Watch: Summer Revels! takes a look back at 21 years of successful shows
Hopefuls queue up at the doors of the Opera House where public auditions for the Summer Revels Show took place.
Excitement is building as there is just over a month to go until the first Summer Revels! show in 29 years comes home to the Leeside.
This July, Cork Opera House will host the return of the variety extravaganza.
To celebrate its return, Cork Opera House took a look back into its archives as shows of the past and chatted to the man who made the Revels! a raging success.
“To give audiences a sense of what to expect from the Summer Revels!, we spoke to some of those involved in the production, past and present, to get an idea of what the Summer Revels was, and what audiences in 2024 can expect from this brand-new show,” said Michael Carr of Cork Opera House.
In the late 1960s it was felt that a revue-type variety show would make a valuable contribution to Cork Opera House’s summer season programme.
In 1971, Michael Twomey, one half of the iconic Cork comedy duo Cha and Miah, who was approached to write and direct the first Summer Revels!
The project was so popular that it ran for seven weeks – and then every summer for 21 years thereafter.
Over those 21 years’ audiences came time and again to see a host of beloved characters and performers live at Cork Opera House: Billa O’Connell, Paddy Comerford, Cha (Frank Duggan), Miah (Michael Twomey), Marie Twomey, Dave McInerney, Hugh Moynihan, Deirdre White, Pat Sullivan and Noel Barrett; the list goes on.
Key figures behind the scenes ensured the Summer Revels ran flawlessly year after year: stage manager Dick Healy and his wife, wardrobe mistress Sheila, set designer Pat Murray, musical arranger Ronnie O’Shaughnessy, Director of The Montfort Singers Eileen Nolan and many, many other tireless workers made sure the show went on night after night.
Now in 2024 after a 29-year absence, the Summer Revels! is about to make its comeback as an all-singing, all-dancing summer musical spectacular…
The Echo is proud to partner with Cork Opera House for Summer Revels! 2024.
For tickets and more information on the show, please see www.corkoperahouse.ie
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