Miami showband musical revisits a troubled Ireland

The Miami Showband Story, a new musical telling the tragic story of one of Ireland’s greatest showbands will be at Galway’s Town Hall Theatre on Monday, September 2, as part of a national tour.

Written by Marie Jones (Stones in His Pockets) and Martin Lynch (Dancing Shoes –The George Best Story), The Miami Showband Story takes the audiences on a roller-coaster ride from the band’s glory days in the 1960s right through to the tragedy of 1975 when they were massacred in Northern Ireland.

Told through the eyes of best friends and song-writing duo, Fran O’Toole and Des Lee, The Miami Showband Story captures the lads’ rise from Dublin and Belfast beat groups to relative fame and fortune. A 1960s newspaper report suggested they would be earning more than the then Taoiseach.

Ten years later their story ended in tragedy when Fran  O’Toole (played by Niall McNamee) along with Brian McCoy and Tony Geraghty were murdered at a bogus British Army road-check outside Newry.

Des, played by Gary Crossan, survived but went into meltdown.

Haunted by survivor’s guilt, he turned to alcohol and eventually moved to South Africa. However, Fran’s presence continued to haunt Des and it wasn’t until 25 years later when he got a phone call from Ireland proposing a Miami reunion that he was offered a chance of redemption.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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