Little Shop of Horrors: Musical tale of insatiable flesh-eating plant is a homegrown audience eater
Most of the musicals we see in Ireland are imports from the West End or elsewhere. This homegrown production is a first for Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, teaming up with Co Meath-based TheatreworX; a bold brave move.
This scrappy down-on-your-luck script with a small cast and plenty of moral compromise makes a great vehicle for an attempt to move up in the world. 'How you gonna better yourselves?' asks New York flower-shop owner Mr Mushnik of the three singing street girls who provide a sassy Greek chorus to all the action.
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Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Irish Examiner
All Together Now review: CMAT steals the show on Saturday night
CMAT's show perfect for All Together Now Nobody exits a CMAT show thinking she hasn't left it all on the stage. She's a capital-P pop Performer, regularly seen dramatically fainting to her knees or playing coy pantomime with the crowd. On her Saturday night show at All Together Now, Co Meath's finest surveys the huge crowd in front of her and confidently estimates it must indeed be more than the population of said town. There are no special guests, such as John Grant, who wrapped his own show 30 minutes earlier, for a reprise of their duet, Where are Your Kids Tonight? There are also no costume changes or reveals a la her triumphant outing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. After a summer of heavy touring ahead of the release of third album in four years Euro-country, she and the self-descrihed Sexy CMAT band aka "the greatest Irish country rock and roll band" are all the screaming masses want. And boy do they get it. Eleven songs in about 75 minutes, it's not only the show of the weekend (sorry Fontaines DC) but probably the best gig in six years of All Together Now. She revels as frontwoman, stomping across the stage, waving her butt, joking "no school tomorrow" as she cracks open a can. She finishes, as usual, with Stay for Something, jumping into the moshpit for a bop. The set began with five old songs; it could easily be CMAT karaoke such is the fervour with which they're roared by the crowd. But it's the new songs that will take CMAT's star higher. Take a Sexy Picture of Me enjoyed a viral dance moment earlier this year. "Thank you so much, that was amazing," she says afterwards. The Bandstand Arena at All Together Now. Picture: Shannon Sweeney Jamie Oliver Petrol Station is such an oddball of a song - not a diss track - and all the better for it. Penultimate song and latest single Euro-country is performed live for the first time - she was saving it for us, prefacing it by explaining how she's not a political songwriter, "because I don't think I'm that smart at it. And I didn't ever want to do it. But on this record I felt like I had no choice." She mentions emigration and various other social ills, pinning it on the government of "20-25 years ago. And I can't explain to you the politic of what happened back then, all I can explain is my memories of growing up as a kid during the crash that we all experienced and it was a horrible, horrible time for the country. And I believe that people in their 20s and 30s have been really adversely affected by it and the personal, emotional affect of it is something that I am interested in as a songwriter because I think we can learn from it." The song is brilliant, detailing "all the Berties, all the envelopes who really hurt me" and how "I was 12 when the das starting killing themselves all around me". With her support for trans rights and cries of "free free Palestine", CMAT, like Fontaines DC and Kneecap, is not afraid to use her voice to speak out. It all adds up to one of the great festival performances. Irish acts The headline performance by CMAT is the capper on a great day for Irish acts across the ATN site. During the afternoon, the queue to get into The Last City area is about a dozen deep, with DJ Rory Sweeney hosting a series of rappers as part of the Irish Hash Mafia Cypher. Enniscorthy rapper Lil Skag has built a connection with the young audience, just a "regular man doing regular activities". Morgana on stage at All Together Now 2025. Trapattoni, referencing the former Ireland soccer manager, is a smart track that marks Skag out as one to keep an eye on. Over at Something Kind of Wonderful, it's a rare outing for traditional Irish music foursome Landless, whose voices weave together majestically. The crowd is sitting and lying down letting the sound wave over them. Just over two years on since her death, they finish with a beautiful cover of a Sinéad O'Connor song, In This Heart, which they dedicate to the people of Palestine. Meanwhile, at Lovely Days, Morgana, formerly half of Saint Sister, is revelling in her new disco-pop direction. Wearing a beautiful floor-length red dress, she's perfect to soundtrack the sunny afternoon - the cover of the Corrs' Summer Sunshine helps with this, "the song of the summer every summer", says Morgana. She's beaming through the whole set, jumping down to the front row - and then unsure how to get back on stage - for an uproarious song with the apt chorus "you can look at me that way all you want, I'm not going anywhere". From rap to pop to trad, there was something for everyone on Saturday afternoon. Good vibes We mentioned how on Friday it felt busier than previous years at All Together Now 2025. But the vibe of the festival has not changed at all. Everyone is friendly and drinking it all in, enjoying themselves. It's a beautiful atmosphere - helped perhaps by the nice bank holiday weather. The Arcadia dance area at All Together Now. It also comprises age groups from young - fair play to the dad pulling his two kids up a hill with all his might during the afternoon - to savvy veterans with camping seats at hand. John Grant The aforementioned John Grant is hard to explain. It's 15 years since his debut album Queen of Denmark and while lyrically the 57-year-old is as deep as ever, musically it's gotten weirder: Squelch-pop? Electro-squelch? Either way, chances are it might not win him many new fans - there is a bit of diminishing returns with his last couple albums too - but it's fun for the fans. Featuring Irish musician Cormac Curran, often seen playing with Grant's friend and collaborator Connor O'Brien aka Villagers, Grant has also got himself a keytar which he seems to be loving. The double hit of the title track of the debut album and GMF is brilliant, inducing a devoted singalong. Queen of Denmark is dedicated to Sinéad O'Connor: "This one is always for Sinéad." Lines like "you put me in this cage and threw away the key" hit that bit harder as a result.
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- RTÉ News
'I never got into the business to be famous'
Jason Donovan is returning to Dublin to play Dr Frank N. Furter in the latest touring production of The Rocky Horror Show. Before that, he talks to RTÉ Entertainment's John Byrne about the show and his career. It's impossible to not like Jason Donovan. He just comes across as a sound guy who enjoys his career as a performer, without taking himself too seriously. He also takes the rough with the smooth, accepting that it's all part of life's rich tapestry. He famously became famous as the replacement Scott Robinson in the then massive Australian soap Neighbours back in the late 1980s - nearly 40 years ago, folks - before embarking on a pop journey that saw him mime on mountain tops and sell millions of records before turning to musical theatre in the early 1990s. Taking on the lead role in the London Palladium version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, he enjoyed his third solo UK number one with one of its songs, Any Dream Will Do. He's endured a few bumps and enjoyed the odd diversion since then, but in 1998 he took on the role of Dr Frank N Furter in the UK touring production of The Rocky Horror Show. He enjoyed it. It was a hit. And there was more. It was also where he met stage manager Angela Malloch, who would eventually become his wife and the mother of their three children. No wonder this show is dear to his heart. Roll on to 2025 and he's back in the Frank N Furter role again as Richard O'Brien's much-loved show celebrates the 50th anniversary of the film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The original stage show first debuted two years earlier, in 1973. It's running at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre August 11-16 and - just in case you don't know - tells the story of two squeaky-clean college kids, Brad and his fiancée Janet, and a rather strange encounter. Their car breaks down outside a creepy mansion and when they knock on the door they meet the charismatic Dr Frank'n'Furter, a bonkers transvestite scientist, who eventually unveils his Frankenstein-like creation, Rocky. It's great fun in fishnets, and audience participation is guaranteed with songs (and dances) such as the Time Warp, the show's totem pole tune. As I greeted Jason I'm tempted to ask him to take a jump to the left, then a step to the right. Instead, I offer him a trip across the Irish Sea. John Byrne: Hi Jason: You've been on tour for the last year with The Rocky Horror Show - and now you're coming over to the Emerald Isle . . . Jason Donovan: Yes I am! I'm excited. The Bord Gais - love that theatre. Dublin. Ireland. I've never played the show in that part of the world - at least I don't think I have. I can't remember. Dublin's a great city. It's a vibrant city. And I have a lot of history of doing shows there. I don't know many people in the touring circuit - doing what I do - that don't love coming to Ireland. It's going to be good. I know you've been doing musical theatre a long time now, but Dr Frank N. Furter, your character in The Rocky Horror Show, is right up there as one of the top iconic roles. Producers like to call him the Hamlet of musical theatre - I don't know about that. I'm not a big follower of Hamlet, but I like Shakespeare. It's a great acting part and the show has some fantastic songs. It's very forgiving in terms of musical theatre. It's not Andrew Lloyd Webber-esque in terms of, you know, you have to be precise with your vocals. Essentially, I get to be a rock star each night. And the basis of it is very much in the acing, in the characterisation. And that all allows you to . . . it's like being Mick Jagger . . . it's a rock show! And it's a rock show that's been around for 50 years or so and it's still extremely popular. So they must be doing something right? It's pretty much become a timeless classic. I think so. I think it's very simple. That's one of the reasons why it works so well. It's hard to write songs, it's hard to write shows, it's hard to write lyrics. It's hard to write poetry. It's simple - but there's no fat on it. It's a very lean show, with this sort-of crazy plot. It resonates with people because it's about being different - and daring to be different. Misfits. It's about dreaming to be that other person, which I think resonates with a lot of people. As for yourself, you've gone from Neighbours to pop stardom to musical theatre and many other things over the course of a 40-year career. I hope you see it as a compliment when I describe you as a survivor? Well, I hope so. I think I'm very lucky in my life, to do what I love. I've always said to my kids, in terms of their work, it's a really important thing to get right. And if you can spend your life being passionate about your work, it makes things a lot easier. You're not looking at the clock each day. And I never got into the business to be famous. I got into this business because I like to act and sing. That sort of held me well. Look, the pivotal stepping stone for me was Neighbours and the exposure that brought. When you have a moment like that, you either run with it - or not - and I did run with it. Music and musical theatre, shows like Rocky Horror, have been a good stable for me for many years. To keep working. To keep busy. It's also the kind of thing you can dip in and out of, and go off and do some other projects - like radio, or whatever. I've done lots of musicals. I've done lots of shows. I've done radio. I've done TV. Not so much film. I'd like to have done a little bit more film in my life. That's something I wish I would have taken a few more decisions about earlier on in my career, because I think it's a path I could've gone down. And music! You know, music is the backbone of the decisions that I've made. Because I think music is magical. And in musical theatre you're getting a kind two-for-one experience as you're singing and acting. It's pretty good deal from a performer's perspective. I like musicals. I think there's a lot of prejudice against certain musicals. I think that when people think of musicals they think of one type of performance or performer. But I do think it's a genre that has lasted throughout the ages. It has attracted a greater audience number than straight plays. You can't beat a good tune! And a good story.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
CMAT at All Together Now 2025: This powerhouse set could be the performance of the festival
CMAT Main stage, Saturday ★★★★★ What a summer it has been for Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, aka CMAT , the country-pop sensation from Dunboyne, in Co Meath. In June she accidentally conquered the internet after her tune Take a Sexy Picture of Me inspired a dance trend on TikTok dubbed the Woke Macarena. Shen then went viral all over again when the title track from her upcoming third album, Euro-Country, gave a starring role to the Omni shopping centre in Santry, in north Co Dublin. Euro-Country is a melancholy song about the ruinous death of the Celtic Tiger. But the lyrics burn hot as CMAT plays it for the first time at the end of her rollercoaster main-stage turn at All Together Now , which immediately stakes a claim as performance of the weekend. She explains that many of Ireland's present-day challenges are a result of the crash of 2008. How strange that such a seismic event has inspired so little art and instead been quietly put away in the psychological drawer Irish people reserve for Things We Don't Talk About. READ MORE Letting it get to my head @cmat 😔 But Thompson has plenty to say on Euro-Country as she conjures with the ghost of the follies of the boom years with lyrics about populist politics and the devastating aftermath. CMAT is a charismatic performer, and her music bears a lot more emotional weight than her upbeat persona might initially suggest. She opens with Have Fun!, a seemingly celebratory tune that takes as its starting point reports of parakeet colonies gone wild in London but is also about getting over a difficult break-up: she is smiling but with sadness in her eyes. All Together Now 2025: CMAT on stage on Saturday night. Photograph: Kieran Frost/Redferns All Together Now 2025: CMAT on stage on Saturday night. Photograph: Kieran Frost/Redferns There is humour, too. Her song The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station is inspired by her experience of seeing the television chef's likeness in motorway service stations across Britain. She grew to hate his grinning mug. The track is about her coming to terms with the fact that those emotions are her problem, not Oliver 's. Thompson isn't one for holding back. She laughs when someone in the crowd holds up a large 'CMAT for president' sign, written in Irish, and speaks passionately about the assault on trans rights across the western world. Saturday-evening sunshine has turned to shadows as the set draws to a close: the perfect metaphor for CMAT, the shiny pop star whose music glitters with dark depths during this powerhouse set.
