‘Sing Street’: Theater Review

Mirroring the screen-to-stage evolution of John Carney’s ‘Once,’ the Irish filmmaker’s semi-autobiographical 2016 comedy about a 1980s Dublin high school pop band gets theatrical treatment.
Writer-director John Carney’s background in Irish rock band The Frames has informed much of his screen work, exploring the power of music to liberate and connect us in films like Once and Begin Again. He drew on experiences from his own youth in economically depressed 1980s Dublin in the 2016 feature Sing Street, a let’s-make-a-band high school story that doubled as a valentine to the flamboyant new wave Brit pop of the period. Playwright Enda Walsh and director Rebecca Taichman have remodeled that source material into a spirited stage musical, which feels like a work in progress but has no shortage of winning elements.