...IF YOU WANT MORE STORIES INTO MUSICALS

And in case you can’t get enough of stories converted into musicals, there’s another coming up at the Bord Gáis this week (Tuesday to Saturday); An Officer And A Gentleman, based on the Richard Gere and Debra Winger movie, about a trainee US Navy pilot who has a tough time from his drill sergeant, falls for a local girl and realises the importance of love and friendship when his friend suffers a tragedy. With a slew of hits from the 1980s, including Up Where We Belong, and Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

Private Peaceful, pictured, by Michael Morpurgo runs this week from May 29-June 3 at the Gaiety. Shane O’Regan reprises his outstanding performance as Private Tommo and 23 other characters, as Tommo awaits execution while recalling his life and an idyllic boyhood with his brother Charlie, and the contrast between the glamour of war propaganda and the hideous reality. The usual week-long

Bloomsday extravaganza is lined up for June 11-16, with a rehash of Ulysses at The Abbey (June 11-July 21), already seen last year, and the publicity invites you ‘to jump into bed’ with Molly Bloom as the famous soliloquy gets the treatment at Bewley’s Café Theatre (June 4-16). Readings in Wolfe Tone Square by novelist Peter Murphy. And inevitably there’s a Pub Crawl, a Joycean Food Trail, and afternoon tea at the James Joyce Centre. If you like all that jollity without having to plough through Joyce, you can look up the details at bloomsdayfestival.ie though some events are already sold out.