Best fans giving musical a red card
FOOTBALL fans have voiced disappointment that early previews of the George Best musical ignored his international career with Northern Ireland.
A number of supporters who attended the opening this week revealed that the performance does not make reference to memorable Best's exploits in the green shirt.
That is even though the official programme notes that he possibly scored the most famous "goal" of his career at Windsor Park.
The programme, while listing in chronological order the many clubs the distinguished player appeared for, including Manchester United, also omits his 37 caps for Northern Ireland.
However, a co-writer of the play, who claimed there was "nothing dramatic" in Best's playing days for his country, did not rule out a specific Northern Ireland section in the final production.
'Dancing Shoes - The George Best Story' opened at the Grand Opera House on Wednesday evening and runs until August 14.
The musical covers numerous landmark moments in Best's chequered career, including his football skills first being discovered, his European Cup success with Manchester United, his womanising and his battle with alcoholism which ultimately claimed his life.
Despite the principal character - played by actor Aidan O'Neill - not donning the famous green jersey at Wednesday night's opening, some of the audience did wear replica Northern Ireland tops in their own tribute.
One member of the audience said: "There seems to be this ongoing perception that any association with the Northern Ireland team is deemed sectarian. How many times do you have stand up for your home team?”
She added: “Maybe for artistic reasons it was not used in the show but the team listing without Northern Ireland is bizarre.”
Another person said: “If a musical was made in tribute to Roy Keane, there would be an national outcry down south if it made no reference to his international playing days with the Republic.”
Gary McAllister, from the Amalgamation of Northern Ireland Supporters’ Clubs, said: “A lot of people will be disappointed that George Best’s international career isn’t acknowledged given that George played in an era when his appearances for Northern Ireland were the only opportunity most people had to see him play live.
“The people of Northern Ireland are very proud to be able to tell others that the country produced a player of George Best’s ability so it is quite disappointing that the producers of ‘Dancing Shoes’ have chosen to omit any mention of his international career.”
Martin Lynch, who co-wrote the play with Marie Jones, insisted the musical was still not a finished product prior to Saturday’s scheduled gala performance.
“The play is an ongoing animal at the moment and we are still rectifying things at this stage,” he said.
“His (Best’s) Northern Ireland career as such doesn’t feature in the trajectory probably because there is nothing dramatic in that story, but certainly we have a Northern Ireland section which for costume reasons hasn’t gone into the play yet.”
Asked why Best’s “moment of genius” of heading the ball out of England goalkeeper Gordon Banks’s hands to score the most famous disallowed goal in history in 1971 was not included, Mr Lynch said the incident did not make the production due to a “process of elimination”.
“There is a lot of stuff we would like to have included, but when you are moving from scene to scene and bringing an audience with you, it is a different kettle of fish from writing a straight biography.
“It is not that George Best’s international career isn’t significant, we certainly want to acknowledge that he played for Northern Ireland on 37 occasions.”
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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