The Commitments set for West End stage

THE COMMITMENTS has been adapted for the stage more than 20 years after the writer behind the smash hit was first approached about taking his creation to the West End of London.

Roddy Doyle said he was asked about making the musical at the height of the film’s success but he was not interested.

The movie, directed by Alan Parker, about a group of misfits who start an soul band in Dublin was a huge hit in 1991.

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It was based on the 1987 book by Booker Prize winning Irish writer Doyle, who has adapted the musical from his novel.

“The Commitments was something of a monster, particularly in Ireland … it was an immediate, huge success and at the time I think it was the most successful film ever released in Ireland,” he said.

“There was immediate interest then in doing a musical. But I don’t think I had ever been to a musical and the ones I’d seen on television had never really grabbed my attention much.”

Doyle, 54, said that he found it “funny and very satisfying” that much of the young cast of the show would not have been born when he published his novel.

The musical will open at the Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, London, in October.

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