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

Why was the work of one of the few female co-founders of a theatre company, the Globe Theatre Company, not included in the histories of the stage that have been written since?

Genevieve (second from right) in 1955 with fellow cast and members of the theatre company she co-founded, The Dublin Globe Theatre. Picture courtesy of the Genevieve Lyons Archive, University College Galway Library 

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.