Review Roundup: Did TRAINSPOTTING THE MUSICAL Evoke A Lust For Life?

Cult heroes of youth culture; Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud, Tommy, and Kelly are back, alongside an ensemble cast and a live band. Featuring some of the electrifying tracks from the film that defined a generation, together with catchy, confrontational and celebratory original songs, set to become singalong, dance-along classics, this is more than nostalgia amplified, it’s a genre-defying new musical that speaks to our contemporary malaise of defiance in the face of an uncertain future.

So what did the critics think?

Trainspotting at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until 5 September and then goes on tour

Photo Credit: Matt Crockett

Gary Naylor, BroadwayWorld: So we get the fighty one, Begbie (Frankie O’Connor, who looks and walks like Mark Rylance in Jerusalem), the ladies man, Sick Boy (Sheridan Townsley, much the best singer on stage) and the naive, idealistic one, Tommy (Finlay Paul) whose end is bleedin’ obvious from the start. The women don’t fare too well, getting the blame, at least partially, for much of the lads’ excessive risk-taking. Rosie Dignan and Sophie Hutchinson do what they can as Alison and Lizzie, but they’re thin characters indeed in a show of thin characterisations.

Theo Bosanquet, London Theatre: Caroline Jay Ranger, who previously directed the musical version of Only Fools and Horses at this address, certainly has form shepherding well-known IPs to the stage. But here she struggles to create much narrative arc, given the unrelentingly grim nature of it (there are long sections of drug-taking with little in the way of plot development), though the storyline involving Renton's brother, a soldier serving in Northern Ireland, does bring some catharsis with his parents (Rebecca McKinnis and Gordon Cooper), as does the subplot of Renton's girlfriend Kelly (Yana Harris) heading to London only to discover the bright lights are disappointingly dim.

Arifa Akbar, The Guardian: Written by Welsh and directed by Caroline Jay Ranger, the story appears chopped up so that one scene is disconnected to the next, the story bitty, the well-known scenes and lines rattled off as if from a Trainspotting-branded assembly line, albeit in a different order: first the group trip to Blackpool for a northern soul gig, then the various set-pieces, from the speed-fuelled job interview by Spud (Kieran Andrew) to the snooker-table violence from Begbie (Frankie O’Connor) and Renton’s toilet high – the latter made more vivid with the use of back screens (video design by Douglas O’Connell).

Alun Hood, WhatsOnStage: The heroin-induced line-dancing fever dream number needs to be experienced to be believed, and while one doesn’t expect a story of such denudation to be pretty to look at, it’s surely not unreasonable to expect to be able to actually see it. This is one of the visually darkest shows I’ve ever watched, with key moments unfolding in such gloom that only aficionados of the original will know what’s happening.

Nick Curtis, The Standard: What’s that dull, sickening thud? Oh, it’s the sound of a dead horse being flogged. Since Irvine Welsh’s nonlinear novel about losers and addicts in Edinburgh’s impoverished Leith went from underground cult to breakout hit in 1993 it’s spawned plays, films, sequels and one of the finest soundtrack albums ever.

Clive Davis, The Times: Frankie O’Connor exudes menace as Begbie, the thug who spends his life looking for faces to punch. Finlay Paul’s Tommy wins our sympathy as his life falls apart. If you’re a fan of the movie, you’ll be glad to hear that Lou Reed’s anthem Perfect Day makes the cut. And you may also be relieved to learn that the infamous toilet scene isn’t quite as graphic this time around.

Ben Lawrence, The Telegraph: The incoherence of this production, at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, is best illustrated by its music. While the film’s famously killer soundtrack has, in part, been retained (Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life and Lou Reed’s Perfect Day both feature), it is diluted by a mixture of pop hits that weren’t in the film and, worst of all, a set of new songs which, with the exception of a jolly hoedown entitled C---s Run the Country, barely register. It is downright odd to see such cynical no-hopers as Renton (Lewis Kidd) and Sick Boy (Sheridan Townsley) going all jazz hands, and it undermines the power of Welsh’s characterisation.

Sam Marlowe, The Stage: Plot-wise, though, the show is far more diffuse and meandering than either the film or the novel. Characters are thinly drawn in Welsh’s baggy book; it’s as if the story has been castrated, all its cynical, tough, jagged wit, all its fuck-you attitude lopped off. Instead, it’s ploddingly literal, often lapsing into mawkishness and soapy tedium – repeatedly ramming its social conscience down our throats, theatrically it’s almost in Blood Brothers territory, although it’s significantly less emotionally effective. And it suffers from a fatal lack of momentum – each time it starts to get going, another pointless song turns up to bring it grinding to a halt again.

Average Rating: 32.5%