Sunshine On Leith

Sunshine on Leith, a musical written by Stephen Greenhorn with the songs by the Proclaimers is a foot tapping journey through the emotions of love, family life, dreams and values. It follows friends Ally and Davy as they return to Edinburgh from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and try to rebuild their lives and relationships.

This first rate cast of principals supported by a superb company brought the show to life taking us through a wide range of emotional highs and lows.

An impressive opening ‘Sky Takes The Soul’ and ‘I’m On My Way’ immediately established the rapport and wonderful bond between the two lads Davy and Ally brilliantly portrayed by Colin Sutherland and Scott Binnie respectively. Both had real charisma, totally at ease in their characters and with fabulous singing voices.

Ally has returned to his girlfriend, Davy’s sister nurse Liz, beautifully and sensitively played by Kirsty Hogg. Whilst there is an obvious bond between them, Ally’s need to be wanted and settle down and marry is not what Liz wants at this time as she has dreams of moving to America. The emotional struggle between the two was tangible and heartfelt.

Ally sets up a blind date with Davy and Liz’s best friend, fellow English nurse Yvonne. Cathy Geddie gave a flawless performance in this role. A most accomplished actress with a fine singing voice she was so convincing in portraying her love for Davy but also in conveying her turmoil in realising the importance of family life for both herself and Davy. There was a strong chemistry between these two couples which came across extremely well. Well matched and strong vocally their characterisations were totally plausible. There were superb duets, quartets and musical numbers. ‘Make My Heart Fly’, ‘Then I Met You’ and ‘Letter From America’ were particularly poignant.

Rab and Jean are the backbone of the family. Colin Cairncross, Rab, and Christine Mills, Jean, were convincing as the parents of Davy and Liz depicting the ups and downs of a down to earth working class family and the importance of family values. Colin relished in his portrayal of a devoted family man with his dry sense of humour really having fun as he expresses his love for Jean, ‘Oh Jean’ at his wedding anniversary party. Christine was naturally maternal and vivacious in the part with excellent timing delivering her comedic lines. When the trauma is revealed that Rab has a love child from a one night stand many years ago, the warmth between Rab and Jean disintegrated. Jeans feeing of hurt and betrayal was powerfully conveyed in the number ‘Hate My Love’. Rab too appeared genuinely heartbroken and sincere in realising what he had done to his family and yet could not give up on the responsibilities he felt for his newly found daughter Eilidh played with real naivety and innocence by Amy Macrae as she wants to learn more about her mum and dad.

This is an emotional piece of theatre. Some of the most sentimental and moving moments in this production were in the hospital following Rabs heart attack where the true family bonds were evident. Jean’s ‘Sunshine on Leith’ was absolutely riveting and completely silenced the audience.

Huge congratulations also to the ensemble in this production. The excellent ensemble harmonies were a joy to listen to. Choreography was vibrant, dynamic and slick with everyone on stage really displaying high energy and precision in both movement and vocally. Quite spectacular.

The many many scene changes ran smoothly and the use of back projection and still images to depict the various scenes and settings was quite stunning, It was fascinating to see the streets and sights of Edinburgh as the story unfolded. The pub scene was especially impressive as was the use of the higher level depicting Calton Hill and Arthur’s seat for the love duets.

All of the cameo and supporting roles and smaller ensemble numbers were fabulous. I did enjoy the cleaners with their yellow dusters song and dance number ‘Should Have Been Loved’ and ‘Throw The R Away’.

An excellent orchestra supported the cast and were a real pleasure to listen to. Whilst nearly all of the musical numbers are well known and enjoyed by the audience, ‘500 Miles’ has to be the show stopper. Rousing and resounding, it had the audience really asking for more and was quite electrifying.

This was a superb production in every way. Powerful characters, marvellous ensemble, excellent staging, choreography and musicality and everyone looked good. A production which delivered fun, laughter and some tear jerking moments.

Definitely five stars from me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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