Clodagh Finn: The Irish woman who made ‘Cabaret’ a hit in Ireland long before the Broadway musical

I was gobsmacked to discover this: In 1950s Ireland, there was a run on Sally Bowles berets after a precursor of the Broadway hit Cabaret drew thousands of theatre-goers to a small but progressive theatre in Dublin.

Genevieve Lyons played Sally, the “bad girl with a heart of gold”, later made famous by Liza Minnelli, in John Van Druten’s play, I Am a Camera. It was so successful that upwards of 15,000 people travelled from Dublin city centre to Dun Laoghaire in the suburbs to see it.

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