John Carney's 2016 sleeper hit
Sing Street tried out a stage adaptation in New York and Boston in 2019, and presumably Covid was part of the reason things went quiet for it after that. Now the full-blown musical by Enda Walsh (book,) Carney and Gary Clark (music and lyrics) gets its London premiere in Rebecca Taichman's production at the Lyric Hammersmith, and as I loved the film and quickly added its original songs to my playlist it had a lot to live up to. Set in 1980s Dublin, a time of hardship when even middle class families are struggling to make ends meet, teenager Conor (Sheridan Townsley) is taken out of his private school and sent to one run by the notoriously abusive Christian Brothers, where he quickly makes a nemesis out of the sadistic principal Brother Baxter (Lloyd Hutchinson.)
