Rafferty tribute falls short on emotion
NOT surprisingly, music is at the heart of Scottish playwright John Byrne’s rock ‘n’ roll tribute to Baker Street singer, and teenage friend, Gerry Rafferty, which received its world premiere at the weekend.
Underwood Lane takes its title from the street in Paisley’s Ferguslie Park housing scheme that Rafferty grew up in.
And The Slab Boys writer’s tale of a young skiffle band from Paisley, looking to hit the big time in the early Sixties, manages to shoehorn plenty of classic tunes into its mix to great effect.
Which is just as well. For while the iconic music is the driving force in this entertaining gig-theatre-cum-jukebox-musical, the overloaded narrative is short on emotional depth.
A look at sex; death; heartbreak; musical ambition, and religion in the West of Scotland, delivered at breakneck pace by director Andy Arnold, you can’t help wishing Byrne had explored some of the key themes more fully. That said, there’s plenty of the Paisley polymath’s trademark gallows humour, and feel-good, comic moments to savour as we follow the trials and tribulations of working class, wannabe popstar hero, Dessie Devlin.
The best of these are served up by Dylan Wood as Dessie’s best pal, Gil Gilfedder, and scene stealing Dani Heron as sex-bomb glamour-puss Maureen.
Marc McMillan, as Teddy boy hero Dessie, makes a decent fist of the role as we follow him to the Big Smoke, via a dodgy record contract, and heartbreak over his split from Donnatella Fazzi (Julia Murray) whose Italian father Bruno, played by Harry Ward, is a clunky, off key, caricature.
If Dessie’s ups and downs, enlivened by advice from George Drennan as an effing and jeffing priest, don’t quite tug at the heart strings in the same way that Slab Boy Phil McCann or Tutti Frutti’s Danny McGlone’s travails did, overall the production makes for an enjoyable night out full of good tunes and good humour. A nostalgic portrait of Sixties Scotland.
n Tron Theatre, Glasgow, July 14-30