Though I now prefer Classical music, I originally was trained in Musical Theatre songs using Classical singing techniques. My first teacher, Faustina O Sullivan, worked with me through Les Misérables songs such as Bring Him Home and Stars, Funny Girl’s Don’t Rain on My Parade and Oliver’s Reviewing the Situation among others!
In Dundalk Institute of Technology, I joined the Musical Theatre ensemble and my first musical was A Night Off Broadway which was a collection of scenes from musicals and other original scenes that bring songs from multiple musicals into one setting. For this production I sang Johanna from Sweeney Todd.
My second musical was Finian’s Rainbow, where I played male lead Woody. This really challenged me in terms of accent training, which is always a work in progress. Trying to create a southern accent took a while!
My favourite moment of Musical Theatre was in my 3rd year when I made a decision to write a musical of my own that brought songs from multiple different contemporary musicals into one setting. This was called “Strings” and was inspired by Mean Girls, Heathers, Dear Evan Hansen, Spring Awakening, etc. The idea was to discuss how in secondary school environments, there are often those people that pull the strings of others and control them during this really impressionable parts of our lives.
Every one of my classmates was challenged to take on a level and extremity in characters that they have not reached before. I starred as a gay character, singing songs from Dear Evan Hansen such as Waving Through a Window, Only Us and Words Fail. This has definitely been my most ambitious project.
At the moment, we are preparing for our final musical at Dundalk Institute of Technology Musical Theatre ensemble. This is Recipe for Murder Stew, a collection of songs from popular culture and musicals. I play a bar singer with a sinister disposition, wrapped up in a hunt for the Phantom of Barrow Street during ’90s Greenwich Village, New York.
L.J Music 