Musical take on McCourt story

ANGELA’S Ashes: A Musical comes to Limerick’s Lime Tree Theatre this month for a four-night run.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, the show will be staged from Wednesday, July 17 to Saturday, July 20 at 8pm.

The decision to put music to the book, which has already been immortalised on the big screen, was the brainchild of 26-year-old Derby, UK resident Adam Howell of Uncontained Arts and Paul Hurt of Theatre Works and was facilitated by Ellen McCourt and Green Peril.

Adam, who has roots in Cork and Meath, read Angela’s Ashes when he was 15-years-old and was taken by the humour and comic scenes throughout it. He grew up with a strong sense of being Irish and after many trips to Limerick, he has brought the book to life with his original musical score.

Angela’s Ashes: A Musical premiered in Derby Theatre last November and the Lime Tree Theatre will stage the first Irish performance of the production.

The musical’s lyrics and music were composed by Adam, while the book was adapted for the stage by Paul.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Adam, who is the co-artistic director of Uncontained Arts, said the book sang to him when he read it first.

“I found Frank McCourt’s writing so lyrical and so interesting. I thought the way he looked back on his childhood with so many of the sad events that happened with such humour that it would adapt really well to the stage.

“For many years I thought it would possibly not happen because so many people said to me you’ll never get the rights to do this but five years ago, myself and another graduate of the University of Derby set up a national touring professional theatre company and that gave me some leeway to apply for the rights and put it on in Derby Theatre, which is what we did last November,” he said.

Adam never got to the opportunity to run his ideas by Frank McCourt, as he had passed away by the time he went looking for the rights.

However, he said he has been lucky to receive the seal of approval from the McCourt family having met his widow, Ellen McCourt and two brothers, Malachy and Alphie. All of them later came to Derby to see the production.

“They were very happy with it and put their arms around me and said thank you. For me it was an amazing thing because I was quite nervous to see what they thought of it and they just came over and said thank you for doing this, we’re in full support of this and want you to go forward with it,” he said.

The production is made up of a cast of 22 and features 21 songs composed by Adam. However, it is not all music and there is plenty of spoken dialogue, which was adapted from the book by Paul.

“I’d very strong ideas on how I thought the story should go and then what Paul brought to the table was his adaptation of Frank McCourt’s writing. In our production we have two Franks – the older Frank and the younger Frank. The older Frank is almost like the narrator,” Adam added.

He said bringing it to Frank McCourt’s hometown of Limerick was the next national step after the premier in Derby. He said the musical was somewhat of a curiosity to audiences at first, who were intrigued to see how Angela’s Ashes could be turned into a musical. However, having received standing ovations for each of the performances in Derby, he said it is being well received.

“I couldn’t really say I sat down and decided to do something controversial, I just didn’t find the book very drab or depressing. Although very sad things happen, I think very funny things happen in it as well. It is just a very human story and I think the way he dealt with it is what makes it so marvellous.

“The flaw with the film is there is so much rain in it that people can’t see past that a lot of the time. We don’t have a rain machine but we use live projection on the stage and we do project rain in a particular scene, which is quite effective,” Adam revealed.

It is understood that Ellen, Alphie and Malachy McCourt will be attending the production in Limerick over the course of the four-night run.