Celebrating soul The Commitments way

The Commitments are back! And no one could be happier than its creator, Irish writer Roddy Doyle.

“The original stage show of The Commitments in 2013,” he says, “was a brilliant experience from my point of view.  It stayed in the West End for over two years. Then it went on a successful tour.”

Now it will kick off a brand-new nine-month tour, coming to Leeds Grand Theatre from Monday 19 to Saturday 24 June 2023. Based on Doyle’s 1987 bestselling novel and Alan Parker’s hugely popular 1991 film adaptation, it revolves around working-class Jimmy’s bid to transform a bunch of amateur musicians into Dublin’s finest soul band, much to his father’s dismay.

For the original West End production, Roddy lived in London for 12 weeks, attending rehearsals and doing daily rewrites. “I attended every preview and then the meetings the next day as we discussed what was and wasn’t working. My role this time round has been less vital, although sitting in on the read-through with the new cast was just terrific.”

Has he felt emotional returning to this first work of fiction? “It’s brought back a lot of memories, yes. I was a teacher when I wrote the novel. I wanted an excuse to bring a bunch of young people together in book form and capture the rhythm of Dublin kids yapping and teasing and bullying.”

“But I needed to find a setting outside school, and that’s when the idea of a band came to me. A big band with a brass section and backing vocals, as opposed to three or four young men that was the norm back then.”

Roddy has resisted the temptation to update the action. “The vibrancy is still there but so is the tension caused by lack of communication. For instance, will Deco, the obnoxious lead singer, turn up on time? These days, you’d track him down on your mobile in no time at all. But there wasn’t that option in the late 80s. And I chose 60s music – Motown and Memphis soul – because, at the time, it felt timeless. Thirty-five years later, I was right.”

For a long time, Roddy was a teacher who wrote on the side. “I loved teaching and the holidays were great – a time when I got into the habit of writing. I wrote The Commitments in 1986, it was published the following year and I was working on the screenplay in 1988. But I was still teaching up until 1993.”

At 64, Roddy remains prolific with 12 novels, three collections of stories, eight books for children, a book he co-wrote with Roy Keane and, of course, a stage musical under his belt so retirement seems unlikely. He was once quoted as saying that he hoped to die mid-sentence. He laughs. “Well,” he says, “it might be nice to get to a full stop.”