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1964 – Tops Programe – Snowcream Vs St. Otterans Click on the image below to see the programme. For more Tops programmes click here. 1964 – Tops Programe – Snowcream Vs St. Otterans For those of a certain age in Ireland, “TOPS OF THE TOWN” or “John Player Tops” may evoke fond memories. This annual variety competition ran from 1962 to …

Here is the programme from the 1969 local final. Hearts Delight were to win and to go through to the national final which they narrowly lost. Click below to browse the programme and also there is a picture kindly forwarded by Geoff Harris of his brother Dave (of the Bay Cafe Dunmore) in the cast of Hearts Delight with some …

In just a couple of weeks we will see the first Sondheim Festival in Ireland or the UK. Christine Scarry – the Festival Director dropped in to talk all things Sondheim and Liz Callaway – who is headlining the festivals closing concert. This is a more extensive chat then time allowed on air. If you’re a Sondheim Lover – give …

Here is the show programme from the first full scale musical presented by Jack Cunningham Productions in Garter Lane. Click below to have a browse! 2018 – Little Shop of Horrors – Show Programme

Here is one of the comedy scenes from the Ray Ban 1992 Tops Show featuring Konor Halpin, Terry ‘Scol’ Grant and Will Motherway.

Here are a handful of photos from the 1989 WDS production of ‘The Wind In The Branches..’ featuring Denny Corcoran amongst others. The link for the gallery is – Gallery – The Wind In The Branches Of The Sassafras If you’re interested you can also read the show programme for the same show – 1989 – The Wind In The …

Here is one that is sure to bring back memories. The epic ‘Endgame’ from Chess – produced by Stage Fright MTC and directed by the late great Bryan Flynn.

Here is the programme from Garter Lanes 2018 production of Una Troy’s play ‘Mount Prospect’, directed by Jim Nolan. Click below to have a read! 2018 – Mount Prospect – Show Programme

Yep – One million people have viewed videos, listened to audio, browsed show programmes and looked at photos over the last 4 years. I always knew that a certain interest level would be there for the archive site and eventually it might clock up to a couple of hundred thousand – but here we are on a million views after …

As a little bonus today to take a break from videos we are looking at some photos from our productions since 2010. Why 2010? In 2010 we answered a phonecall from a local Waterford Photographer who wanted to try taking some photos of a Theatre show for his portfolio. That photographer was of course Colin Shanahan – and the rest …

Back 46 years to 1974 and the National Semi Final of the Tops of the Town competition – the ACEC were on the way to another national title with ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ as the main scene. The link is below for the 1974 programme. 1974 – Tops Of The Town National Semi Final Programme

Here come the Nunny Bunnys again with another of the great songs from Sister Act – a show that rivals them all for the mantle of most uplifting show of recent times. This one is ‘Spread the Love’… take it away Sisters.

From Jack Cunningham Productions here is ‘All That Jazz’ from Chicago fronted by Jennifer White.

Here is the show programme from Red Kettle’s 1993 production of ‘The Pope And The Witch’ by Dario Fo. Click below to have a browse. 1993 – The Pope And The Witch – Show Programme

Here is the show programme from Gary Power’s 2009 production of ‘Bugsy Malone’ which was one of the last shows staged in ‘The Forum’ Waterford. 2009 – Bugsy Malone – Show Programme

A Jim Nolan play in Waterford is a red letter day. This is the show programme from the 2007 Theatre Royal produced ‘Sky Road’, directed by Ben Barnes. Click below to have a browse. 2007 – Sky Road – Show Programme

This is the Show Programme from the world premier of Red Kettles production of ‘Kings Of The Kilburn High Road’ by Jimmy Murphy and directed by Jim Nolan. Click below to have a browse. 2000 – Kings Of The Kilburn High Road – Show Programme

Have a glance at the programme for the 2016 production of the Glass. This is the Dungarvan production – it had minor cast differences from the Waterford production that will be streamed tonight (Sunday June 6th). What’s really clever about it is one side is the list of people involved with the show printed on the back of a genuine …

Here is the programme from the national final of Tops in 1974, the year of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. There’s a nice bit of reading in it as well as the details on the show. Click below to have a browse. 1974 – National Final Tops Programme – ACEC vs Cork Examiner

This from Dats De Y Productions version of ‘Assassins’ from 2017 and ‘How I Saved Roosevelt’ fronted by Ray Collins as Zangara.

Here is the epic opening to Bryan Flynns world premier of his first musical – Pentimenti. This recording is from the opening night.

Long before we were all doing our ‘Hits from the shows’ productions, Michael and Terry Grant brought a piece of the West End to Waterford in 1992 with ‘The Wonderful West End’. The stars and the production came literally straight from the West End to Waterford. It was staged in the now (sadly) gone Forum Theatre in the Glen. Here …

I’m very grateful to Jim O’Meara for sending over some nice material this week for inclusion in the archive. He has shared the YouTube link but for anybody who didn’t see it I have it on our servers here. Also some pages from the Programme are on the link below. Thanks Jim! 1993 – Waterford Youth Arts – The Ancient …

Yep – half a million people have viewed videos, listened to audio, browsed show programmes and looked at photos over the last 2 and a half years. I always knew that a certain interest level would be there for the archive site and eventually it might clock up to a couple of hundred thousand – but here we are on …

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Way way back to almost 50 years ago today and Des Keogh was the national Tops adjudicator. I have come across a number of these adjudications – and they are always interesting. This is a countrywide report. In the course of it he discusses the ACEC show, singling out the Ballyhassey Group, the Groucho Marx section and Martin Flynn for …

Happy Bank Holiday Weekend! Heres another one of the lovely vintage videos taken backstage and around the Theatre during the John Player Tops. I’m not 100% on it’s origin, but there’s loads of familiar young faces in there. Have a look!

Back 58 years to 1961 and the show programme from the De La Salle Musical Society production of Die Fledermaus. 1961 – Die Fledermaus – Show Programme

Back 28 years today to the Panto and the programme from Dick Whittington. This was the 7th production from the Waterford Panto Society. Directed by Denny Corcoran. 1991 – Dick Whittington – Programme – WPS

Today I’m adding in the 1995 WIFLO Season Brochure to the archive. In 1995 the Waterford entry was ‘Oliver’ by Stage Fright under the direction of Bryan Flynn. It was to finish as runner up in the festival as well as scooping a number of individual awards. Added to the WIFLO archive here. 1995 – WIFLO – Season Brochure

To round off the weekend 25th Anniversary here is a special episode I put together with the help of Bill Stafford, Paul Browne, Karen Hearne, Ben Hennessy, Richie Hayes and Seneiva Magill , with thanks to David Flynn for a special appearance. Enjoy!

For the weekend that was in it back in 1994 the RTE Guide ran a feature for ‘Tops’. Here it is to peruse. 1994 – Tops Feature – RTE Guide

Way back 50 years today to the spring of 1969 and a production of South Pacific from De La Salle Musical Society. Here is the show programme from that show that featured many well known stars from yester year. South Pacific has remained a favourite – since being produced by De La Salle College in 1985, De La Salle Musical …

Back to 1985 today and the Presentation Secondary School produced ‘Calamity Jane’. Here’s the show programme to peruse. 1985 – Calamity Jane – Show Programme

This time of the year has become Waterford Musical Society’s time of year and with their production of ‘South Pacific’ approaching here is a throwback to their last Rogers & Hammerstein production – the classic ‘Oklahoma’. Here’s the show programme (which is always a well produced treat from WMS). 2016 – Oklahoma! – Show Programme

Back a short hop today to 2017 and Ignite Productions were once again producing an original piece of theatre that was challenging. This time it was the recent Broadway / London Lin Manuel Miranda masterpiece ‘In The Heights’. 2017 – In The Heights – Show Programme

Another classic ‘Tops’ Programme – this time from 1982 and featuring Raytex vs Clover. 1982 – Tops Of The Town Local – Raytex vs Clover

Well – it was big news at the time! One of the first groups to be allowed to perform the updated new version of ‘Joseph’ back in 1997 was Premier Productions – and this is the press release that was used at the time. Pretty amateurish to be fair by today’s standards – but still… a piece of our history. …

The first Schools production of Les Mis in Waterford was performed by De La Salle College in 2006 in the Theatre Royal. Here is the show programme from that very performance. 2006 – Les Miserables – Show Programme

By request here is the final WIFLO Brochure from 2012 – the festival that saw the South Eastern Theatre Group sweep the boards with Les Miserables. The Festival had fallen from 18 shows at its peak to just 5 competitive shows and a School music festival. Despite this, the Festivals popularity continued, and its demise is still bemoaned all over …

I love these old Tops Magazines – this one from 1985. The other 2 in the archive are here and here. As usual, there are loads of photos from around the country as well as Waterford and interesting articles including a Waterford section. Enjoy! 1985 – Tops Magazine

Back to 2012 tonight and some more class video from the lens of Colin Shanahan of Digicol media. It’s the intro sequence and some clips from ‘The Sound Of Music’ all over the live recording of ‘Doe A Deer’ as performed by the cast with Gabrielle Holden on main vocal as Maria. It was of course Ignite Productions, produced and …

1998 was a time when any shows going on had to find alternative venues as the Theatre Royal was closed for renovations. The Edmund Rice society chose to produce ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ and tour the production around the South East in various venues. This particular extract was recorded in St. Michaels Theatre in New Ross. Added to the Edmund …

Today we have the season brochure from WIFLO 2005 when Flaggy Lane Productions became the first Waterford Society to win the Festival with ‘Singing In The Rain’.. a feat they were to repeat in 2006 before South Eastern Theatre Group became the third and final winners of the Festival. Added to the WIFLO archive here. 2005 – Waterford International Theatre …

In 2004 Variety made a return to the Waterford Stage in the guise of the Variety Club of Waterford spearheaded by Michael Grant and Padraig O’Griofa. This was the first ‘variety show’ in years and featured a host of local stars. Also in this show brochure are some nice articles that are so well worth a read. Added to the …

For me this was – and always will be – the first real ‘game-changer’ in Waterford Theatre. Before Grease there were two societies performing tried and trusted standards. After Grease the floodgates opened and young people – and in fact anybody – who wanted to try and put on a show could do so with a bit of self belief. …

In 1993 Tramore Players Anonymous were ‘Making the Perfect Man’, based on the Chris DeBurgh song of the same name. The scene was lead by Liam Molumby and the entire show was produced by Bryan Flynn. It’s a great scene and a brilliant example of making a scene out of a song in a different context.

In 2010 WIFLO turned 50. It was hard to believe that just 2 short years later it would all be gone, and in my opinion is one of the greatest tragedies in Waterford Theatre that it died out. Here is the season brochure for that 50th festival – some great reading in it, some old photos and some interesting articles. …

The Edmund Rice Choral and Musical Society was on of the 2 main musical societies in Waterford from the late 1970’s until the early 90’s.  A multi-award winning society, it is still in existence right up to today although at the moment it focuses of choral singing with it’s core membership. Click below for more information. 2008 – The Mikado …