A perfect night for The Dubliners superfans, but lacked authenticity to properly engage newcomers
As described, ‘Seven Drunken Nights: the Story of the Dubliners’ is a showcase of brilliant Irish musicians performing some of the best loved Dubliners classics. Throughout the performance it was hard not to tap your toes to the well-known folk songs and become emotionally embroiled in the soulful ballads.
The performance is not quite a concert and not quite a musical but somewhere in between, regaling the audience with a high-level outline of how the Dubliners came to be. The best moments of this narrative were the anecdotes about the habits of members of the group, or the ways that they arrived at their different styles. It was these moments that engaged both lovers of the band and newcomers to the music to really grip the audience. The narrative was often punctuated by adverts from the time, a clever stylistic technique to bring the audience into the 60s when the Dubliners group was formed.
The challenge with the narrative, was that it was very high-level and whilst it gave a flavour of the story, there could have been more of the witty anecdotes that really brought it to life. Given that the narrative was intermixed with songs, it was not memorable enough to create a strong thread throughout the show. Adding in more of the real life stories would have brought more fun to the tale and improved audience engagement.
The performers were brilliant. Their instrumental work was highly skilled. The variety in style and tone of their voices meant individually they stood up to the size of the theatre. The skill however, was that in spite of the big difference in the sound of their voices, the blend when they were singing together was beautiful. Given how often they were performing group numbers and particularly when harmonising, it was impressive to get such a natural blend. The choice and order of the songs was well-balanced. Often a silly drinking song would move on to a soulful ballad and the ability of the cast to bring the audience through these transitions was well-done.
The challenge with this performance was the lack of chemistry between the group when onstage. The point of the show was about a group who had been together for years and this didn’t come across between the cast. It was unclear whether the cast were playing the band, or simply there to perform the songs as themselves. Where there were moments that they let loose and had silly interactions, the audience warmed to them and given the nature of the music was often wild and fun, it would have been nice to see this through the actions of the cast and not just relying on the strong vocal and instrumental performances. The reserved nature also meant that some of the songs felt a bit too polished to be the types of songs that were sung in the pubs of Ireland. A bit more authenticity and personality shining through would have taken this from a good show to a great show.
The Dubliners will be on tour at various UK locations until the 24th May 2026. Tickets here.