MISSING THE BEAT

The songs might be fun, but ‘Sing Street’ is an exhaustingly brainless extension of the 2016 movie

- Alice Saville

Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London

Let's get one thing straight. New musical Sing Street might be set in Eighties Dublin, but you're not getting any biting insights into a vanished Ireland here. Much like green beer or coquettish female leprechauns, this is a kitschily ersatz Irish fantasia - a frolic through the story of a teenage band who soundtrack their ups (there are no real downs) with joyful pastiches of their favourite acts.

It’s nominally written by seasoned Irish playwright Enda Walsh (Lazarus), but there’s not much of his writing talent on display here. Instead, the story feels like a flimsy extension of the 2016 film Sing Street, the thin plotline bulked out with additional songs from the original’s songwriters Gary Clark and John Carney (who have been tinkering with the show since it premiered off-Broadway in 2019).