The Fairytale Of New York
03 December 2023
Dominion Theatre
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
The one-night-only The Fairytale Of New York at the Dominion Theatre sounded like a brilliant way of fully ringing in the Christmas season. A sing-along Christmas concert with a distinct Irish twist. However, the show didn’t quite deliver what I expected it to.
The stage of the Dominion Theatre is massive, and the five main musicians/singers just don’t quite fill it up. There is also a troupe of Irish dancers trampling across the stage, which is a good visual, but seems quite gimmicky in this setting. To top it off, the show starts with an actual advert from Tourism Ireland, projected on the backdrop of the stage, which set the atmosphere in a very weird, capitalist way that didn’t sit quite right for me. Most of the songs are accompanied by large video projections that look like more tourism adverts, and the sing-along atmosphere never quite transpired to the audience, with only a few people clapping and singing along.
While the troupe on stage really did try their best, I felt it was very silly and gimmicky, and just a bit too intimate for such a big theatre. I ended up leaving at interval as it just didn’t give me that Christmas feeling, but felt more silly, like pub entertainment thrown onto a large stage.
It definitely could have been better.
