Review: Irish Annie's
Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Everyday is St Patrick's Day in Annie's, Liverpool's favourite Irish bar. There are Guinness signs on the wall, assorted musicians ready for a session in the corner and Annie herself behind the bar, always ready with a hundred thousand welcomes and great craic... but not for much longer.
With the recession kicking in and no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, Annie's could be about to close its doors for the last time, worse still, Moira the Moneylender is on the way to call in her debt. How will Annie tell her locals it's their last day in the pub they love?
A celebration of the power of community, Irish Annie's is an uplifting, often raucous but always joyous celebration of Irish culture and gloriously funny from start to finish. Embracing the traditions of music hall, variety and pantomime, Catherine Rice, as Annie, looses no time in breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience, ensuring everyone in the sold out Pavilion Theatre is now part of her world.
As the gags come thick and fast, it doesn't matter that some might be older than the Blarney Stone, Rice expertly sets out her stall for the evening ahead. Laughter, music and great craic are the mainstays of her little bar, and last day or not, that's the way it's going to stay.
Written by Asa Murphy, who co-stars as Seamus, and directed with gusto by Stephen Fletcher, there's love in the air too. Annie's looking for a man and has just downloaded the latest dating app, oblivious to the fact that her bar's star turn, Seamus, only has eyes for her but is too shy to say.
Together, Rice and Murphy prove a powerhouse combination, never allowing the energy to drop while all the time encouraging the audience to join. Their chemistry is infectious, whether keeping the laughs coming or orchestrating the next big communal singalong. Old favourites such as Dirty Old Town, When Irish Eyes are Smiling along with some of Murphy's own compositions don't disappoint.
Rice and Murphy are joined in the comic mayhem by hard-working duo Michael Alan Bailey and Maria Lovelady who bring the bar’s regulars to life with the change of a costume, from energetic schoolboy Steve and barmaid Niamh, to old-timers Joe and Maisie, to Porkie the Postie and Moira the Moneylender, they bounce their way through the piece with knowing nods and winks to the audience.
And then there's Irish Annie's most famous local of all, Brookside and The Royle Family star, Ricky Tomlinson, whose entrance lifts the roof, a reception rewarded with a flurry of jovial two-finger salutes from the 84-year-old.
Like the rest of the company, Tomlinson is in his element riffing with the crowd. He opens with some uproarious and occasionally risque audience participation before sharing anecdotes from his life and career, including tales of prison life, working Ken Loach, meet Robert De Niro in a bar and how he became Caroline Aherne’s ‘father’.
As if to prove just how much of a celebration of Irish culture this show is, Irish Annie's even shuts for Holy Hour... well, that's what they call the interval anyway, and no, it doesn't last an hour.
On their return for Act II, the company goes into full on party mode as Moira the Moneylender arrives to collect her dues (met by a barrage of boos from the audience) and Annie attempts to show her the error of her ways starting with a rousing Wild Rover that proves the biggest singalong of the night while, later, Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl has them dancing in the aisles.
However, it's tenor Richard Barry, as bar regular Noel Singen-Smithe, a failed actor, who stops the show with a powerfully emotional rendition of Danny Boy, one that holds the audience in rapt silence before they erupt as the last note fades... and in the best of panto traditions, that’s enough to give everyone their happy ever after.
At the end of the day though, it's Rice and Murphy's show. Rice is the archetypal landlady, loving and warm but you wouldn't mess with her, while Murphy's spritely Seamus, is a cheeky chappie. Murphy himself is the consummate showman, conducting proceedings as he and the brilliant six-piece band, The Shenanigans, revel in their set of crowd-pleasers.
Irish Annie's is a show with a huge heart and barrels of love and, as Annie says at the start of the show, there are only two types of people in life, muckers and feckers... make sure you muck in when you get to Annie’s. You don't want to be the alternative.
Tour details can be found here