The latest Trainspotting adaptation at the Theatre Royal Haymarket is a woefully misconceived musical that loses all the edgy hedonistic thrills of the book and film. Since Irvine Welsh's nonlinear novel about losers and addicts in Edinburgh's impoverished Leith went from underground cult to breakout hit in 1993, it has spawned plays, films, sequels and one of the finest soundtrack albums ever. Now, with grim inevitability, the antics of Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud et al have become a leaden and formulaic West End musical.
A Leaden and Formulaic Production
The musical is sermonising and expository where Danny Boyle's 1996 film was darkly, hedonistically propulsive. Worse, it shackles emotively Pavlovian stalwart hits like Lust For Life, Perfect Day and Bitter Sweet Symphony to a ragbag of pub-rock novelty songs written by Welsh and Stephen McGuinness. As Steve Mac, the latter has apparently been a house producer and remixer for decades, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from the mawkish ballads, grumpy laments and other dimwit genre spoofs. The C&W line dance number with the chorus “c***s run the country” is particularly egregious.
A Saving Grace: Lewis Kidd as Renton
A saving grace is Lewis Kidd, who is impressively loose and cocky as the shaven-headed antihero Renton, having stepped into the role after the original actor, Robbie Scott, suffered a rehearsal injury. Rosie Dignan also acts affectingly in her stage debut as junkie Alison, whose baby dies while she's injecting smack, though her singing voice is underpowered. The production, developed, directed and nominally choreographed by Caroline Jay Ranger, is underpowered and pedestrian.
Explicit Politics and Lamenting Characters
The musical makes implicit politics explicit, with regular monologues about how there's “nae jobs” because of Thatcher and how heroin is really no different to booze, tabs and consumerism as a tool to subdue the underclass. Renton's waste of his own life is starkly contrasted with that of a brother in the British Army in Ulster. Parents and religion play a bigger part than in previous adaptations. Trainspotting's original energy was unapologetic, but here everyone is endlessly explaining or lamenting. “Please dinnae let him be on that stuff – that HEROIN!” mewls Renton's mum (Rebecca McKinnis).
Lame Emulation of the Film
The creators clearly feel they must lamely emulate well-known lines and set pieces from the first movie: Spud soiling himself and gurning through a job interview on speed; Renton diving into the “worst toilet in Scotland” to retrieve accidentally evacuated opium suppositories. The latter is done through a projected fantasy submersion. Frankie O'Connor's psychotic Begbie looks like Oswald Mosely reimagined as a muscled Marvel supervillain. He's also the production's Resident Fight Director.
A Musical That Doesn't Want to Be a Musical
The songs, whether established hits or awful new numbers, creep sheepishly into the narrative rather than growing from it. There is no sense of shape or progression in the score, just a meandering from situation to situation, and song to song. The actors look embarrassed whenever they have to trade dialogue for music. At one point the three young female leads sing Republica's Drop Dead Gorgeous into upside down brick phones for no discernible reason. Choose the pub, choose the Odyssey, choose a night in watching Bargain Hunt... but above all, choose something else.
