Sunny Afternoon – Leeds Grand Theatre

If you thought Liam and Noel were the most quarrelsome rock ‘n’ roll siblings, this often dark jukebox musical featuring the hits of The Kinks will make you think again.

The decades-long sibling rivalry at the band’s creative heart, tortured songwriter Ray Davies and his wild guitarist sibling Dave, make the Gallagher boys look like choirboys in comparison. They were at each other’s throats from the moment they formed The Kinks in Muswell Hill with constant bickering, plus onstage fistfights, which led to them being the only UK pop act banned from America at the heart of their powers, denying them the chance to be huge across the pond.

They probably wouldn’t have made it big like the Fab Four or The Who as Ray’s often bittersweet classics that are all included in the show are so quintessentially English, and more so a slice of swinging sixties London at the height of the flower power revolution and free love. The original idea for a show that won an Olivier for Best New Musical came from Ray himself, and Joe Penhall’s pacey book offers a semi-autobiographical account of their rise in the mid sixties from poverty to the moment they create their best tune, Waterloo Sunset.

There’s a lot to pack in from dodgy managers and the their unlikely rise to chart toppers to  Ray’s shotgun wedding, so the first half does sometimes feel like a pop Cockney knees up, especially on a reworked version of Dead End Street featuring all the strong ensemble in Miriam Buether’s spot on sixties costumes. The recreation of the infamous gig where drummer Mick Avory and Dave come to blows as they rip through You Really Got me did add a harder edge Sunny Afternoon proceedings. Rock pedants will be annoyed that some of the songs were written long after the period in which they are set.

Buether’s recording studio inspired set does offer a wide palate for the often frantic pace of the show, and Adam Cooper’s occasionally clichéd choreography. Penhall does attempt to show how their hits soundtracked contemporary events, notably juxtaposing Sunny Afternoon with England winning the World Cup in 1966.

What is really impressive is the four actors playing the band all play their own instruments, and prove to be a really, really tight band capable of switching from the balls out rock of their first number one, You’ve Really Got Me, to some of Ray’s more introspective tunes like Where Have All The Good Times Gone.

Danny Horn really captures the tortured soul of Ray as he battles between keeping his integrity as a songwriter and being a reluctant star. His rendition of This Strange Effect is full of pathos especially as it’s followed by a touching Stop Your Sobbing sung by Lisa Wright as his wife Rasa. Kinks purists might feel his voice isn’t quite like Ray’s, but his take on Tired of Waiting is sublime, as is a melancholic Sitting In My Hotel as he reflects on the cost of fame.

Oliver Hoare has great fun as wild man ‘Dave The Rave’ riffing away on the big numbers but never loses sight of a need for his massive contribution to the band to be acknowledged by his older brother which is at the core of their enmity. Harry Curley plays really well as bassist Pete Quaife showing how he was an outsider in a band full of misfits.  Zakarie Stokes as aggressive drummer Mick Avory is the best musician of the four merrily bashing away on the kit, and his endless verbal and physical battles with Dave who he really hates are believable.

There are touches of Carry On The Kinks at times, but when the music kicks in all that is washed away by the genius of Ray Davies and his kid brother. When the cast walk through the audience to join The Kinks onstage for Waterloo Sunset it is a spine-tingling reminder that it will always be one of the greatest songs ever written by a working class lad from North London.

Sunny Afternoon is at Leeds Grand Theatre until Saturday 28th February. To book www.leedsheritagetheatres.com or 0113 2430808.

Reviewer: Paul Clarke

Reviewed: 24^th February 2026

North West End UK Rating: