A show that has still got so much Soul

Celebrate a decade of The Commitments when the smash-hit musical bursts onto Peterborough’s New Theatre stage this month for seven performances. Yes, The Commitments are back! And no one could be happier than its creator, Irish writer Roddy Doyle.

“The original stage show of The Commitments in 2013,” he says, “was a brilliant experience from my point of view. It stayed in the West End for over two years. Then it went on a successful tour.”

Now it is nearing the end of a nine-month tour of the UK and Ireland which stops off here in the city from May 16 to 20 – bringing a fabulously-fun night out featuring more than 20 Soul classics.

Nigel Pivaro, erstwhile lovable rogue, Terry Duckworth, in Coronation Street from 1983 to 2012, will take the pivotal role of Da, Jimmy Rabbitte’s father, while Andrew Linnie, sax player Dean in the original West End production and then Jimmy Rabbitte himself on tour, will be directing.

For the original West End production, Roddy lived in London for 12 weeks, attending rehearsals every day, doing daily rewrites.

“I attended every preview and then the meetings the next day as we discussed what was and wasn’t working. My role this time round has been less vital although sitting in on the read-through with the new cast was just terrific.”

He’s not counting his chickens but, if the reception to this latest production is anything like the way it was greeted almost 10 years ago, he’ll be a happy man.

For the Sunday Times, ”A sweet-soul, solid-gold, five-star blast.” The Telegraph declared it “touched the sublime”. And The Times deemed it “unstoppable fun”.

Has he felt emotional returning

to this first work of fiction?

“It’s brought back a lot of memories, yes. I was a geography and English teacher at the time when I wrote the novel. I wanted an excuse to bring a bunch of young people together in book form and capture the rhythm of Dublin kids yapping and teasing and bullying.

“But I needed to find a setting outside school and that’s when the idea of a band came to me. A big band with a brass section and backing vocals as opposed to three or four young men that was the norm back then.”

Roddy has resisted the temptation to update the action.

“The vibrancy is still there but so is the tension caused by lack of communication. For instance, will Deco, the obnoxious lead singer, turn up on time? These days, you’d track him down on your mobile in no time at all. But there wasn’t that option in the late 80s. And I chose 60s music – Motown and Memphis soul – because, at the time, it felt timeless. Thirty-five years later, I was right.”

For a long time, Roddy was a teacher who wrote on the side.

“I loved teaching and the holidays were great, a time when I got into the habit of writing. I wrote The Commitments in 1986, it was published the following year and I was working on the screenplay in 1988. But I was still teaching up until 1993.”

The Snapper and The Van followed in 1990 and 1991 respectively and, along with The Commitments, make up what is known as the Barrytown Trilogy. Then, in 1993, Roddy hit the jackpot. His novel, Paddy

The Commitments creator Roddy Doyle