Reflections On What Should Have Been 40th Anniversary “Opening Night” for Tipperary Musical Society

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Cast of TMS's 2020 Production - "The Wedding Singer"

On a post made today on their Facebook page, Tipperary Excel Heritage Centre, Tipperary Town, home to the Simon Ryan Theatre, reflected, with sadness, on the fact that today would normally be “Opening Night” for Tipperary Musical Society’s annual stage production.

The post reads: “Today marks what would have been opening night of Tipperary Musical Society’s annual show. This is the first time since the Excel reopened that the cast and crew of TMS haven’t graced the stage in The Simon Ryan Theatre, and all the wonderful performances from the gang in Tipperary Musical Society. We so look forward to next year…The sun will come out tomorrow“.

The second Monday of February, each year, is the usual date for the first night of a 6-night run of the society’s annual musical, which is widely considered the highlight of the musical and theatrical calendar in Tipperary Town and surrounding areas, with tickets for their annual shows very much in demand each year.

The society were fortunate last year that their 2020 production of “The Wedding Singer” was staged in February, just before the country experienced its first Covid-19 cases, and before all mass gatherings were banned. Many musical and dramatic societies locally, and nationally, were not so lucky, as they saw thousands of euro and hundreds of hours of time go down the drain, as they were unable to stage shows, which they had planned on, or after, March 2020.

For Tipperary Musical Society, the absence of autumn/winter rehearsals, and the excitement heading into what should have been “Show Week”, is felt by all members of the society, and is made all the more poignant as this year’s production should have been the society’s 40th Annual show.

However, hope always springs anew, and the cogs are already turning in the hopes of a much-improved end to 2021, with the prospect of a return to planning and rehearsals, for what will surely be an epic 40th Anniversary production by Tipperary Musical Society, in 12 months time – “Vesti La Giubba“.