs in this show. The sub-Sondheim reflection on Granny’s death in particular worked well, with Tony musing on whether the earth should continue to turn now she had gone. Her consumption of ice cream while contemplating the afterlife was a delightful piece of theatre.
Other highlights included the Finn McCool sequence, an allegorical film Macaulay made as an assignment on his media studies course. And among the characters, Mrs Flood the landlady stood out, also Byron the thespian, directing Hamlet like Nigel Planer. The dancing was energetic as anything, the singing overall good and perhaps the most impressive thing was the way Tony Macaulay’s success story wasn’t too self-congratulatory. There was of course a standing ovation.
Jane Hardy
