Local Hero - Royal Lyceum Edinburgh / Chichester 2022

Does anyone know the running time for this? I was thinking of going on the matinee of the 13th, but I’ll be at Matilda for the evening show, and just wanted to know how much time I’d have between shows.

Yes - 2hrs 40 mins including 20 minute interval.

Great review of "Local Hero" from The Guardian:

Local Hero review – oil-movie gem strikes a salty musical note (4 stars)

Bill Forsyth’s bittersweet comic drama about a Scottish village’s fight with an oil firm sheds its whimsy in this tougher version, scored by Mark Knopfler
It is 1983 and there is an American in paradise. Mac arrives in Ferness, a coastal village in north-west Scotland, cradling two briefcases and an injured rabbit. He has flown in from Texas and is in need of a drop of the hard stuff, whisky, and rather more than a drop of the black stuff – oil. Mac’s energy firm wishes to buy the village and beach, and build a huge refinery in their place. But will the villagers sell? What price, if any, can one put on home?
These are questions posed by Local Hero, a new musical based on Bill Forsyth’s beloved 1983 film. Adapting it for the stage has brought two challenges, the first physical. Much of the original’s poetry came from simply pointing the camera at sea and sky. It was easy to understand how Mac could fall in love with and be changed for the better by such a place. Who wouldn’t? Such beauty has moral force, and director John Crowley enjoys reasonable success in suggesting it through effects – sunsets, the aurora borealis – projected on to a planetarium-like screen. The darkened auditorium stands for the horizon and lapping Atlantic; during ballads, singers stare out, yearning, above the audience’s heads. It helps that most who see this production in Edinburgh will have personal experience of that landscape. They will know the ache of a Highland twilight, the way that sorrow is an invisible band in the colour spectrum. This cannot be relied upon when the show transfers to London next year.
The second challenge is knottier: capturing the feel, the ineffable Forsythness, of the film. Bill Forsyth’s aesthetic is a tender melancholic whimsy. The men in his films are boyish, delighted by shooting stars and summer skies, forever seeking nice girls to make their knees weak.
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Forsyth is a co-writer of this musical, together with the Royal Lyceum’s artistic director David Greig, and their collaboration has created a change in tone. The humour is saltier, the male leads tougher and, as for those nice girls, well, there are more of them, they are adults and they aren’t quite as nice. Stella, the hotel cook, was a sparkle-eyed cypher in the film; here, played by Katrina Bryan, she is, arguably, the title character, the hero who stands up for her locale, even though, as a Glaswegian, she is an incomer herself. “You won’t see the stars for the light,” she warns against the refinery, as someone named Stella ought. She has some enjoyably spiky scenes with Mac, played by Damian Humbley – gallus versus Dallas.
Mark Knopfler, whose score was so much part of the film’s charm, wrote the music and lyrics for the new songs. They carry the story and themes well enough, but one feels the lack of a true showstopper. Filthy Dirty Rich comes closest, Matthew Pidgeon, as Gordon the innkeeper, embodying its priapic ceilidh energy. Risking friction burns, he does the pelvic thrust wearing green jumbo cords.

The creative team have been admirably unafraid to allow an often very funny production to be sad deep in its bones. It is a calculated gamble. They know they have joy on tap: Knopfler’s celebrated Local Hero theme tune, Going Home, without which, like the iconic red telephone box, this show would be unimaginable. When these ring out, hearts lift.

Average review of "Local Hero" in The Telegraph

Local Hero, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, review: a beloved Scottish film ends up as a lacklustre musical (three stars)

There was excited anticipation – and some controversy – ahead of this world premiere of the stage musical based on Bill Forsyth’s iconic 1983 film Local Hero, in which a Texas oilman arrives in the fictional coastal village of Ferness, in the north-west of Scotland, intent on turning it into an oil refinery. The feelgood gloss took a decided knock when Forsyth (who is credited as co-author, with David Greig, of the book for the show) announced that he would not be attending the opening night.
The veteran filmmaker had, he said, been sidelined from the creative process and reduced to the role of a mere “editor”. We will probably never know whether his co-producers, the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh and London’s Old Vic, were guilty of gross disrespect, or Forsyth was at fault for having too thin a skin for such a collaborative process.
In any case, the proof of the proverbial pudding is that, had he been in attendance at last night’s opening, the filmmaker would have had entirely different reasons to express disappointment. Although director John Crowley succeeds in evoking much of the warm humour of the original film, Mark Knopfler’s songs are depressingly unmemorable.
What is strange is that the former Dire Straits frontman had two very distinct starting points for his score; namely, his much-loved theme tune for the 1983 film, and Scottish traditional music. Both feature, but neither stamps its authority on a set of songs that is characterised, both musically and lyrically, by an insipid sentimentality.
It’s a pity, as the production is blessed with some fine performances, not least from Matthew Pidgeon as hotel proprietor-cum-financial advisor Gordon. The early number in which (having just learned of the proposed oil deal) he celebrates his coming wealth is more memorable for Pidgeon’s hilariously exuberant performance than for anything happening on the musical front.
Damian Humbley, too, is nicely cast in the role of MacIntyre, the lonely Houston oil executive, which he plays with the perfect combination of go-getting arrogance, human frailty and self-effacing humour.
The book (from which Forsyth has distanced himself) winks at many of the film’s best-loved jokes, from a well-aged whisky being “old enough to be out on its own” to the unknown parentage of the village baby. The script takes some wrong turns, such as the irritatingly incongruous scene (complete with terrible song) in which the women of the village try to persuade the eccentric beach-dweller Ben to sell up and move into a retirement home.
Scott Pask’s understated set relies heavily upon Luke Halls’s impressive projections for its sense of spectacle, which it achieves most notably in the moments when it evokes the night skies over the Highlands. Ultimately, however, weighed down by Knopfler’s lacklustre score, the production seems perpetually stuck in second gear.

I'm not sure what the board policy is on such things, but I for one find reviews like these very interesting and useful to find here so thanks ceebee for locating and posting them.

Maybe re-read your review, which was pretty snidey and disrespectful towards Mark Knopfler. Turns out the professional critics found a little more merit in this very good piece of theatre which you were unable to appreciate.  I saw the show on Tuesday and Friday and it had tightened up a lot by the Friday, so perhaps you didn't catch a good preview.  I feel it is important to note too that when a production is in preview it is unusual to offer a critique, so I felt that you review was a little unfair as it was pre-press night.  I want to see shows like this succeed, not get strangled at birth due to an off-key preview.   Anyway, let's not fall out over this Duncan - life if far too short for such nonsense.  

Too right Neil.  I was actually very concerned on the Tuesday that I went that a film that I love might end up being completely ruined.  Thankfully, it hasn't been.  The plot is slightly different and characters have been adapted, but I think that this is a great show and by the time I saw it again on Friday, it had tightened up significantly and the audience laughs/applause was blending in nicely (where on Tuesday things were a little staccato).  I write this reply sitting on the Isle of Skye longing for the aurora to appear, but sadly it is overcast this evening!

My heart hopes it will be a smash, but my head says that it's a particular kind of humour.  Compared to most shows it is slow-paced and subtle.  Fans of the film should probably like it, but actually it is a good standalone piece of theatre regardless of the film.  It's playing to a "home" audience, and I think tweaks will be made once the run is completed in Edinburgh.  As co-producers, I'd hope the Old Vic would want to explore every opportunity to improve on the show where possible.  Compared to other shows, "Local Hero" isn't high maintenance, and therefore the chance of recouping costs and being profitable are probably quite high.

I'd see it again in a heartbeat, but I am somewhat biased as a fan of the film.  The target audience is adult - I think kids would be bored.  The show should appeal to adults across the board - young and old.  Where I think it will stand out is that it is not likely to be pigeonholed.  Like the film it is funny but also can leave you yearning to have the unanswered questions answered - I actually think the stage version provokes more questions than the film, and it has cleverly been set in the same era as the film but the characters and narrative are very relevant to today's world.

The only comparison I have is "Groundhog Day", which I thought was excellent and caught on via word of mouth and reviews.  To me "Local Hero" is a smash, but I think to most it will be a grower, and to some it won't hit the mark because they won't be able to cope with the unnaturally slow pace in places.  It's not "Hairspray"...  (Thank heavens.)

One things for sure - high quality new musicals are few and far between, and I'd rather see more attempts at genuinely new musicals rather than jukebox musicals.  It is notable that Mark Knopfler only chose to include one sung song from the film.  The "Going Home" theme IS Local Hero, so obviously is included.  Some of the folk tunes for the ceilidh are from the film, but the bulk of the show comprises brand new songs specifically written from scratch.  This is what impresses me with the stage version: the writers have been brave enough to cut the cord with the film and dare to try new and different angles on a well-known and well-loved story.  This is to be commended in my view.

You are indeed right 'tbfl'. (It's just bad form to do so in previews.

Thank you ceebee for your insight and your enthusiasm.Much appreciated,Sir.I sincerely wish this show well and hope it is a big success for all concerned.

I disagree. If they are charging then why can't you comment? And as others say mark it as Preview.