Larry Kirwan enjoying fame with Broadway musical – ‘Although my life is centred in New York, I take Wexford with me wherever I go’

Members of Larry’s family from Wexford, including his sister Mary Ironside, niece Caroline Crowe, nephew Christopher Ironside and grand-nephew Tyghe Crowe (11)  travelled to New York to see the production and rub shoulders with the cast.

The show is set in the Five Points area of New York City between 1845 and 1863 at a time when Irish people escaping the Famine arrived penniless and diseased and were despised and feared. They moved into the Five Points area, a slum in Lower Manhattan where they were accepted by the local African-American community.

They frequented the African-American- owned  dance halls, fell in love, had families and lived together until the Civil War Draft Riots against conscription into the Union Army broke out on July 13, 1863.

Written as a musical in 2011, Hard Times sold out two off-Broadway productions and was a critical success in 2012 and 2013.

Describing the journey to Broadway, Larry recalled that theatre insider Peter LeDonne  came to see the later production many times and introduced him to the legendary Canadian producer Garth Drabinsky.

"We began to work on the expansion of the project, which morphed into Paradise Square, and did many workshops in Toronto from 2013 onwards. In 2019, Paradise Square was a huge success at Berkeley Rep in California where its run was extended a number of times.

"Then Covid struck  and everything was put on hold until 2021 when it reopened at The Nederlander Theatre in Chicago where it was again a hit. It previewed on Broadway at the Barrymore Theatre earlier this year and opened on April 3. It has been nominated for 10 Tony Awards and continues to run.”

He said the show has an “amazing” cast of 35 actors, singers and dancers and the heroine Nelly O’ Brien is played by Joaquina Kalukango, a daughter of Angolan political refugees who is currently regarded as the most exciting star on Broadway and received the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical.

Larry started out as a musician as one half of Turner and Kirwan with Pierce Turner of Wexford, moving to New York in the early 1980s and he still lives there with his wife June. The couple have two grown-up sons Rory and Jimmy.  His brother Philip also lives in New York.

With a talent for writing, he developed a dual career as an author. He has written three novels, Liverpool Fantasy, and Rockin' The Bronx, a memoir, Green Suede Shoes, and A History of Irish Music. His latest novel, Rockaway Blue, was published by Cornell University Press. He has written or collaborated on 19 plays and musicals.

He was leader of the political rock band Black 47 for 25 years, playing 2,500 gigs, releasing 16 albums and appearing on every major US TV show.

He is an Irish Echo columnist, a political activist and a celebrity host/producer of Celtic Crush on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He was president of Irish American Writers & Artists for five years. Kirwan is not resting on his laurels and currently has four other projects in workshop which is usually the last step before a production.

Three are musicals – Iraqi Rose is about the Iraq War as seen through American and Iraqi eyes; All The Rage is a two person musical set on his old neighbourhood, the Lower East Side, involving a couple who were romantically and musically involved in a band in the 80's; and are thrown together again during the Recession of 2009; and The Catacombs which is a new look at the life and times of Brendan Behan. The fourth project is a stage version of The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty, which was turned into a movie by John Ford.

In other news, Turner and Kirwan will be re- releasing two of their albums Absolutely and Completely and Bootleg in October. 

Kirwan will be back in Wexford for a solo show presented by the Arts Centre at Crown Live in Monck Street on October 13. Tickets are on sale at https://www.ticketweb.ie/.../larry-kirwan-crown.../12092605.

“Although my life is very much centred in New York City, I take Wexford with me wherever I go”, he said.