The Stage Door Theatre, London – until 17 August 2024
Review by Elizabeth J Smith
4****
If you are a child of the 70’s a visit to the Stage Door Theatre is a must this week.
Dust off your tartan 3/4 length trousers, tie your tartan scarf around your wrist and don your tartan cap and get yourself down to the Stage door theatre for an evening of nostalgia with the phenomenon that was the Bay City Rollers.
The play is the tale of a Scottish apprentice plumber who goes on to be a member of a band that was bigger than the Beatles at the time. His name was Alan Longmuir and he was the bass guitarist for the Bay City Rollers, a name, you learn, was picked by throwing a dart into a map of the USA.
The story takes you from Alans childhood memories of listening to Elvis, to the dizzy heights of being every teenage girls heart throb. There were times of great good luck, when their appearance on Crackerjack was cancelled but an invite to appear on Top of the Pops was offered instead and the rest, as they say is history. They had their own TV show and broke North America and Japan with Rollermania.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, with bad management and Alan feeling uncomfortable being a teenage heart throb when in his late 20’s he steps back and resumes his plumbing ways, but never losing his love for the music and performing.
Michael Karl-Lewis gives an endearing performance of young Alan, exuding cheerfulness with cheeky chap vibe. The only down side was he wasn’t playing the guitar, it would have added to the performance if he had.
Lee Fanning narrates the tale and plays the unscrupulous manager, taking on a deceitful persona for the role. You ask yourself “what happened to the money?” Lee also co-produced the show.
Ross Jamieson gives a lively performance of a Roller and the lead singer Les McKeown. I remember the band and Ross gets Les’s movements just right.
When the songs begin the audience stand and the concert begins, Bye Bye Baby, Give a Little Love, Saturday Night and Shang a Lang, remind us of what a great pop band the Bay City Rollers really were.
The performance was also attended by Alan and Les’s wives, which is a great tribute to their husbands and fans who still turn out to remember a local plumber and his four pals who became the Bay City Rollers, 70’s icons.