The story of The Kinks onstage

Celebrating the raw energy and timeless sound of one of Britain’s most iconic bands, The Kinks, the four-time Olivier-Award-winning musical Sunny Afternoon arrives at Leeds Grand Theatre in February. We caught up with The Kinks frontman Ray Davies and award-winning writer Joe Penhall to talk about taking the story of The Kinks to the stage and bringing the show to a new generation of fans.

Written by Guest Author

It’s been over 10 years since the show first premiered in the West End. What stands out the most from that initial time with the show?

Joe Penhall: The very first workshop was just Ray Davies and I with a piano and a handful of actors with guitars and tambourines. Ray would take them away for 20 minutes and teach them a pitch perfect arrangement of Waterloo Sunset, exactly like the record. It was like a magic trick. Or I’d go off with Ray and he’d explain a particularly intense episode of his life to me in a perfect, poetic monologue and I’d build a scene from it.

When it opened Dave Gilmore, Paul Weller and Noel and Lliam Gallagher came, all big Kinks fans, all very approving. Geniuses as far as the eye could see!

You worked with the legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies to create the show – how involved was he in the development, and what was it like to collaborate with him?

Ray was across everything, and in the early days was Musical Director. To work out the story I’d go to Ray’s house every Friday and we’d drink tea and he’d tell me stories or show me clips, play me old bits of songs or suggest bits of films to watch. Sometimes I’d see or read something that inspired me and would show it to him and we’d figure out how it related to what we were doing.

Sometimes we disagreed and wanted to go in different directions but there was always a kind of subliminal umbilical cord connecting us, because I’d been listening to his music since I was a child and he’d admired some of my work. It’s rare to have the luxury of developing a show that way, in each other’s pockets — a real labour of love.

What do you think makes Sunny Afternoon stand apart from other ‘jukebox’ musicals?

Ray’s very theatre-literate and film-literate and knows everything there is to know about music, so we talked a lot about our favourite music, plays and films as we discovered the tone and atmosphere of the show. It’s rare for a musical artist to get so involved in the theatre, much less a giant of the rock world like Ray and that’s one of the secrets of our success. We didn’t just take the songs and cook up some filler to cash in. We both felt that the show had to be every bit as good as a great Kinks record — the same power to move, the same sophistication, emotion and wit — or else we’d have failed. And I think we achieved that.

Why do you think The Kinks’ story and songbook continue to resonate with audiences today?

The songs are both simple and extrmely complex at the same time, but they speak to people on a profound level. As a band The Kinks were the perennial outsiders — punk before punk — and, as they said themselves, ‘Misfits’. If the 20th century taught us anything it taught as that it’s OK to be a misfit, to be different, to be unlucky or unloved or broke or lost — you still have power. It can lead to great success.

The Kinks possessed immense humanity and a unique life force which is all there in the songs. People come to the show and feel euphoric and consoled and gripped all at once because they can see vestiges of their own lives in it. But they always end up on their feet dancing and that’s the way we like it. It makes us feel alive.