When I found out I would be in London on the night of The Beautiful Game's last performance, I decided I had to go. Partly because I hoped Andrew Lloyd Webber would be there - and he was - and also because closing shows are usually wonderful and emotional performances - and it was.

I was prepared for this show to be different from other Andrew Lloyd Webber shows, but the stark stage showed me right away just how different it would be. The show opens with a solitary soccer player kicking a pop can around. He is gradually joined by a group of others while the overture plays. Just a note: I'm going to say soccer and not football, so as not to confuse any North Americans out there. :-) The whole company then comes on stage to sing about their love of soccer. This is one of my favourite tunes in the show, and I thought it was staged very well.

Father O'Donnell's team is having their first meeting on the first day of the season. Here we're introduced to the major characters on the team - Thomas, a short-sighted and militant young man, Daniel, a cheerful thief, Ginger, the burly but sweet one, Del, an athiest on an otherwise Catholic team, and John, the star of the team, who manages to get himself in trouble by paying more attention to a girl on the sidelines than to the priest. As punishment, he has to clean the equipment after practice. Meanwhile, Thomas and some of the others force Del to quit the team, saying he doesn't fit in.

The cause of John's troubles, Mary, comes to talk to him as he works on the "kit" in the locker rom. They're quite obviously attracted to each other, though it takes them a while to admit it. Josie Walker is excellent as Mary and Ben Goddard was a great John. I was a little disappointed not to see David Shannon in the role, but there was nothing to complain about with Ben!

Time passes. John and Mary are pretty serious about each other now. She asks him one evening to join her in a march for Catholic rights, but he is more interested in going drinking with his friends. Left alone, Mary is unable to understand why anyone would not love Ireland and want to make it better. Her sentiments are echoed - almost - by a girl with the rival Protestant team. John changes his mind and returns to go to the march with Mary, because she is more important to him.

The team makes it to the final, but their celebration is cut short when a group of Protestants trash the locker room. Christine and Del emerge to find the wreckage - they had been making love in hiding during the raid. Surveying the mess, they both wish all the fighring would stop so they could get on with their lives. Hannah Waddingham, who played Christine, was so wonderful. She was a really good actor, so at first I thought she may have been cast on the strength of that rather than singing ability, but I was quickly proved wrong. She can definitely sing!!

The final game was staged so well. It was an elaborate dance sequence, that was still enough like soccer that you could follow the action of the game. After the other team tied the goal on a penalty shot, John scores the winning goal. The team continues their celebration at a local pub. Del comes to see Christine, but Thomas and his friends quickly remind him that he isn't welcome. Rather than causing any more unpleasantness, he leaves. Meanwhile, Ginger has finally got up the nerve to speak to Bernadette, who returns his affection. They have a first, small kiss, and then she has to go, and Ginger helps Daniel home. After seeing him to his door, Ginger is about to head home himself when he's confronted by a gang of Protestant thugs. His attempt to escape is useless.

Christine and Mary are discussing the previous evening at Mary's house. Mary disapproves of the relationship with Del until Christine convinces her that love knows no boundaries. They are interrupted by John who brings the horrible news - Ginger is dead. Thomas arrives and asks John to go with them to get revenge, but he refuses - more violence won't do any good. As they comfort each other and go to the funeral, they all long for an end to the division and for a chance to live a normal life.

The act ends with Ginger's coffin onstage alone with rain falling down. It is a very effective image. I found that the show reminded me a bit in structure of Fiddler on the Roof, the way it starts off rather cheerful and light-hearted, and gradually the undertones take over until it is very serious.

The second act opens with John and Mary's wedding. They are both a little nervous, but in the end their love is stronger. After the vows, they are left alone in the hotel room for their wedding night. This was a really cute scene, and both actors were great!

In the middle of the night, the phone rings. It's Thomas, and he's in trouble. He asks for John's help. Mary doesn't want him to go, but John feels he owes it to his friend even though he doesn't agree with what he's doing. He finally finds Thomas and tells him it's the only time he'll ever do something like this. Thomas tries to explain to him why he has to do what he does.

John is finally going to get his big break at the soccer trials. On her way to watch, Mary says goodbye to Christine and Del, who are moving to New York to escape the situation there. Mary figures she and John will go to England, and they talk about leaving their home.

John makes a great impression and the coaches want him, but someone else wants him too - the police. Someone has tipped them off about how he helped Thomas, and he is taken to prison, before Mary even has a chance to tell him that she's pregnant.

John is put with the other IRA prisoners. He tries to stay apart from them, but they work away at him and eventually he begins to think like them. Even Mary has trouble getting through to him.

She has her baby, a boy named Sean, and Daniel comes over to see them. While he's there, Thomas and two other IRA agents barge in and accuse Daniel of betraying John. They shoot him in the knee, crippling him. Mary is horrified and wonders if any good could possibly come out of all this violence.

John is finally released, and his first stop is to see Thomas, because he has realized that it was Thomas who turned him over to the police. After confronting him, John kills him.

Mary enters. She tries to find the man within John that she fell in love with, but he is buried too deep. John is going to England to work for the IRA. He leaves his soccer jersey and a picture of the championship team for his son. Mary hopes that the cycle of hate can be stopped with Sean.

This was really the only night on my London trip where I left the theatre feeling really fulfilled. It is one of the best shows I've seen in quite a while, and I will definitely be going to see it again when it makes it to Toronto.