Royal seal of approval for Galway woman’s musical based on phone hacking scandal!
A musical written by a Galway woman – and based on the recent phone hacking controversy in the UK – has received the Royal seal of approval as well as the support of one of the prime movers in exposing that scandal, Hollywood star Hugh Grant.
Princes Harry and William - and Kate Middleton - have joined the growing chorus of support for the Daily Fail: the musical, which was written by Fiona O’Malley, a Galway native now based in London,.
“My theatre company, the Untold Theatre Company, received a letter in the post from Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton wishing us good luck with The Daily Fail: the musical! It's probably because Harry was one of the many victims of the hacking scandal which inspired me to write the musical,” said Fiona, who is also a weekly contributor to the Connacht Sentinel where she writes on fashion.
And on top of the blessing from Buckingham Palace, Grant’s Hacked Off Campaign is also backing the musical. When the actor, who was one of the hacking victims who gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry last year, heard about the project, he didn’t think twice about supporting the Untold Theatre Company, which Fiona, aged 24, set up with her friend, Adam Wollerton (23) last December.
Fiona, a journalism graduate of NUIG who did her Masters in Kingston University in London, writes a weekly Style column for our sister paper, The Connacht Sentinel, but in the past year alone has worked with Vogue and a number of the UK’s quality newspapers.
Her family moved from Tipperary to Galway City when she was a teenager but her life for now is very much in London.
Her love of musicals sees her going to at least one a week and last year, she decided to start penning her own.
Her starting point was the plot outline based on celebrities and privacy issues and with the benefit of seeing the unfolding of the Leveson Inquiry, she started writing the lyrics for a number of songs. She collaborated with another friend, Joseph Alexander to put them to music.
Fiona also had to raise an initial £2,000 before even thinking of staging it on any stage, let alone aim for the West End.
But Fiona is now confident that with Hugh Grant’s support and the backing of his Hacked Off Campaign that the project might actually hit the big time.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.