The Simon & Garfunkel Story – quality vocals bring the sound of the duo’s classics back to life (Grand Opera House until Wednesday 7 August)

The Simon & Garfunkel Story begins in near darkness. The two lead singers of this tribute show stand in silhouette, emphasising the quality of their vocals which recreate the familiar tight harmonies of The Sound of Silence. They’re a five-piece outfit with electric guitar/keys, bass and drums producing a facsimile of the musical riffs that have been drilled into your head over the decades listening to Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon’s classic repertoire.

Soon the lights come up and we’re taken back to the talented duo’s origin, their participation in a school production of Alice in Wonderland, and the beginning of their recording career as Tom & Jerry.

Throughout the 140-minute show, animations projected behind the band fill in some of the details of Simon and Garfunkel’s musical progress, though some of the on-screen storytelling between songs fails to engage portions of the audience who chat rather than staying fully engaged in the show.

Alex Bradshaw (Art Garfunkel) and James Pattison (Paul Simon) abandon their click tracks and in-ear monitors for some of the more intimate numbers like Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Close your eyes and it’s like listening to the album.

Harrison White plays keys and electric guitar, delivering an extrovert performance that adds a lot of colour to the uncluttered stage. There’s a great sequence of songs in the lead up to the interval: Homeward Bound, Scarborough Fair, and Feelin’ Groovy.

While the drums (Harry Denton) and bass (Nick Martin) are kept quite far back in the mix in the first half, after the interval the volume ramps up as the performers work their way through hits from Simon and Garfunkel’s final two studio albums, Bookends and Bridge Over Troubled Water. There are familiar tracks – Mrs Robinson and Old Friends, and some more novel appearances like Punky’s Dilemma (with its quirky opening stanza “Wish I was a Kellogg’s Cornflake / Floatin’ in my bowl takin’ movies”).

By this stage the interstitial videos are just getting in the way. Look out for an anachronistic plane bearing the British Airways ‘speedmarque’ livery that only appeared in 1997. We fast forward to 1981, nine or so years since the pair disbanded, to hear that they reunited for a gig in New York’s Central Park, playing in front of half a million people. The screen captions hint that they rarely worked together again, rattling through their solo careers, but downplaying the scale of the rift between them.

The rendition of America is a total triumph. But you could hear a pin drop – other than the audience members auditioning to become backing singers – when Harrison White begins to play the piano to accompany Alex Bradshaw for Bridge over Troubled Water. Such vocal control. A magical moment.

Amidst this peak nostalgia, sadly there’s no nod to my favourite track 7 O’Clock News/Silent Night. It’s surely never too early to mark Christmas! One to listen to on the way home … if I can get back to my car through the disturbances in south Belfast.

The Simon & Garfunkel Story continues at the Grand Opera House in Belfast until Wednesday 7 August. All remaining performances are sold out.

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