Theatre review: Sing Street

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.)

Theatre review: Once

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: Press Night for Once is tomorrow night.

Has the latest Broadway musical import timed its arrival in the West End as well as it could have? A multiple Tony-winning hit in New York, where it's still running, Once may have it all to do to get noticed above the sound of The Book of Mormon. But perhaps the cult fanbase of John Carney's original movie will give Enda Walsh's adaptation a push - tonight's Monday preview was pretty packed (although of course I can't tell how many in the audience had paid full price.) John Tiffany brings to the stage an Irish Guy (Declan Bennett,) a vacuum cleaner repairman and busker who's recently had his heart broken and is ready to ditch his musical dreams when he meets a Girl (Zrinka Cvitešić.) A Czech whose husband returned home, leaving her in Dublin with her family and young daughter, the Girl falls for the Guy's music and convinces him to stick with it, helping him build up a band out of friends and relatives so he can record a demo CD.