Theatre review: Moonlight: The Philip Lynott Enigma tackles the life of Ireland's great rocker 

Peter M Smith shines in the role of Phil Lynott at the Vicar Street show

Peter M Smith in Moonlight The Philip Lynott Enigma, at Vicar Street in Dublin. Picture: Cormac Figgis

Moonlight: The Philip Lynott Enigma, Vicar St, Dublin, ★★★☆☆

The story of the man at the centre of Thin Lizzy is a good one and Moonlight: The Philip Lynott Enigma, a new rock/theatre production by John Merrigan and Danielle Morgan, finds a novel way to tell it.

After a brief introduction from none other than Eric Bell, Lizzy’s original guitarist, the stage set shows a bandstand to the right and a bar to the left. Behind the bar a large video screen proves a useful device for showing both images of the real Lynott and footage of the Dublin of his youth.

It becomes apparent we’re in the afterlife, specifically Tír na Bhfilí, the land of the poets, following Lynott’s passing in 1986. Brendan Behan, an unlikely guardian angel, welcomes Lynott to this new realm, allowing him recount his early life and rise to fame.

While there’s a supporting cast – Oscar Wilde flits through occasionally, as well as a bartender and, naturally, a sleazy music journalist – Moonlight is really a two-hander. Padraig O’Loingsigh as Behan gets a lot of the best lines (a state funeral was appropriate given the state he was in, and they’re still waiting for Samuel Beckett) but the show belongs to Peter M Smith as Lynott. He gets the accent, the look, and – crucially - Philo’s presence right, and he can sing.

Eric Bell (original Thin Lizzy guitarist) and Peter M Smith on stage during Moonlight: The Philip Lynott Enigma.

As the pair sit supping pints, Lynott remembers his painful early separation from his mother Philomena, how words “swirled in the air above his head” giving him a means of expression. And then there’s the music. First off with Brush Shields in Skid Row and then the rise of Thin Lizzy, as they head to London to record the first album and then hit it big with Whiskey In The Jar.

While there are several original songs throughout, they can’t hope to match the Lizzy originals, and Smith’s voice is at its best for a beautiful Dublin, a suitably rumbunctious Look What The Wind Blew In, and – of course – The Rocker.

A closing extended Lizzy ‘gig’, including a great Running Back and the return of Bell for an enthusiastic if erratic Whiskey In The Jar, had everyone on their feet as the four-piece band displayed their chops. By turns funny and poignant, especially Smith’s moving soliloquy about missing us and it all, Moonlight successfully locates Lynott in Ireland’s literary pantheon, where he belongs.

• Moonlight: The Philip Lynott Enigma has announced three extra dates for Vicar Street in Dublin on June 20-22. The show also tours to UCH Limerick on June 24