On Monday 20th June and Tuesday 21st of June our P7 children performed their version of the children’s classic gangster musical Bugsy Malone. Bugsy Malone takes place in 1929, prohibition-era New York City and is a tongue-in-cheek take on gangster movies of that time period.

Fat Sam was played by Niall Kearney with great enthusiasm and comedy timing, owner of Fat Sam’s Grand Slam Speakeasy, is under attack from his rival, Dandy Dan (Luke Liddy). Fat Sam’s gang of henchmen are meticulously raiding Sam’s various businesses and ‘splurging’ Fat Sam’s gang members.

Dandy Dan has in his possession the newest, most advanced weapon: the splurge gun. In keeping with a comic take on the gangster story, the splurge gun shoots silly string, and when someone has been splurged, it means he is all washed up. Having only the traditional and now out of date cream pie as a weapon, Fat Sam realizes that he is in big trouble.  The pupils managed to create a splurging spectacle hitting their on stage targets and often including the audience too!

As Dan’s gang splurged more and more of Sam’s gang members, Sam turns to the only guy with ‘brains’ that he knows: Bugsy Malone. Bugsy is a smooth talking, penniless boxing promoter with a heart of gold, and he agrees to try to help Fat Sam fight his rival, Dandy Dan.  Bugsy was played by Ethan McManus who gave a mature and flawless performance.

Bugsy has another reason to agree to help Fat Sam: he hopes that the money he earns will be enough to buy two tickets to take his girlfriend, Blousey Brown, to Hollywood, so that she can make it as a performer. Caoimhe Rooney played Blousey Brown and delivered a powerful and emotional performance of “ordinary fool” brining a tear to Fat Sam and also many of the adoring family and friends in the audience.

A resounding success the children performed the signature songs such as “My name is Tallulah” (Matilda Barwick) Fat Sams grand slam, Bad Guys and Give a little love.

The Show was a hit with many of the audience attending more than one performance. Many people commented upon the great acting, the talented singing and dancing by 10 year olds and how they couldn’t believe children who were so young could offer such a standard in performance.

Lots of proud mums, dads, grandparents, family and friends who supported their stars on the stage were seen wiping away tears from their eyes often at the many jokes but also by the recognition and timely reminder of the journey many of the children had been through attending St. Comgall’s.  The Song Lyrics sum it up very well that the boys and girls “could be anything that they want to be, with all the talents they had.”  The children will all be moving on to new schools but will be leaving with a “little reputation behind” them and that they will surely be remembered for “the things that they say and do.”  These words seemed very appropriate on the culmination of a very busy year for the primary 7 children who worked exceptionally hard to display all they have learned and did it all with great enthusiasm and enjoyment.