Copper Face Jacks: The Musical

The only thing the Olympia Theatre lacked was the sticky floor. In every other sense, it could have been Copper Face Jacks. It ticked all the boxes; cheesy tunes, dodgy dancing, shifting (a bit), bathroom bitching and, most strikingly, the unbridled fun that has come to be associated with Coppers.

It was always a bold (or perhaps genius) move by Paul Howard to take on Copper Face Jacks: The Musical, after all, love it or loathe it, no one can dispute that Coppers is anything less than iconic. Get it wrong and you risk offending the masses. Everyone has a tale to tell from this Harcourt haunt, whether they are willing to or not is a different matter…

This story is one infused with Howard’s trademark hilarity, the musical’s single biggest asset. At one point I double over in stitches, the man in front of me throws his head back howling, we head-butt and laugh harder.

If you like Howard’s humour, you’ll love Coppers: The Musical. If you like Coppers, you’ll love the musical, and if you don’t take yourself too seriously, more than likely, you’ll love Coppers: The Musical. Easily offended or too PC and this might not be for you. After all, we are dealing with a man in love with a woman “from the other side of this racially divided country”.

The couple in question are Noleen Nic Gearailt from Kerry and Gino Wildes from Dublin, who of course meet in the cultural melting pot that is Copper Face Jacks. Noleen has made the 10-hour trek from Cahirciveen to the “Big Shmoke” following her dream job in the VHI claims department, despite Mammy’s warning that “she’s as soft in the head as a newborn calf”. Gino, a true blue, is none other than captain of the Dublin footballers.

With their respective counties set to battle in the All-Ireland football final, they face their fair share of hurdles, the least of them being their friends: “Two weeks before the All-Ireland final and you walk into Coppers with Peig f***ing Sayers on your arm.”

The casting is superb. Everyone knows a nurse or a guard who carries on like them, or a country girl in awe of the big city. But the standout performances, of which there are two, have to be Johnny Ward as Gino Wildes and Stephen O’Leary as Mossy Munnix.

From the moment Johnny struts on stage, he brings the anti-hero Gino to life, “and he with more children than would fill the Cusack Stand”. Stephen, with Mossy the windmill farmer’s facial expressions at a fine art, creates a country bumpkin parody that is side-splittingly funny, “there’s a power of wind in those turbines, two buckets full”.

Just like the establishment from which it takes its name, Coppers: The Musical is not meant to be taken too seriously. And like its namesake, this musical is full of laughter and entertainment, which transcends even this country’s brutal culchie/Dublin divide.

See yiz in Coppers! CL

Copper Face Jacks: The Musical runs at the Olympia Theatre until 12 August.

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