Very soon, Brendan O’Carroll will be back on our shores and back on stage, bringing his adored creation Agnes Brown to a theatre near you, just in time for Christmas.
At this stage, Agnes is as much part of an Irish Christmas Day as Santa and Rudolf and at 69, the comedian has added another string to Agnes’s bow legs – a musical.
‘There’s four Mrs Brown books, Mrs Brown had a hit record, we’ve done Mrs Brown on TV, we’ve done the Mrs Brown movie, we’ve done Mrs Brown live – five live plays – and so you’re kind of going, well, where next?’ Brendan says.
‘So we were on our way to Australia to do a tour there, and I leaned across to [wife] Jenny, and I said, “You know, I think I’ll write a musical.” And she went, “Oh, Jesus Christ almighty!” So Jenny is now fearful that our next one is going to be Mrs Brown On Ice.’
Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Live Show: A Musical For Moore Street is touring Ireland this December and Brendan insists it’s the funniest thing he’s ever done. He’s even written seven of the eight songs in the show, a homage to the market where his mother worked and the tradition he battled to save.
‘That was one of the things that we got involved in a good eight or nine years ago,’ Brendan says. ‘They were trying to close Moore Street down completely and do away with the market and build a huge shopping centre there.’