John Byrne meets the three key people behind Toy Show The Musical to see what it's all about.
So, what did you think when you first heard that RTÉ was producing something called Toy Show The Musical?
"We're not replicating the television show, we’re celebrating the tradition of that television show."
You would’ve been forgiven for assuming it was a stage version of the annual Late Late Toy Show on RTÉ One. After all, the pre-Christmas TV special has gradually become more of a theatrical event. Each year there are more song-and-dance routines, the studio has become more of a stage, and the annual event has grown to become a celebration of childhood rather than a look at the latest toys.
You would also have been forgiven if you thought Toy Show The Musical meant some bloke in a Ryan Tubridy mask, a few kids singing some Christmas-related melodies, a few toys, and a lot of tinsel.
But really, Toy Show The Musical isn’t about The Toy Show at all - it’s about experiencing the event that has become the official starting point of Christmas for Irish people, not just here in Ireland, but all over the world.
The brainchild of two Late Late Show producers - Jane Murphy and Katherine Drohan - Toy Show The Musical turns The Toy Show on its head, making the family sofa the focus of attention as a young girl called Nell watches Ryan Tubridy and co with her family.
Over the near three years since their lightbulb moment, Jane and Katherine have developed their idea and are ready to bring it to life on stage. They’ve enlisted an impressive array of off-stage theatrical talent to bring their dream to reality, with a budget and creative team that matches that of a West End or Broadway production.
So while it’s a radical departure for RTÉ, Toy Show The Musical is a logical step for The Late Late Toy Show.
Who better to paint a verbal picture of what can be expected at The Auditorium in Dublin’s Convention Centre than the principal people most directly involved? As well as producers Jane and Katherine, there’s director Séimí Campbell.
Between them, they’ve turned a thought into a theatrical event and, as Séimí says: "We’re not replicating the television show, we’re celebrating the tradition of that television show."
How it started...
"It is the story of a family, and there is something in that. In placing the magic on the sofa, instead of trying to replicate the magic of the studio."
Jane Murphy
"When we [Katherine and Jane] met each other, we were put together as producers on the Late Late Show in 2019, and absolutely from the get-go we started clicking with ideas and madcaps things, bigger and beyond the TV show itself."
Katherine Drohan
"It’s a logical step for what is a phenomenon. The Toy Show is a national phenomenon. It’s unique to Ireland and it’s so Irish and so beautiful. It has grown because it has been embraced by the Irish public and RTÉ viewers, who tune in every year at the end of November and watch it in their millions.
"I’ve worked on The Toy Show for years and every year there are tens of thousands of people who apply for tickets. It’s two hours on one night of the year. There’s so much more The Toy Show could give."
Séimí Campbell
"I met up with Jane and Katherine and their enthusiasm was infectious. They’re a force!"
Katherine Drohan
"During lockdown we came up with this idea. It became this really special time when everyone needed the ethos of The Toy Show. Everyone kind of fed into the innocence of it. Because it is innocence. It’s the wisdom of innocence of children.
"Whereas adults just want to be at peace with these childhood sensibilities, about being good, being truthful, being a bit bold, having fun, being naughty.
"That’s The Toy Show: go out there and be yourself. We always say that to them: 'Go on out! Be yourself!'
"So this is kind of about capturing a little bit of that and trying to grow it. Because The Toy Show has so much to give."
Séimí Campbell
"I think it was the tradition that my head was initially drawn to. How do we celebrate that bonkers tradition?"
Jane Murphy
"It is an obsession - I don’t mind admitting that now. It’s all-consuming. It has to be! It’s bigger than myself and Katherine, it’s this fantastic creative team.
"It’s everyone’s obsession now. I think you have to be a bit mad to go down this road of a new Irish musical.
"But we’re hoping to join a community of great Irish theatre makers, who have been kicking the doors open and going down this route for years with amazing productions. But, yeah, it takes a lot of energy and a lot of time."
Séimí Campbell
"There was no sort-of initial commitment to do this show, but we said we’ll do a workshop to develop the concepts within this bigger story that they had written.
"It is the story of a family, and there is something in that. In placing the magic on the sofa, instead of trying to replicate the magic of the studio. Which none of us really know, except for Jane and Katherine and those in RTÉ on that night.
"The magic for me is always on the sofa, that was the version of the story I workshopped for the week. It was quite a special week and we landed somewhere at the end that felt was an interesting starting point.
"If this was the story Jane and Katherine wanted to tell, I’d love to be part of it, and let’s see where we get to."
How it’s going...
"Nell was kind of born out of Toy Show kids and their stories over the years - she is a really beautiful, brave, cheeky and engaging little girl."
Jane Murphy
"So, what we’re doing in the telling of this story is, we are turning the TV lens, we are turning the focus back around onto the people who watch Toy Show on Toy Show night. It’s the story of one little family, and our little hero is a young girl. She’s the hero of the piece.
"We are going to look at this little kid, Nell, and how she handles her situation in and around Toy Show night and her interactions with The Toy Show."
Séimí Campbell
"We’ve had seven weeks of what we call workshop. We work on different drafts of the script, and you get actors in and you play with it and remould it, re-draft it.
"And for most of the weeks, it was different cohorts or different groups of actors. And really prolific actors in the Irish acting scene."
Katherine Drohan
"Nell was kind of born out of Toy Show kids and their stories over the years - she is a really beautiful, brave, cheeky and engaging little girl.
"And when it came to casting Nell we brought in Maureen Hughes, who’s one of the best - if not the best - casting agents in Ireland. And she directed us in the way of some brilliant young girls, who came to visit us and we did a couple of casting days with them."
Jane Murphy
"You know life is so fractured at the moment. I have kids myself and they’re scattered to the four winds. That’s why The Toy Show is so beautiful on TV because it’s a reason to bring people back into a room together.
"But what our story is looking at the magic that happens in that room, and The Toy Show gives us that, it gives us that opportunity every year to be together - but then, what happens when this little family are together? And how does that all play out?"
Séimí Campbell
"It’s the tradition of Toy Show that the show’s about. We can never give them Toy Show. They’re not coming to see Toy Show live. We’re doing a musical about celebrating the tradition, and the tradition that we all own. And we are all a part of it.
"I think then you’ll see the care, from everyone involved so far. Everyone wants to protect this thing that we all feel really strongly about. We all know it. And we can’t harm it. We have to only complement it - the actual show itself."
Where it’s heading...
"This is going to blow people's minds. I don’t think anyone’s going to expect what we’re going to roll out here. It’s led by a staggering creative team. By any standards, they’re world-class. They are phenomenal."
Séimí Campbell
"It was really important to Jane and Katherine that we had a nationwide search for Nell. Everyone owns Toy Show, and we didn’t want to Dublinify it. It was certainly a lot of work for the casting teams, but it was really great. And we have three really brilliant Nells. Three very different Nells."
Katherine Drohan
"We want this to be a very well-produced, impactful, new Irish musical. It was really important to us that there are creatives, really talented Irish people who are working in London, that are working in the West End, that’ll get to come for Christmas and work here.
"We want people who are coming from Waterford - where I’m from - from Galway, from Cork - to come in and feel they’re wrapped up in Christmas. And they’re going to go away thinking 'That was magical!’"
Jane Murphy
"This is going to blow people’s minds. I don’t think anyone’s going to expect what we’re going to roll out here. It’s led by a staggering creative team. By any standards, they’re world-class. They are phenomenal.
"Even more than that, what they are creating is really going to surprise people. I don’t think anyone’s going to expect what they’ll see when the set is revealed, and how this show is put together.
"There’s a massive surprise for everyone who sees it. It’s extraordinary. It is absolutely a world-class production."
Séimí Campbell
"I didn’t want to do the Disney version of it, where you fly in all the scenery, and it’s all very jazz-handy. It’s 85 minutes of having kids in an auditorium and showing them the potential of theatre."
Jane Murphy
"What’s driving us - and this is absolutely genuine - is the responsibility to honour what The Toy Show is, the people who created it originally, and all those children who’ve passed through the doors. It has changed people’s lives immeasurably. And we have to honour that."
Séimí Campbell
"It is theatre. And the reason I’m so excited about it is that we’re getting a group of people and families that may have never been in the theatre.
"We’re not replicating the television show, we’re celebrating the tradition of that television show."
Toy Show The Musical runs from 10 December at The Auditorium, Convention Centre, Dublin
Click here to buy tickets
Watch: RuthAnne Cunningham and Saoirse Ruane sing All the Same from Toy Show The Musical
Backstage at Toy Show The Musical
Jane Murphy (producer)
Following university, Jane worked as a producer with regional station LMFM Radio before moving to Newstalk in 2002 and then on to RTÉ, where she's been for almost 18 years.
After a decade in radio, she moved into television, first as a producer with Claire Byrne Live and then The Late Late Show, becoming the Series Producer of the show in 2019.
Katherine Drohan (producer)
Katherine joined RTÉ in 2010 as a producer on The Late Late Toy Show, a role she held for over ten years. During that time she also became an executive producer on The Late Late Show.
She has also been a producer on Saturday Night with Miriam, and in July 2022 she took on the role of Editor, Internal Production and Development - RTÉ Entertainment, Music & Comedy.
Seimi Campbell (director)
Although only 26, Séimí is an accomplished theatre director and is an associate director at the prestigious National Theatre in London.
Séimí is currently co-directing A Different Stage by Gary Barlow and Tim Firth, directing and developing Evening Train by Mick Flannery and Ursula Rani Sarma, and recently directed Jason Robert Brown’s Songs For A New World at The London Palladium.
