WITH the perfect blend of comedy, drama and spectacular musical performances, Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments remains one of the best musicals out there.

Possibly even the best musical if you love soul music, like a large amount of the audience at the Millennium centre clearly did.

The cast includes a number of faces you will have seen around including featuring Kevin Kennedy, famous for playing Curly Watts in Coronation Street among other things, as the hilarious ‘Jimmy’s Da’.

Each cast member played their role perfectly. They made you feel as though these characters were real people, performing their favourite songs before your very eyes - there were even a number of people dancing in their seats.

Most impressively so was main cast member Brian Gilligan, who played the role of Deco, the frontman and singer of The Commitments. He managed to capture each aspect of his sometimes bolshy character and display them without error too.

He was certainly not let down by his singing talent. He belted out each song just as good as any famous soul singer, never missing even the high notes.

My personal favourite was Sam Fordham as ‘Mickah’, the band’s bodyguard and second drummer, who also happens to be a rather intense, hot tempered skinhead.

His overly-aggressive words and acts significantly added to the comedic value of the show. I hope Sam Fordham carries on with this role forward as it really does seem to suit him.

I left the show in a great mood after a thunderous applause thanked the cast, and I still have ‘Mustang Sally’ stuck in my head. This musical is perfect in almost every aspect so I would strongly recommend picking up a ticket or two. It is running until April 15 at the Wales Millennium Centre.

Ollie Barnes