Irish Examiner Thursday 10.02.2011
Singing your heart out to your favourite musical is the perfect tonic for our troubled times. Jonathan deBurca Butler goes on a movie date with a difference .
On a chilly Friday night a curious crowd of Greasers, and dolly birds in 1950s bubble dresses assemble out-side The Button Factory in Temple Bar, Dublin. Inside there may not be an ice cream sundae in sight and it's unlikely that any of 400-strong crowd have their Chevrolets parked outside, but at this event people are encouraged to dream a little and if they can, step into character. We are attending Dublin's first Sing-Along-Cinema and the movie of choice this evening is the classic musical Grease.
"What gives?" I hear you say as you raise your collars aggressively Well, the name is a dead giveaway really. They play the movie and with the help of subtitles, you sing along. And it is all rather good fun. I am not in costume and neither is the missus but it does not take her long to get into the swing of things and sure enough she is singing along to the first number. As a Hiber-no-heterosexual male, it is enough for me to tap my fingers. Initially, the crowd were under-standably a smidgen coy but a cou-ple of sips out of a pint, a sexy look from Danny (John Travolta) and the catchy rhythms of Summer Nights had people on their feet fairly quickly. It wasn't long before people were jiving up on stage, singing along to every last word that came up on screen or simply drooling over the leather-clad Danny. And if you haven't guessed already, this was attended mainly by women.
The man behind the idea is Martin Thomas of The Rock and Roll Rescue Squad; although if the truth be told, he has his five year-old son Felix to thank for it. "Last October, I was watching Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang with my son and I just happened to turn on the subtitles and I saw that they worked for the songs. I thought nothing more of it and then I went to a Rocky Horror Show Halloween event in a Dublin club. I went and I started thinking there's a lot of other movies out there that people love and I thought wouldn't be great to take the subtitle thing and have some sort of interactive movie ex-perience." Thomas had originally planned to get the event off the ground in December last year but logistics and snow got in the way. The venue he wanted was not available either and he felt it had to be in a nightclub so that punters had the space to get involved as much as possible. Tonight, helping that interactivity along is Master of Ceremonies, actor Declan Rooney, who cuts a bit of a lonely figure at times and could probably do with some help. He manages to get the crowd going, though, and by the end of the night the stage is invaded by dancing Pink Ladies shouting out You're the One that I Want at the top of their voices. All told, the night is a huge success. "I think it's important to have an MC just to kind of loosen people up," says Thomas,
he's there just to explain what's going on and also just to mess around really. With Grease you can do that, but it won't always be like that. His role is different every time. The host is there to let people feel at ease, he's there to get people involved."
As with all of these novelty events, social media has played a large part in attracting punters along tonight. That is how 43-year-old Eimear O'Dallaigh found out about the event. "It's a pity more people weren't dressed up but it was good fun," says Eirnear who is dressed in a striking red bubble dress. "They could have done with a woman being up there and they need to get a bit snore audience reaction. But I would definitely recommend it." Erika, 33, who has shown up dressed as Sandy agrees: "A fantastic night, we were discreetly down the back at the begin-ning," says Erika. "But we went up on stage at the end. There was a whole heap of people up on stage at the end. The only thing that could trump it would be The Sound of Music."
The next event takes place on Saturday, February 19 in Cork when the Pavilion off Patrick Street plays host. "It was originally a cinema and it's a great space," says Thomas. "It's got all the things we want to offer; a bar, a place to dance, we want to have a proper lighting rig to add ef-fects. So it'll be good. The perfect place for this kind of thing." Thomas, who has worked in the nightclub and entertainment industry for over 17 years says these days people expect more for their money but they also want some escapism. "People want to go out and they just want to forget about all the grief," he says. "I see it in night-clubs, the numbers are falling and even in pubs the numbers are down. People want to go out and be entertained more. People need to have the craic, that's what it's all about."
The next Sing-Along-Cinemas are Grease in The Pavilion, Carey's Lane, Cork on February 19 and The Wizard of Oz in The Button Factory, Dublin on February 25. Tickets €9.50.
Dressing-up encouraged.
by Jonathan deBurca Butler
