Local Hero - Royal Lyceum Edinburgh / Chichester 2022

Mark Shenton not impressed:

I stopped placing value on Shenton's reviews quite a while ago now. The old boy seems to be gritty and gloomy about so many productions - it's as if he has lost his constructive voice and can't cope with the modern way of reviewing. It's like hearing a dinosaur roar from a bygone age.

www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/oct/18/local-hero-review-minerva-theatre-chichester

Guardian didn't care for it too much.

3* WhatsOnStage

www.whatsonstage.com/chichester-theatre/reviews/local-hero-musical-minerva_57642.html

I found this pleasant but underwhelming. I am not familiar with the film and whilst some atmosphere was built, I felt that so much more could be done with the characters of the village and the central character of Mac. A rather bland performance from the leading man for me; I would not have known by any means he was a Tony award winning actor. I thought the part of Stella and the actress was very good. The music was fine but didn’t really build to anything. I would be surprised to see this transfer to a larger theatre, but wish them well.  Anyhow, 6/10 from me.

I wish this were a better show. The elements and the talent of the creative team are all there for a character-driven musical driven by charm and humanity in the manner of "Once" or "The Band's Visit" but I don't believe they've succeeded. Mark Knopflier's score is largely to blame due to its blandness ( and the genuine lack of singing talent among the cast.) David Greig's book gets the job done, but the needed laughs aren't there. However, the sense of Scottish whimsy which was so integral to the success of the film is lacking here. I thought Gabriel Ebert was fine int he leading role but that the others in the cast simply weren't that interesting. Daniel Evans direction simply lacks the confidence needed to pull off this sort of "smaller" show. I can't imagine it will go forward from Chichester without some serious revision. But hey we live in a world where "Hex" has returned so who knows?

I finally saw this at a matinee performance yesterday and was relieved that my booking wasn't affected by train strikes as it would have been too late in the run to re-book - though that said, the trains were abysmal: all delayed or cancelled, meaning it took me almost 3 hours to get home when as the crow flies, the distance is only about 45 miles.

So, the show itself: having followed the thread avidly and re-read recent comments, sadly I find myself agreeing most with stevemar and dlevi. It was OK, but could have been so much better. It took me most of the (long) first half to feel at all engaged and it generally felt a little lacklustre and routine. The greatest disappointment for me, as a fan originally of Dire Straits and then of Mark Knopfler's solo work, was the music: not one memorable song - how is that possible? Yes, I could occasionally hear one of his trademark guitar chords and the first number initially sounded reminiscent of Skateaway but the rest?

Based on what I saw - and I see others have made similar comments above - I'm really not sure how well this would transfer in its present form; I was also surprised to see that though the performance had sold out and the auditorium had been full, after the interval there were at least 10 empty seats - and those were obvious gaps I could see from my side seat; I didn't check all round. Not the best note on which to end my series of visits to CFT this year but at least my curiosity was satisfied.