Good Vibrations: A Punk Rock Musical

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[avatar user=”Joel Benjamin” size=”96″ align=”left”] Joel Benjamin, Critic[/avatar]

Terri Hooley (a game, genial Glen Wallace) is both the main character and the narrator of Good Vibrations: A Punk Rock Musical at the sparkling new Irish Arts Center.  How he morphed from Terry to Terri is a bloody tale that opens the show, albeit with a bit of winking Irish humor.

Written by Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations takes place in the 1970’s in a Belfast rife with violence, at the height of the inter-religious disturbances in Northern Ireland called The Troubles and is based on the 2012 film of the same name (which they also wrote).  Terri Hooley is a real person and Good Vibrations paints a mostly complimentary portrait of this man who was so important to the music scene in Belfast.

Terri’s dad, George (Marty Maguire, managing to make his irritating character loveable) is a Socialist who runs unsuccessfully for public office too many times.  This puts Terri in an odd position with his friends and the ruffians in the neighborhood.

His mom, Mavis (Christina Nelson, colorful and quite adaptable), is a stabilizing influence, but, in her own way, just as colorful as her husband.

Terri is a DJ-wannabe who has fond memories of listening to Hank Williams recordings.  Music changed his life. So, when Terri discovers several bands—Rudi, The Outcasts, The Undertones—he jumps whole hog into a career as a music presenter and a mini-record mogul.

He opens a record store, Good Vibrations, to help disseminate his new-found musical treasures and wends his way into producing records and concert tours.  The tours, with all their ups and downs, are staged with great humor.

The only problem is that Terri, a misguided optimist, has absolutely no business sense or luck and his ventures fall to his hubris, along with his private life, including his marriage to the beautiful Ruth.

He met, wooed and wed Ruth (Jayne Wisener, finding all the nuances of her put-upon character), vowing eternal love, a vow that wavered.  She was his most stalwart supporter and stayed with him and his dream although his dedication to his wife and newborn child wavered as his head filled with the imagined power of his self-proclaimed King of Belfast Punk Rock scene.

Terri is surrounded by devotees such as Marilyn and Dave Hindman (Cat Barter and Darren Franklin, both terrific) who help keep Terri’s boat afloat.

The authors and director Des Kennedy paint as vivid picture of life in Belfast at that time as the limits of live theater can handle.  The play is a feast of musical styles such as punk, rock, folk and reggae.

The controlled mayhem that fills the stage with the thrashing movements of Punk dance is credited to choreographer Jennifer Rooney who catches the style brilliantly, helped by Gillian Lennox’s perfect period costumes and Katie Richardson’s wonderfully frenetic music direction.

Grace Smart’s fluid set design accommodates all the locations.  A roll-up garage door becomes a curtain raised to reveal bands on a moveable platform.

Kennedy, the director, clearly understands the characters, the place and the subject matter.  He keeps the frenetic action flowing.

Although some of the lines were lost in the thicket of Northern Ireland accents, there’s no doubt that Good Vibrations adds up to an entertaining and moving evening.

Good Vibrations is a Lyric Theatre, Belfast production.

Good Vibrations: A Punk Rock Musical (through July 16, 2023)

Irish Arts Center, 726 11^th Avenue, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.irishartscenter.org

Running time: two hours and 30 minutes including one intermission