Reviews

Adventures of a Music Nerd (Not Snob!)

Review by
Donald Mahoney

3 stars

As You Are Now So Once Were We

Review by
Kathy Clarke

3 stars

Berlin Love Tour

Review by
Fintan Walsh

5 stars

City West Side Story

Review by
Shirley Chance

3 stars

FAT

Review by
Fíona Ní Chinnéide

3 stars

From The Heart

Review by
Kathy Clarke

3 stars

Heroin

Review by
Donald Mahoney

4 stars

I [heart] Alice [heart] I

Review by
Fíona Ní Chinnéide

4 stars

I Am A Man

Review by
Shirley Chance

3 stars

I Love Guns

Review by
Helen Meany

2 stars

Jerk

Review by
Fintan Walsh

3 stars

Lipstick Service

Review by
Fintan Walsh

3 stars

Listowel Syndrome

Review by
Fintan Walsh

3 stars

Little Iliad

Review by
Jennifer Lee

4 stars

Medea

Review by
Fintan Walsh

5 stars

My Husband is a Spaceman

Review by
Donald Mahoney

4 stars

My Life in Dresses

Review by
Susan Conley

2 stars

Neuropolis

Review by
Harry Browne

4 stars

Paper Boy & Friends

Review by
Donald Mahoney

3 stars

Soh

Review by
Kathy Clarke

4 stars

Strollinstown

Review by
Fíona Ní Chinnéide

3 stars

The Ballet Ruse

Review by
Fintan Walsh

4 stars

The Butcher Babes

Review by
Harvey O'Brien

1 star

The Cappuccino Culture

Review by
Jennifer Lee

2 stars

the next two days of everything

Review by
Kathy Clarke

3 stars

The Truth of the Moon

Review by
Harry Browne

2 stars

Trilogy

Review by
Susan Conley

4 stars

We Are All in the Gutter

Review by
Jennifer Lee

3 stars

What the Folk!

Review by
Peter Crawley

4 stars

Wish I Were Here

Review by
Susan Conley

2 stars

World's End Lane

Review by
Helen Meany

4 stars
  • Review
  • Theatre

Produced by Corksongs featuring Dee in The Bernard Shaw

Adventures of a Music Nerd (Not Snob!)

Wed 15 - 17 September (7:15pm, 8:45pm)

Review by Donald Mahoney

Reviewed 15 September 2010

Absolut Fringe 2010

Adventures Of A Music Nerd (Not Snob!) Photo by Mr Leonard

What does the music we listen to say about us? Cork native Ronan Leonard believes his life story lies in 30 songs. Leonard is a sort of Everymuso in his one-man performance Adventures Of A Music Nerd (Not Snob!), as he details the memories and connections evoked by 30 pre-programmed song clips – everything from MacArthur Park to Livin’ On A Prayer – which at play at random. It’s theatre with an iPod shuffle.

Knowledgeable and insightful about his musical passion, Leonard’s purpose here is not to champion his own tastes, but rather to construct a tender, and pun-heavy, narrative about how he shook off the snobbery of musical obsession and learned to embrace life in all its ordinariness.

Staging it on the top floor of a double-decker bus parked behind the Bernard Shaw may have seemed like a way to create a Magical Mystery Tour kind of camaraderie, but it only introduced distance between the performer and the audience, as the booths were cramped and the eyelines were poor. Yet Leonard’s sheer affability helps to overcome any awkwardness. He tells a simple story, but as recorded birthday greetings read out by Gay Byrne and his namesake, RTE 1 DJ Ronan Collins, suggest, the human bonds we forge through music often run deeper than we know.