It was the theatre show created to mark Celtic’s glittering Centenary Season in 1988.
But one of Scotland’s most successful actors has told how producers narrowly avoided a mis-step that would have put a Rangers legend at the heart of the Hoops’ celebrations.
Actor and director Peter Mullan, who appeared onstage in The Celtic Story in 1988, has revealed how he and co-star Davie McKay stepped in to prevent a Rangers legend taking the limelight onstage at Glasgow’s Pavilion.
Stars of Billy McNeill’s double-winning team, including Frank McAvennie, Paul McStay, Pat Bonner and Billy Stark, surprised audiences at the end of the show each night by emerging from a birthday cake holding the Scottish Cup on stage.
When the production ran out of Celtic players, the late David MacLennan, who founded the show’s production company Wildcat, had an idea.
Mullan said: “David, God bless him, suggested John Greig [the former Rangers manager and player]. Me and David McKay were the only big Celtic fans in the cast, and suggested it might not be a great idea.
“Celtic had just won the double, I’m not sure any Celtic fans had much against John Greig but they definitely didn’t want him coming out of a cake holding the Scottish Cup we’d just won.”
He added: “It was a great experience, bonkers. There were signs up everywhere saying ‘no drinking, no photography’ and literally when you walked on stage, everybody was opening beer cans and you’d be in the middle of a scene and somebody would be taking a picture. It was hilarious. I loved it.”
Mullan has since gone on to become one of the most successful actors and filmmakers in Scotland, making films like Neds and The Magdalene Sisters, with roles in My Name Is Joe and Harry Potter.
His dark 1998 comedy Orphans has now been adapted as a musical for stage by the National Theatre of Scotland, opening this week at Glasgow's Armadillo starring Burnistoun’s Rab Florence. It’ll tour to Edinburgh and Inverness later this month.
The Ozark actor’s involvement has been minimal, but he gave the production his blessing during cast read-through last year, and compared it to his time with Wildcat.
He said: “This reminded me of companies like Wildcat, and 7:84, too. They were the only shows that would combine politics, Scottish accents and music at the time.”
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