I Ran With The Gang by Liam Rudden. The Stage Door Theatre, 150 Drury Lane, London WC2, until 17 August 2024.

1✩ Review William Russell.

“A fan-tastic fairy tale from start to finish.”

This saccharine tribute to Alan Longmuir written and directed by Liam Rudden, who also helped the original Bay Cit Roller write his biography, is a no warts and little else affair aimed exclusively at the fans of the naffest of all the boy bands of the 1970s. There is, in fact, a fascinating story to be told about how Longmuir, a young Edinburgh plumber, who had been setting up bands for several years, ended up with his friend Les McKeown creating the Bay City Rollers under the management of the appalling Tam Paton. The Rollers went the way of most boy bands, the members fell out, they had to fight for their money and eventually the band ended up consisting of nobody who had been in the original band under new owners. Along the way Paton was accused of raping two of the band, the guitarist Pat McGlynn in 1977 and at some point the singer McKeown. He also controlled what the members did and with whom, but none of that gets mentioned in this paen of praise to Longmuir. Patently a nice chap he played with the band in its heyday, left the band, came back from time to time years later, tried to run an hotel, and resumed his original trade of a plumber, dying a respected member of society six years ago. Why Rudden bothered inviting anyone to review his fairy tale is anybody's guess. The piece has, apparently been around for a decade and the current cast of three were giving it its London premier. The female fans who turned out on opening night were delirious with delight while Michael Karl-Lewis as the young Alan, Ross Jamieson as an unspecified Roller but as he vocalised a lot presumably McKeown, and Lee Fanning as the Narrator strutted their stuff/ The fans then sat in reverential silence during a lengthy filmed sequence of Longmuir family photographs projected on a screen while a piper played after which they went into even greater paroxysms of delight waving scarves and everything else they could shake, of which there was quite a lot, while the trio sang the band's greatest hits. One can only hope that all concerned have now got it out of their system. Google the Bay City Rollers, The Daily Record or look up the 2023 documentary Secrets of the Bay City Rollers if you want to find out the story not told in this fan-tastic awful fairy tale.

Cast

Michael Karl-Lewis – Young Alan.

Ross Jamieson – The Roller.

Lee Fanning – The Narrator.

Creatives

Director - :Liam Rudden.

Video Design – Sabina Smith.

Piper – Stephen Hunter.

Sound Engineer – Stuart Hanna.

<usical Director – Gavin Dickson.

Costumes made & designed by – Sheila Beehler-Nitz.

Lighting Design – Richard Lambert.

Musical theatre 13 August 2024.

Photo Credit – Stageworks East West Ltd.

A fan-tastic fairy tale from start to finish.