Mr. S?im? Campbell:

Again, it is a criteria issue to do with highest merit. It comes down to the same thing as all of the other productions that are in development, namely, that is a musical and it is commercial. While the backing of the National Symphony Orchestra and the academy should only add weight and excellence to it all, it is seen to be something bigger and possibly considered that it does not need such funding. Musical productions are so expensive. If the Abbey Theatre was to do a musical, as I hope it soon will, it could cover much of the cost but these productions are massive beasts and need so much additional funding from the Arts Council to get them over the line.

I am an associate director in the National Theatre in the UK and I have seen what we came back with after Covid, which was a new British musical called Hex. I just think what brilliant programming it is for Britain's National Theatre to come back with a family piece of musical theatre. This is a musical form bringing in so many new faces and putting new bums on seats. It is showing those families and kids, the theatregoers, what theatre can be. It totally celebrates British artists. The music is so British and the full creative team is British. Why can we not do something similar here with our artists? I believe this is what RTÉ is doing so well in this new venture. It is an Irish story told by Irish artists and with an Irish creative team. It is about how we can see that in our producing houses. As I said to Ms Kelleher as we came in the door, while having a separate stand-alone chat about musical theatre as a separate entity is needed at the moment, we should be working towards the day when musical theatre is part of theatre. When I am at home I am called a musical theatre director but in the UK I am a theatre director. It is the same thing. Musical theatre is theatre and can give people the exact same merits, rewards and experience as a theatregoer. That is the journey we need to make.