Sir, – In his article about his own excellent Improbable Frequency (Life & Culture, March 13th), Arthur Riordan makes the point that when he came to write it, he found the conventional wisdom was that it simply isn’t possible to mount a new musical in Ireland.
Not so. I myself, in the course of a long career have had six musicals staged in most of the major Dublin theatres, with music by various hands. They were Glory Be (Olympia, Dublin and Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London 1960), Fursey (Gaiety and Olympia, Dublin 1962), Innish (Abbey, Dublin 1975), Speak of the Devil (Olympia, Dublin 1980), Mary Makebelieve (Peacock and Abbey, Dublin 1982, new production Gate, Dublin 1993), One of Our Own (Gaiety, Dublin 1987) and The Streets of Dublin (Tivoli, Dublin 1992, new production Shaw Theatre, Brixton, London 1995).
As well as these there have, of course, been several other musicals by other hands down the years. – Yours, etc,