From Ballybricken to Bridgerton

Songs I Wish I'd Sung:Jamie Beamish  at the Theatre Royal.

It is quite a while since I posted on Cathy's Reviews. Over the last ten days, I have enjoyed some terrific events and so to sharpen the memories and send a virtual buala bos, here is the first of posts on recent excursions.

Musician and actor, Jamie Beamish was great company for an evening of songs and stories at the Theatre Royal. Over two hours, he sang a set of songs from the shows and told wry and self deprecating stories about his theatre life starting out in the school shows at De la Salle to landing roles in  major TV shows, most recently as Ciaran in Derry Girls and the cad, Nasty Nigel in Bridgerton. None of which I can repeat here as our host said, 'What is said in the Theatre Royal stays in..."Without notes or autocue, Beamish spun an nostalgic narrative that was moving but never cloying. Accompanied by pianist, Dylan Browne, he  was joined on stage by friends, Andrew Holden, Ray Collins, David Flynn and Susan Boyce for various duets. 

I occasionally ran across Beamish over the years. An true all-rounder, the first time I met him, he was in college and doing sound design for a show in Garter Lane. On other occasions, he was home from London, directing and stage managing plays. Listening to him reminisce on the various shows and characters many of whom I knew, I was reminded of how much fun and  excitement  musical theatre bestowed on us growing up in a Waterford that was often a  bit drab in the long winter months. I enjoyed many nights myself playing violin in the pit for schools and musical societies. How I wondered yet again, could Waterford have let its International Light Opera Festival slip away. On the way out, we passed Browne, digital keyboard under his arm. (Why does the Theatre Royal not have a decent in-house piano.? Every show that I have seen here has used electric keyboards of varying standards. Browne's was one of the better ones)

The evening reminded me of  Alan Cumming's  cabaret style show Sappy Songs seen  at an Edinburgh Festival in 2016 https://www.pbs.org/show/alan-cumming-sings-sappy-songs/. Beamish's performance was all the more remarkable as it was the first time he had presented this show whereas Cummings material had toured extensively and was well honed when I saw it.  A wonderful evening and  if Graham Norton needs an entertaining guest for his talk show, he should give Jamie Beamish's agent a ring. Much more fun than Rene Le Page

Wonderful #storytelling from @jamiebeamish @theatreroyalw #Waterford tonight in a show titled Songs I wished I had Sung charting his career from schoolboy days in DelaSalle musicals to international TV star pic.twitter.com/I6bnMNpyUe

— Fidleir (@fidleir) June 17, 2022