As you come up the escalator at Leicester Square underground station, you might notice the posters lining the walls advertising Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! and We Will Rock You. You could be forgiven for wondering what place Dexys have in the heart of West End theatreland, especially here among these big karaoke musicals.

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But itโ€™s worth remembering that Kevin Rowland has always seemed to relish his bandโ€™s underdog status โ€“ finding something heroic, I guess, in the ongoing struggle against more orthodox forms of music.

Indeed, his first appearance on Top Of The Pops โ€“ February 7, 1980 โ€“ found Dexys Midnight Runners sharing a bill with AC/DC and Buggles, while Legs & Co danced to โ€œThe Beat Goes Onโ€ by Whispers. 33 years on, Rowland continues to remind us that heโ€™s on the outside looking in. He and his band are here for a nine-night residency at Londonโ€™s Duke of Yorkโ€™s theatre on St Martinโ€™s Lane, sandwiched between David Hareโ€™s play The Judas Kiss and Peter Nicholsโ€™ Passion Play, starring Zoรซ Wanamaker. How on earth did they get in? Did the caretaker forget to lock the doors properly?

Of course, Kevin Rowland has always been one of our most challenging and idiosyncratic musicians. Following the 27 year gap between Donโ€™t Stand Me Down and last yearโ€™s One Day Iโ€™m Going To Soar (and 13 years since his last solo album, My Beauty), Rowland chose a predictably unconventional route back into the public consciousness. Before One Day Iโ€™m Going To Soar was released last June, Rowland and the latest incarnation of Dexys played their as yet-unreleased new album in full and in sequence. Of course, the practise of playing albums in their entirety like this is traditionally reserved for a band revisiting a classic album, not launching a new one. But such is the high-stakes drama of the Dexys narrative โ€“ and the sheer confidence in the albumโ€™s songs โ€“ that it arguably felt like there was no other logical way to do it.

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The programme for these run of dates at the Duke of Yorkโ€™s is essentially the same as last yearโ€™s shows: One Day Iโ€™m Going To Soar followed by a selection of old favourites. But this setting in the 120 year-old venue seems particularly apt for Rowland and his nine co-conspirators, who give full rein to the more theatrical aspects of a Dexys show. If One Day Iโ€™m Going To Soar was the latest chapter in Rowlandโ€™s ongoing spiritual autobiography, then these narrative-driven confessionals are splendidly โ€“ and stylishly โ€“ played out. Rowland leads the sartorial charge with, by my reckoning, three costume changes, while his accomplices opt for a kind of 1940s American casual look. The show opens with a piano motif played in darkness before a spot catches Rowland for โ€œNowโ€, and the first of many, brilliantly acerbic moments of self-examination: โ€œOh I know that Iโ€™ve been crazy and that cannot be denied, but inside of me thereโ€™s always been a secret urge to flyโ€.

The story โ€“boy meets girl, they fall in love, he canโ€™t commit, sad face, the end โ€“ is played out in song, and also a series of dialogues between Rowland and Pete Williams, who acts as his foil in the early part of the show, and later, Madeleine Hyland, as the object of Rowlandโ€™s lustful attentions. First glimpsed reclining on a chaise lounge above the band, Hyland is a relatively conventional vocal presence compared to Rowlandโ€™s rich, swooning soul voice. In essence, sheโ€™s a pencil-sketch, a narrative device to get Rowland to the moment of realisation that he is โ€œincape, incape, incapable of loveโ€. All the same, Hyland and Rowland get into a terrific scrap on โ€œIโ€™m Always Going To Love Youโ€, with Hyland, first wooed and now abandoned, snarling at Rowland: โ€œKevin, donโ€™t talk to me โ€ฆ You saw me as a challengeโ€.

Despite being absent for great chunks of the set, Williams fares well. His banter with Rowland โ€“ however well-rehearsed (and in some cases, stretching back to the early Eighties) โ€“ is loose and good humoured. Trombonist Big Jim Paterson, Rowlandโ€™s longest serving collaborator, elicits some of the biggest cheers of the night. Rowland himself is terrific. He has a Brando-esque emotional intensity, whether during the stripped down soliloquizing on โ€œMeโ€ or snapping into moments of sudden violence. The big songs โ€“ especially the encore โ€“ find him turning up the soul power, but I kind of prefer the softer croon he uses for the more introspective songs, in particular a show-stopping โ€œItโ€™s OK John Joeโ€.

โ€œWe couldnโ€™t leave it like that, could we?โ€ says Pete Williams, ushering in a final act of Dexys classics, including a powerful take on โ€œThe Waltzโ€, a mischievous reworking of โ€œGenoโ€, a jubilant โ€œI Love You (Listen To This)โ€ and a version of โ€œUntil I Believe In My Soulโ€ that simply wonโ€™t stop. The finale, โ€œThis Is What Sheโ€™s Likeโ€, repurposes the show as rousing soul revue, Rowland at one point leaning over the side of a box, shouting over and over again, โ€œThis is our stuff โ€“ this, this, this is our stuff.โ€ The stuff of brilliance itself.

Dexys played:

Now (into)

Lost (into)

Me

She Got A Wiggle

You (into)

Thinking Of You

Iโ€™m Always Going To Love You

Incapable Of Love

Nowhere Is Home

Free

Itโ€™s OK John Joe

Free Reprise

The Waltz

Geno (into)

Listen To This

Until I Believe In my Soul/Light Turns Green

I Couldnโ€™t Help It If I Tried

This Is What Sheโ€™s Like

Photo credit: Dean Chalkley

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