Musical take on Anglo to go ahead despite legal warning

The show will go on for Anglo: The Musical next week, despite warning letters both from the Director of Public Prosecutions and…

The show will go on for Anglo: The Musical next week, despite warning letters both from the Director of Public Prosecutions and solicitors for former chairman and chief executive Seán FitzPatrick.

Mr FitzPatrick’s puppet has had to be written out of Anglo because of fears it might prejudice the forthcoming trial of himself and two other directors of Anglo Irish Bank.

The show’s writer Paul Howard said the FitzPatrick puppet was a small part of the overall story and the rewrite only took him a couple of hours.

“It was never the life and times of Seán Fitzpatrick,” he said. “We are all good citizens” about the rules that surround legal proceedings, he added.

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“It is exactly the same show. The centrepiece of the show is 16 songs. We didn’t lose a single scene or song. It hasn’t lost any of its bite. ”

None of the main Anglo players, including David Drumm and jailed businessman Seán Quinn, feature either.

There are real life characters in Bertie Ahern, Brian Cowen, Enda Kenny, Angela Merkel and David McWilliams.

The musical opens at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre next Wednesday for two weeks.

The story focuses on a couple named Diarmuid and Aisling living on an island off the west coast. The Dublin commuter belt has now stretched into the Atlantic Ocean and Anglo Irish Bank has set up a branch on the island.

The couple are persuaded to borrow €890 million, with predictable consequences.

Two of the numbers include Put Another Nought on the End, He’s a Friend while the finale is We Are Where We Are and Where We Are Is F***ed.

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy is a news reporter with The Irish Times