World premiere musical adaptation of the 1998 film, with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová and direction by John Doyle.
Waking Ned Devine opens at the Lyric Theatre on Saturday 13 February, a world premiere musical based on the 1998 black comedy film. It's a new Broadway-bound production presented by the Lyric and Waking Ned Devine LLC, with backing from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland through National Lottery funding.
If you're not familiar with the story, it's set in the fictional Irish village of Tulaigh Mhór. An elderly man wins the lottery and promptly dies, leaving the villagers to cover up the death and figure out how to share the windfall. It's a dark comedy at heart, and this is its first time on stage as a musical.
The creative team behind it will be familiar to anyone who knows Once. The music and lyrics are by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, with a book by David Hein and direction by John Doyle. Once won the Tony Award for Best Musical, and this marks Hansard and Irglová's first full-scale musical since that show premiered in New York in 2011 before transferring to the West End and Broadway. It was also the final musical project Hansard worked on before he died in July 2026; the Lyric Theatre said his contribution remains a vital part of the work and that the production would go ahead.
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Previews run from Saturday 13 February to Wednesday 17 February, all at 19:30, with Press Night on Thursday 18 February at 19:30. After that, it's a limited run until Saturday 20 March, with performance times at 14:30 and 19:30. Tickets start from £26, and the theatre is on Ridgeway Street in Belfast.
