The Commitments at the Sheffield Lyceum on Saturday was, as I said in the title, Feckin’ Brilliant!

It’s a great show: Funny and fast moving, full of eccentric characters and fantastic music. The plot is fairly simple, a group of working class north Dubliners put together a band to bring Soul to ‘the people’, but the witty interplay between the characters is a complete joy. It’s laugh out loud funny and the end is a standing ,clapping, dancing sing-along of a good time.

When Roddy Doyle’s original book came out in 1987 it was a big hit. I read it not long after and thought it was completely amazing. What struck me after watching the show is that both the musical and the film have a fantastic soundtrack which forms the foundation of the story, and of course the book does as well, it’s just that you can’t actually hear it. Which to me shows how well written the novel is. 

I think I need to read it again.