New musical RISING to receive concert reading at Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith
Amy Clare Tasker and Tom James McGrath, writers of Edinburgh Fringe 2025’s award-winning musical The Queen is Mad (Elaine Paige’s Pick of the Fringe on BBC Radio 2, Musical Theatre Review Special Commendation Award), will present the first public showing of their newest musical collaboration, RISING, at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith on 24 April.
Coinciding with the 110th anniversary of the 1916 Dublin rebellion, RISING reimagines the events through the inner life of Patrick Pearse, its most enigmatic leader. As he leads the charge against the British Empire, Patrick must reconcile his public role with the private self he has kept hidden – his queerness, his sensitivity, and his doubts.
Fighting alongside him are a community of eccentrics: artists, bookworms, socialists and socialites. Together, they form not just a revolutionary force, but a chosen family.
Blending Irish folk music with sweeping Broadway storytelling, RISING offers an intimate portrait of revolution. Les Miserables meets Milk in this queer re-examination of Irish history.
The cast for this concert reading includes Matthew Lloyd Davies (Chicago, The Lion King), and Brian Raftery (Sweeney Todd) and Robert Finlayson (The Phantom of the Opera), both rejoining from the success of The Queen is Mad. Further casting is to be announced.
All ticket proceeds will go directly to the creatives, cast, and the Irish Cultural Centre.
The show’s first single, ‘The Ireland I Dream Of ‘is now available on all music streaming services.
