The Beautiful Game, Sept 14, 2019 ***1/2

MUSICAL THEATRE 

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Book & Lyrics by Ben Elton; by Manilla Street Productions

At Chapel off Chapel, Prahran, until Sept 29, 2019 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***1/2 
Review also published in Herald Sun Arts (in print) on Tues Sept 17, 2019. KH

Stephen May (centre) & cast

For a soccer team of Catholic lads, winning the 1969 final of the ‘beautiful game’ – as soccer is known – cannot shield them from the ugliness of the bigotry and sectarian violence in their home of Belfast.  

Taking place from 1969 to 1971 in Northern Ireland, Ben Elton’s book for The Beautiful Game provides a challenging and thought-provoking glimpse into the corrosive impact of The Troubles on these young lives.

Stephen Mahy is charmingly gawky, naïve and hopeful as talented soccer player, John Kelly, who falls for and marries his teenage sweetheart, Mary (Stephanie Wall), and plans to leave Belfast to play for Everton in Liverpool.

Mahy and Wall’s budding teenage romance is credible, and Mahy’s warm, powerful voice is well-matched by Wall’s bright, clear tone in their love ballads and the quirky duet, Don’t Like You.

An ensemble of capable singers supports Mahy and Wall in Karen Jemison’s swiftly paced production. The gaggle of Catholic girls, who are a like a team cheer squad, includes engaging performances from Nicola Bowman as virginal Bernadette and Ellie Nunan as naughty Christine.

A tight, skilful band, under musical director, Daniele Buatti, does justice to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music that incorporates Irish rhythms and instruments into poignant ballads such as Let Us Love in Peace and stirring anthems including the title song and God’s Own Country.

Elton’s lyrics are sometimes a little heavy-handed and his dialogue preachy or obvious. The narrative loses momentum at the beginning of Act Two, which starts with a wedding, rather than ploughing on into the crisis facing John and Mary as The Troubles touch their lives when a friend is killed, another knee-capped, one joins the IRA, and an innocent is imprisoned.

It’s difficult to distill into two hours the impact of the hundreds of years of Irish conflict, but The Beautiful Game has a fair crack at doing just that.

by Kate Herbert

Stephen Mahy, pic Jodie Hutchinson