Musical version of Playboy returns to the Town Hall
Following a sell-out run at Cúirt 2016, this unique and critically acclaimed musical version of the classic Playboy of the Western World returns, due to public demand, for one week.
Adapted by Diarmuid de Faoite and Justin McCarthy, with music by Justin McCarthy, this is a staged version of the award-winning Radio Musical broadcast by RTÉ last year.
The play itself is set in a 1950s radio studio complete with narrator, an ensemble of actors, a band, backing singers and lots and lots of live sound effects. It explores the idea of a radio musical as a theatrical event because what you see and what you hear can be very different things.
With BAI & RTE support it was broadcast as an RTE Drama on One in December 2015. It went on to win bronze at the New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programme Awards and is currently nominated for a PPI Award.
It was then further adapted as a live theatre performance and presented in An Taibhdhearc in Galway as a feature event in the Cúirt Festival on April 19 last. This sell-out stage debut met with an overwhelmingly positive audience reaction.
This is a contemporary reimagining of a classic Irish play. The storyline remains true to the original but is condensed through song and narrative to highlight the drama and wealth of language. The characters, in both spoken word and song, are reimagined as a mashup of contemporary musical icons.
The music, all original, evolves through the last 50 years of popular music (from country and western to heavy metal).
■ Tickets €20 / €18, matinee €15 are available now from www.tht.ie.