THE unlikely pairing of ex-Radiators and Pogues mainstay Phillip Chevron and radio critic Declan Lynch is preparing to storm Broadway.
Lynch and Nottingham-based Chevron are working on a musical based on the life of an Irish-American boxer and if the current interest on the international artistic front in all things Irish is anything to go by, they should create quite a stir.
Conor McPherson's play St Nicholas is currently wowing them at the Bush Theatre in London and the audience at the first night included actors Aidan Gillen, Brendan Coyle and Ruairi Conroy.
McPheson's first screenplay I Went Down has been filmed by Paddy Breathnach and will be shown at Cannes this year, and his play This Lime Tree Bower, which premiered at last year's Dublin Theatre Fringe, is being developed for film, with Gillen tipped to play the leading role.
Conroy is playing the title role of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple Of Inishmaan at London's National Theatre and McDonagh can currently do nothing wrong. He is rumoured to have recently sold a one-page screenplay outline for a six-figure sum and has talked of his relationship with "a beautiful young Irish actress". It has been pointed out that Aisling O'Sullivan, female star of The Cripple Of Inishmaan is a very beautiful actress indeed.
Marie Jones's Women On The Verge Of HRT opens next week at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End while Kilburn's Tricycle Theatre is staging three Irish plays in a row, culminating in the opening of Ronan Bennett's play about Northern Ireland, What Is To Be Done, on July 12th.
On the music front, the Fleadh, the hugely successful London-based festival of Irish music, plans this year to take in Manchester and New York as well, while next month sees a couple of major London showcases for Irish music.
And in the first week of April at the Barbican, the From The Heart Irish Music Festival will feature Sinead O'Connor, Liam O'Maonlai and Donal Lunny, while promoter Robert Stephenson is behind the Irish section of London Music Week which takes place at the end of April.
Northern Irish rock sensations Ash are the rumoured bill-toppers at the event planned for Islington's Union Chapel.