Mr. Killian Donnelly:

A thought came to me as we were talking earlier. I had my first audition for Les Misérablesin 2007. I went onto the stage of the Queen's Theatre and in the audience were about 11 creatives, one of whom was Sir Cameron Mackintosh. I sang a song and he asked me where I was from. When I replied "Ireland", he said the Irish and the Welsh belonged in musical theatre. I plucked up the courage and asked him why he thought that, and he said that judging by the quality of the untrained voices, there was something in the water.

Having said that, in 2018, at the Bord Gáis theatre, I performed Les Misérablesas Jean Valjean. I met young Irish people at the stage door who said they would love to do this. I asked them why they did not and said that there were colleges. They told me that they cannot afford London.

On the creation of work, I did three workshops before The Commitmentswent to rehearsals. In the previous three years that led up to rehearsals, I got two weeks' work, with a script of The Commitmentsand singing songs where I would try new ideas. Someone like Billy Roche would benefit from a workshop of his new show being funded. That was being paid for by a British producer, who now owns the rights to The Commitments. Roddy Doyle was in the room with us but he worked with all of us. The British producer now drops an Irish story all over the world.