The Tutti Frutti revival gets the juices flowing
By Mark Brown Sunday Herald Theatre Critic

IT was in 1987 that John Byrne, author, painter, most photogenic man in Scotland (and Paisley’s most famous son), confirmed his place in the nation’s affections. With his TV comedy-drama Tutti Frutti, in which dysfunctional rock’n’roll band The Majestics tour all of the country’s top music venues, from Ardrossan to Buckie, he created a genuine cult.

Despite its massive popularity, the show – which launched Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson onto an unsuspecting world as unlikely rock stars Danny McGlone and Suzi Kettles – has never been screened again by the BBC. Consequently, when the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) announced its inaugural programme, the show which created the greatest frisson was this new stage version, written by Byrne and co-produced by the NTS and His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen.

Now, after months of hype and expectation, the new-look Majestics have finally taken to the stage. The cast received a rapturous reception on Friday, the official opening night .

Having seen the actors receive no fewer than three encores, Byrne said: “ Director Tony Cownie did the most fantastic job, everything went without a hitch. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that it would. I was excited, without having any sense of trepidation, because I’d seen them do it, and I knew how great they were. ”

For Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of the NTS, the cheering crowd was an expression of what Scotland’s national theatre exists to achieve. “This has brought home to me what Scottish audiences are about.

If you take something that is really dear to their hearts, and you want to excite them, theatre is the best place to make that happen. I’m really thrilled by the reaction.”

If Friday was a big night for the NTS, it was an even bigger one for His Majesty’s – Aberdeen’s grand old theatre has never produced its own work, until now.

Chief executive of His Majesty’s, Duncan Hendry, said: “It’s historic, our first in-house production.” Despite some noises off about the supposed “political correctness” of opening the play in Aberdeen, rather than Glasgow or Edinburgh, Hendry is delighted by how warmly the theatre’s audience has received the play. “I’d forgotten there was so much stuff about the North East in it, actually. The local material really got a big reaction tonight, and the Radio Buckie DJ was superb!”

“Superb” is an adjective well applied to the universally impressive cast, led by Tom Urie (Danny) and Dawn Steele (Suzi). They fit the rock’n’roll bill like a new pair of brothel creepers.

Byrne has fashioned a tremendous two and a half hours of theatre from his screenplay. Many of the show’s best gags – such as guitarist Vincent Diver’s hilariously appalling cardigan, knitted for him by his teenage girlfriend – remain intact.

Also still very present are the dark, emotive elements in the piece; in particular the consequences of the behaviour of Vincent, a debauched Peter Pan-style character (played brilliantly by a combustible Tam Dean Burn), on the lives of the women around him.

The stage version of Tutti Frutti was always going to be distinguished from the TV show by the live music, and the new Majestics are great. Urie and Steele are in fine voice and, by the time they close with the famous title track, it really is like being in the Glasgow Pavilion circa 1987.

Byrne insists, rightly, that this is a new play, rather than a staging of the TV show. However, designer Neil Murray’s monochrome set – which, is, presumably, intended to highlight the often comically lurid costumes – looks like a drab error of judgement.

Such mistakes are few and far between, however. With John Ramage (as dodgy band manager Eddie Clockerty) and Julie Wilson Nimmo (his wonderfully sarcastic “assistant” Janis Toner) illuminating the play every time they come on stage, this production is hitting the high notes.

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