Blood Brothers is a musical with a lot of loyal fans, so when it opened for a new run at the Gaiety on Tuesday, a number of guests hummed along contentedly from the opening number. Elsewhere, however, the buzz was about a star off stage rather than on - Anjelica Huston, who is in town to direct Brendan O'Carroll's film, The Mammy, had promised to come to the opening night. But as the minutes ticked away, there was no sign of her and news finally came through that her husband, sculptor George Graham, was suffering from fierce jet lag so they couldn't make the show. They missed a fine reception with music by Prof Pete O'Brien after the performance - singer Rebecca Storm arrived to plenty of hugs and congratulations and professed herself delighted to be back in Ireland.
Brendan O'Carroll himself popped in after the curtain fell on his show The Course in the Olympia, accompanied by members of the cast including model Vivienne Connolly and Gerry Browne, who was sporting crutches. Another late arrival was director Jim Sheridan, who was deep in conversation at the bar with Alan Amsby - aka Mr Pussy. Alan has plans to re-open his late-lamented Mr Pussy's restaurant and is also opening a new talent night at Murphy's Laughter Lounge in June and writing a book of memoirs.
Film publicist Barbara Holloway was also enjoying the party - originally from Belfast, she is in Dublin for the summer working on Mad About Mambo, the new film from director John Forte, who was one of the original brains behind Ballykissangel.
Starring young American actor Keri Russell and rising English TV star William Ashe, as well as featuring Brian Cox and Gabriel Byrne, it's about a young Belfast lad who learns to mambo in order to play football like the Brazilians.