Irish Annie’s at Pavilion Theatre Glasgow Review
DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW
Reviewed by Deb Mackenzie
The stage is set as a regular bar; Guinness sign blazing at the back, odd pictures on the wall and a few tables for punters. To the right is the nights entertainment band, Shenanigans, with lead singer Seamus Murphy (Asa Murphy). Irish Annie’s is owned and run by Annie (Samantha Alton) who enters mid-joke and is our compere for the evening.
It is loud, funny and at time ‘naughty’ but the smile never left my face through out the play and sing along songs.
Written and directed by Asa Murphy who knows what an audience loves; an interactive show with a good sing along and quick fire humour, but not forgetting a storyline that brings emotion.
He has been a professional entertainer for over fifteen years, performing worldwide. His idea of Irish Annie comes from his experiences of his Irish family based in Cork; he realised that many of the characters who came into the local pubs were funny, interesting and the stories of their lives and experiences were built on taking care of those close to you. He lives in Liverpool and is a scouse making a perfect combination of cultures who understand humour, music and keeping those they love close.
Asa wrote several new ballads including on called Irish Annie’s. The music was fantastic! We sang along to tunes of old, Black Velvet Band, Brown Eyed Girl and Wild Rover to mention a few.
But when Richard Barry (as Noel Singen-Smithe) sang ‘Danny Boy’ it was emotional for me as my son shares the same name and as a baby the nurses used to sing it to him before he even left the hospital after I gave birth to him. Richard has a tremendous and powerful voice that captured the emotion of the song.
Throughout the play we met a variety of punters, who brought laughs and many applauses. In the very beginning Annie explained that the pub was in trouble, that a loan shark was calling in her debt. The loan shark was treated much like the baddies in panto, who were heckled and booed.
A great privilege it was to have Ricky Thomlison from The Royals join in, giving us amusing tales from his mishaps and retake scenes that had everyone in laughter.
This show is one that I will talk about to family and friends. It made you feel on top of the world, it gave you a spring in your step as you left the theatre. I do hope that it goes on tour again as we need a lot more shows like this that take us away from our normal day to day lives.
After the show there was an opportunity to have a meet and greet with Ricky Thomlison.
I managed to have a quick word with co-director saying that having some merch for sale would have been amazing. Not just the music CD, but things like t-shirts, pins, mugs and the like; as who doesn’t like a memento from a good night out?
Rating: 5/5
This show was on for one night only as part of the Tour
For more information visit www.irishannies.com