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Not every story needs to be turned into a musical, but Matthew Warchus’s 2014 film Pride seemed to be crying out for it. Based on the true story of a London gay and lesbian group that raised money for the south Wales village of Dulais during the 1984 Miners’ Strike, it’s been lovingly transposed to the stage by Warchus, with a book and lyrics by original writer Stephen Beresford and music by Christopher Nightingale, Josh Cohen and DJ Walde. The result is hugely charming and affecting, if imperfect.
After a hedonistic night in his flat near Bloomsbury’s Gay’s The Word bookshop, young activist Mark (Jhon Lumsden) has an epiphany. The same people who hate homosexuals also hate the miners: ergo, they should stand together. He assembles a rag-tag gang of four gays (“and one lesbian” as Courtney Stapleton’s Steph wearily and repeatedly points out) and starts raising money for a valley village chosen pretty much at random. When they deliver the cash there’s a chalk-and-cheese clash of cultures before shared values and humanity assert themselves. The personal is political, and vice versa.
