O What A Night!

First of all it was a proud night for the members of the Mullingar Shamrocks community as The Sound of the Musicals proved to be a wonderful success in every way imaginable with the show completely sold out two days in advance and attracted an audience of almost 1,000 people to the Mullingar Park Hotel. An all-singing, all-dancing musical extravaganza, big budget show with production values of the highest order was promised and was delivered in style. The manner in which such a highly challenging, live singing show was performed and delivered is a reflection on the commitment, professionalism and dedication of the cast of over 100 performers, the expertise of the production team of Shane, Greg and Siobhan, the stage management crew of Robbie Harrison and Eoin Cornally on the ngiht and the work of the Mullingar Shamrocks organising committee who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the success of the ambitions project. It was a brilliant team effort. There was no hiding place for those on stage and the production team; no luxury of the pre-recorded and heavily edited scenes from movies good and bad, no refuge in miming to backing tracks. In this show featuring excerpts from seven famous musicals, it had to be all right on the night. And all right it most certainly was with every performance scrutinised by the judges Chris Corroon, Mark Irwin and Helen Hassett.

A giant LED video screen formed the backdrop to the stage, illuminated by the animation wizardry of Shane Barkey who created 85 different mini video shows to provide appropriate visuals to complement the on-stage action. The audience was transported to the USA of the 1850s (The Greatest Showman), to London of the early 1900s (Mary Poppins), Dublin of the 1980s (The Commitments), Paris of the 1830s (Les Miserables) before it was back to 1950s USA (Grease) followed by another time trip back to Jazz Age Chicago of the 1920s before concluding with a trip to one of the Greek Islands in 2000(Mamma Mia). Shane also found time to direct all seven mini-musicals and acted as a most competent host on the night. From start to finish, The Sound of the Musicals was a personal triumph for Shane.

The night opened in spectacular fashion with The Greatest Showman, introducing the world of P. T. Barnum and its wonderful extravagance to the Park Hotel audience. This was a show with many highlights including Jemma Curran's rendition of The Bearded Lady's 'This is Me', Sam Gilmartin's 'From Now On' and the brilliant dancing choreography of the title track but it was the singing of 'A Million Dreams' by young Mollie Darcy and Darragh McCabe that proved to be one of the night's highlights with Shane's stunning illuminations adding to the impact. This was followed by Mary Poppins and the performance of the children brought tears to the eyes of many proud mammies and daddies in the audience. Sarah Jane Mangan as Mary Poppins was 'producer perfect in every way' according to one of the judges; and Greg Dunne as Bert, the chimney sweep, understated and wonderful. This was the show that captured the hearts and minds of the audience when it came to voting for the best musical. Next up was The Commitments with an incredible performance from a cast of many characters with a reputation for football excellence in another life. Aarron Purcell overflowing with soul was 'a swinging crooner', Sophie and Karen Hegarty, and Casey McDermott 'the roughest three girls ever in the show' and a band that looked mean and menacing as the stage throbbed with energy, drama and excellence. Just when it seemed things couldn't get any better, Team Les Miserables emerged from the smog of Paris wonderfully costumed and delivered a performance for the ages. At the end of the day, this group was spoiled for choice in their selection of superb singers with Ray Purcell, John Smyth, Paul Doolin, Ciara Maher and Sarah Nally all contributing to an amazing set. Chris Corroon's 'You Purcell's are diseased with talent' in reference to Ray Purcell's singing (following immediately after brother Aaron) in this segment was undoubtedly the soundbite of the night.

The high octane performances continued when the all-teenage cast of Team Grease exploded on to the stage to start the second half of the show with Seán Óg Hynes and Méabh Ryan in John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John mode in a segment that was full of madness, costume changes, wild gymnastics, some great individual and group singing, and teenage innocence. Team Chicago introduced the audience to a totally different world as the decadence of 1920's Chicago and all that jazz was recreated on the stage. In many ways, this show was the special one and the performance of the Cell Block Tango was worthy of Broadway itself. Barry Kelly and Barry Dunne were the blessed ones amongst this cast of fifteen women, brilliantly led by Seana Stenson and Annija Koskina as Velma and Roxie, who delivered an amazing performance that also necessitated a certain amount of gymnastic agility. Mamma Mia provided an appropriate high energy conclusion to the night with Maeve Corroon, Jemma McNamee, Colette Dunning and Gillian McGurran starring as the lead females but the performance of Ritchie Daly making his debut on the big stage was also one that attracted much favourable comment. This cast also featured many of our current and former great footballers and Pearse Corroon, Eddie Casey, Dean Moore, David Gavin, Brendan O'Reilly and Marc Eivers performed to a standard that was in keeping with the quality of the night. They really were Souper Troupers.