Bridgerton and Derry Girls star Jamie Beamish said fans are in for a shock when he takes to the stage in RTE’s Toy Show The Musical saying - ‘Nobody knows I can sing’.
The Co. Waterford born star leads the adult cast of the new stage show coming to town, in the role of a grieving husband and dad-of-two called Brendan Mooney.
And after garnering worldwide attention for his role as show villain Nigel Berbrooke in Netflix hit Bridgerton, he admitted he’s eager for people to see what else he can do with his talents.
Read more: RTÉ Toy Show The Musical - everything you need to know ahead of December
He told Irish Daily Mirror: “My background is in musical theatre. Not a lot of people know that because of some of the other things I have done recently.”
The actor, who is starring opposite Fair City’s Clare Barrett, who is playing his late wife, Áine Mooney on stage, added: “And like I met Clare back in the theatre back in the 90s doing amateur musicals through AIMs and stuff like that. And I went to drama school in London twenty years ago to study musical theatre specifically but I ended up doing more plays and TV filming in the end.”
Asked why, he quipped, ‘Sometimes your career chooses itself’, and admitted it feels like ‘magic’ to now be able to work on his craft and showcase his love of singing back on home turf after spending the past two decades doing it across the pond.
Speaking at Dublin’s Croke Park, where rehearsals for the upcoming Christmas show are currently in full swing, the actor, who is usually based in London for work, said: “As I say, who knows I can sing? no one.
“Like people get a shock,” he went on laughing, before adding: “And that is lovely."
“Because I enjoy singing more than anything else in the world. And singing with people, it is pure therapy. It just makes your heart beat. I adore it. So getting that chance is terrific.
“So for myself that is what excited me.
“And the fact it is an Irish musical, because I’ve done musicals in England, and everyone thought you had to go to England to do professional musical theatre, that’s where I had to go 20 years ago, and now suddenly here I am, in the biggest show in town, and it’s here in Dublin.
“I went home at the weekend to Waterford to see my Nanny, it is magic like.”
“I’m normally in London, so between London and Waterford, but mostly London.”
He went on: “And sometimes you’d get a ‘play with music’ but it isn’t a musical. This is a bloody musical, and an original.
“Can you have a more Irish thing than the Toy Show. So the idea of doing a musical about it, and that’s what it is, it’s not the Toy Show, it’s Toy Show the musical. This is a story we are going to tell.”
The brainchild of two Late Late Show producers - Jane Murphy and Katherine Drohan - Toy Show The Musical has caught the attention of the nation leading up to the annual Christmas TV episode, with the stage show bosses promising that the brand new production is going to ‘blow people’s minds’.
Lifting the lid on the nerves and thrill that comes with a live performance, versus the likes of filming for TV, Jamie explained: “When you are filming they say ‘you are being paid to wait’ and that is really true.
“And also, you don’t really own your performance in the way you do in theatre. There’s editors, and you see it a year later and go ‘ah they went with that take’.
“But the minute a show starts and the music starts, we are all in the driving seat and we all have a story to tell.
“And we will tell it in that space of time, and every show is different because of the audience. And the reaction is instantaneous, rather than a year later when someone is telling you, like I did a series on Channel 4 and everyone told me how much they hated it.
“So at least you know straight away on stage,” he laughed.
The brand new Irish musical opens on December 10th at The Convention Centre.
Tickets from €25 are currently on sale from 19th May 2022, 10am.
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