Forsyth’s much-loved tale enters new stage
A big sky, a beach, a row of tiny houses facing the sea; and in the foreground, an oldfashioned red telephone box, glowing in the West Highland dusk. Oh, yes, it’s Local Hero – only this time it’s not Bill Forsyth’s legendary 1983 film but the brand new stage musical version, co-produced by the Old Vic in London and Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum, which celebrated its joyful, touching and – in the end – highly emotional world premiere at the Lyceum this weekend.
Unpack the reasons why the Lyceum has felt compelled – twice this season – to create shows based on famous films with instant name recognition, and they can seem brutal; much commercial theatre in Britain is already dependent on tribute shows that exploit the audience appeal of popular music and film, and now the same box-office imperatives are spreading to the public sector.
If the “show of the film” is set to play a growing part in theatre repertoires, though, then this gorgeous, convivial version of Local Hero demonstrates exactly how to do it. Scripted by Forsyth and David Greig, and featuring 19 new songs by the film’s composer Mark Knopfler, the show emerges as a slightly harder-edged version of Forsyth’s story about a struggling West Highland village suddenly transformed when young oil man “Mac” Macintyre arrives from Houston, offering untold wealth for the right to build a giant oil refinery in the bay.
The outstanding feature of John Crowley’s production is the rousingly excellent ensemble work of its terrific 15-strong cast, led by Damian Humbley as Mac, Matthew Pigeon as local lawyer and hotel owner Gordon Urquhart and Katrina Bryan as Gordon’s partner Stella, a much more pro-active character than her film equivalent. All of them sing magnificently, in Knopfler’s series of eloquent, witty and sometimes breathtakingly lyrical songs.
Lucy Hind’s choreography is outstanding; Scott Pask’s gloriously practical set, with its simple harbour wall and great shifting diorama of sky, often threatens to take the breath away.
And if the show’s second half is too long, by one song and a couple of false endings, the overall effect is still to conjure up again, with added historical perspective and theatrical energy, the pure magic of Forsyth’s work 36 years ago: the idea of a possible Scotland that might learn how to exploit
or conserve its huge natural resources for the benefit of the whole community, evoked with a comic lightness of touch that makes Local Hero one of the best-loved Scottish stories of the last half-century, and one with ever-stronger global resonances, across a troubled world.