There’s something wonderfully fitting about seeing SUNNY AFTERNOON at Swansea Building Society Arena. This is a venue built for big nights and big noise, the kind of place where you expect guitars, screaming fans, and a bassline you can feel in your ribs. So when a musical about one of Britain’s most influential bands rolls into town, it lands in the right home. And for a show that constantly blurs the line between musical theatre and live concert, that setting matters.
Set in Britain on the cusp of the rebellious 1960s, Sunny Afternoon tells the story of The Kinks with all the rush, humour, and heart you’d hope for, while still leaving room for the darker corners of the music business. It’s a multi Olivier Award-winning production, but it doesn’t trade on its trophies. It gets on with the job: putting a brilliant catalogue of songs back where they belong, in front of an audience, played loud with feeling.
At the centre of it all are brothers Ray and Dave Davies. DANNY HORN plays Ray, and he captures the mix of talent and tension that sits behind the band’s success. Ray is the writer, the thinker, the one trying to wrestle meaning from the chaos around him. Danny gives him a grounded presence, never showy, and that works because Ray often feels like a man watching his own life happen at high speed.
Alongside him, OLIVER HOARE as Dave arrives with fizzing energy, the kind that can light up a room and burn it down five minutes later. Oliver was a particular point of interest for the Swansea audience too, being Cardiff-born, and you could sense an extra warmth in the room whenever he took focus. He plays Dave as magnetic and volatile, a young man powered by adrenaline, pride, and the thrill of being heard.
You can watch our interview with Oliver HERE.
That brotherly dynamic is the engine of the piece, and it’s hard not to make a modern comparison. The Davies brothers, in their clashes and their closeness, often mirror the story we’ve all watched play out with Liam and Noel Gallagher. Two siblings bound by music and rivalry, each helping to create something bigger than themselves, and each pulling against the other as fame turns the volume up on every disagreement. It’s not a forced parallel, either. The show makes it clear that the tension isn’t a side plot. It’s part of the sound.
Musically, this is where Sunny Afternoon really sings. The back catalogue is stacked, and the show knows it. You get the chart-toppers you came for, including “You Really Got Me,” “Lola,” and “All Day and All of the Night,” and they land with the punch they should. What’s satisfying is that the songs aren’t just dropped in as party pieces. They’re used to push the story forward, or to show you what’s going on inside the characters when plain dialogue wouldn’t quite do it. At the same time, the production doesn’t pretend we aren’t all there partly for the tunes. It leans into the pleasure of it.
At times, the atmosphere feels part musical theatre and part pop concert. You could feel the audience itching to stand up and dance, especially when the most recognisable riffs kicked in. The tension between “sit nicely and watch” and “get up and move” is almost comical in a venue like this, but the show uses it. It builds towards release, and when the final curtain call comes, it finally gives us permission. The result is pure joy. You could see it in the faces around us: the grin that says, yes, that was the night out I wanted.
The Arena itself becomes part of the production’s strength. Because this is a space used to hosting large-scale gigs, the show can play with the idea of a live Kinks performance in a way that feels natural rather than gimmicky. At points, cast members are out in the audience performing, and it’s done with confidence, treating us less like passive theatre-goers and more like we’re at an actual show. That choice makes the story feel immediate. You’re not watching history from a safe distance. You’re in it, close enough to flinch when things get messy.
And messy it does get, in places. For all the fun, for all the sing-along moments, Sunny Afternoon doesn’t shy away from the seedier side of the industry. It shows how easily teenage boys can be swept along by fame and momentum, while other people supposedly take care of business. Contracts, tours, money, pressure, control: it’s all there, sitting under the gloss. The show doesn’t drown you in misery, but it doesn’t smooth over the reality either. That balance is one of its strengths. It’s entertaining without being naïve.
Incidentally, The Kinks did play Swansea back on June 14th 1967 at the Top Rank.
What also comes through strongly is just how influential The Kinks were. It’s easy to forget, in a world where rock history gets reduced to headlines and playlists, how much they shaped the sound that followed. Sunny Afternoon reminds you, not with a lecture, but by letting the music speak. Those sharp, driving songs still feel alive. And the story behind them, full of ambition, bruised egos, and flashes of genius, feels just as relevant now as it did then.
By the time the lights come up, you don’t leave thinking you’ve watched a museum piece. You leave feeling like you’ve been to a proper night of live music with a story attached, which is exactly what this show should be. In Swansea, in this arena, with this crowd, Sunny Afternoon feels right at home.
SUNNY AFTERNOON is at the Swansea Building Society Arena through to Saturday 6th December. For details and tickets go HERE.
It returns next year to Wales Millennium Centre from 26th to 30th May. To get tickets for the Cardiff dates go HERE.
