30 years ago the film Trainspotting came out and was heralded for being unique and of its time, and now comes a musical celebrating said film.
I also saw a stage version of the movie almost ten years ago that blew me away with its rough and ready production and acting that was very raw which I still think about to this very day. I was hoping that this musical version would have the same impact, but sadly it doesn’t.
Trainspotting the Musical follows Mark Renton (Lewis Kidd) and his drug-addicted friends navigating late 1980’s Edinburgh, Scotland with poverty, squalor, and drugs being the norm..It explores the gritty realities of addiction, failed attempts at getting sober, and Renton’s ultimate struggle to escape his destructive past. And Choose Life was a thing. And this is what we mostly get in this musical version, but it’s not at all as hard hitting as one would’ve hoped. While most of cast are very good in their roles (Kidd as Renton is one to watch and Kieran Andrew as Spud is also very impressive), overall this musical version just doesn’t do the original movie justice, nor does it add anything new or controversial to the story. The toilet scene has no impact (it’s mostly done via videos), and some of the songs (by Stephen McGuinness) just don’t make sense to the story and seem to belong in another show. And for me the accents were hard to understand – I could’ve used subtitles.
One reviewer called it a bad trip down memory lane. And while it’s not that bad, it might be a disappointment for those Trainspotting fans expecting a repeat of the film and play. Director Caroline Jay Ranger plays it all wrong while Irvine Welsh, who wrote the original movie and then this musical, must be scratching his head asking where it all went wrong. Evita and Sunset Boulevard director Jamie Lloyd would’ve done a much better job.