LOURDES! THE MUSICAL to Make World Premiere at Dublin Theatre Festival
Matthew Floyd Jones wrote the music and lyrics, with Riain Cash and Danielle James among the cast.
Award-winning musical theatre creator, Xnthony, will return with a new show about miracles and the people who stage them. Lourdes! The Musical is an electrifying pilgrimage of Hail Marys mixed with the best new pop bangers and will rip your heart out and leave you thinking for days - premieres at Dublin Theatre Festival this September. Performances will run 25 September - 10 October 2026.
From the theatrical visionary behind the award-winning, five-star musical Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry comes a sick new musical packed with holy bangers, emotional belters and a nun with a habit for DJing. Xnthony makes his second coming with Lourdes! The Musical, a new co-production with Dublin Theatre Festival 2026 & Civic Theatre Tallaght.
Lourdes! The Musical is an unexpected thrilling musical theatre extravaganza that needs to be seen, to be believed. Expect to laugh, cry, and emerge a fully changed person from this new stage pilgrimage that follows the day that Matthew's life is finally about to begin, as he receives news that changes him forever and ever, Amen! Instead of facing reality, he runs to Lourdes, where faith is spectacle and a ragtag troupe of pilgrims are staging an amateur musical about Saint Bernadette - the woman who experienced the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858.
From Roscommon Arts Centre to the Southbank Centre in London, this exciting new show is led and created by award-winning writer and performer Xnthony. His work has been championed by leading cultural organisations while never losing sight of their commitment to challenging the systems that make sustaining a career as a queer artist so difficult. Winner of Best Ensemble Award at Dublin Fringe Festival in 2022 and nominated for Best Production, Best Costume and Best Soundscape at the 2023 Irish Times Theatre Awards, for his hit musical, Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry. Xnthony and his collaborators create bold, irreverent theatre, musicals, cabaret and community-led performance. Where they transform history, pop culture and the absurdity of everyday life into unforgettable live experiences that are funny, provocative and full of heart.
Matthew Floyd Jones has engineered the music and lyrics for this new musical show to debut in Dublin. Floyd Jones is a big London Westend star. He is known for his work in the musical comedy double act Frisky & Mannish and for composing the score of the Westend musical Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder!. As a former competitive Latin and ballroom dancer his all-round talents include make him a songwriter, composer, lyricist, pianist, accordionist, clarinettist, saxophonist, musical director and arranger for comedic and theatrical productions - this makes him the perfect collaborator on this new production by Xnthony.
With a superb cast line-up including musical theatre star from Co. Tipperary, Riain Cash (known for his roles in the Tony award-winning musical, Fun Home, staged at The Gate Theatre (2023), acclaimed British musical Why Would We Care staged at the Union Theatre (2026) / and Flynn at the Abbey Theatre (2017); Danielle James - is an award winning Irish actress, writer, and performance artist based in London. She is passionate about writing bombastic, knife edge theatre about freedom and liberation, contextualised by her experiences as a transsexual woman. Her own work has taken a spotlight in works like her play THREE BOYS which was a finalist for the 2025 Women's Prize for Playwriting and long-listed for the Bruntwood Prize. Her short film 'EYE' won Best Northern Film at the WomenX Festival in 2025. She was a part of the Royal Court 'plays from ur notes app' Writers Group in 2024, and the Dublin Theatre Festival Next Stage Cohort in 2025; Cork actress, singer and musician, Molly Lynch, is best known for playing the lead role of Eliza Doolittle, in a UK production of My Fair Lady and Cathy Hiatt in The Last Five Years that played at a number of UK theatres in 2020 and 2021; also joining the cast is s singing, acting powerhouse, Nichola MacEvilly. She was Broadway World's Best Supporting Performer in Helen Bechdel musical, Fun Home, at The Gate Theatre Dublin; and last but not least, Welsh actor, writer, singer, Iestyn Arwel, best known for his TV roles in the Apple TV sci fi mini-series, The War Between the Land and the Sea (2025), British comedy drama, Burn Burn Burn(2015) and Merched Parchus (2019).
Lourdes! The Musical is Xnthony's second large-scale musical show and will be the best fun night out at the theatre during the festival, but also has the capacity to rip your heart out and leave you thinking for days.
*Content Advisory: This performance includes themes of transphobia, illness, depression & discussions of death that some may find distressing.
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