A tribute to John Anderson

The Lyric has a long history of musical theatre, going right back to the very first musical staged in Ridgeway Street in 1971. John Anderson was musical director at the Lyric for quite a few years in the 1970s and early 80s. His first production was Jesus Christ Superstar in 1974 with director Michael Poynor, with John Cunningham as Jesus, Ken Stott as Judas and Linda Wray as Mary Magdalene. John and Michael teamed up again in 1975 for a production of Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret, with John Hewitt, Trudy Kelly and Roy Heayberd in the cast. John also worked alongside founder and director Mary O’Malley for a number of productions including The Hour-Glass and The Player Queen, We Do It For Love by Patrick Galvin and Kingdom Come by Stewart Parker.

Houston Marshall remembers a funny story from that time:

“I started my professional career as an Acting ASM with Mary O'Malley. Being an acting ASM at the Lyric was a great thing when Mary was there, because she saw you as a free actor and I was playing parts that any other theatre would employ a full actor to play. John composed the original songs for We Do It For Love. As well as doing small parts, Mary got me to understudy all the male characters. The show was so successful, she extended it and took it down to Cork Everyman. John Hewitt had previous commitments and couldn't do the extension so Mary decided I was to over his part. The only problem was the character sang a duet with his wife played by Linda Wray. I reminded Mary that I couldn't sing but she instructed John Anderson to teach me the song. I told John I was tone deaf and he decided to keep the peace and to carry on the audition anyway. But the song was one of the highlights of the show, and the rest of the cast weren’t happy. We carried on anyway and it was very obvious that I couldn't hold a note to save my life. Mary was having none of it and she told John to teach to me to 'talk sing' the song like Rex Harrison!! But John threatened to pull out of show rather than have his song messed about with. She shouted back in her thickest Cork accent that ‘us professionals’ were all the same - jeopardising the show for the sake of our precious professional standards! She ended up begrudgingly employing Gerry Murphy to play the part for rest of the run!”

John was a frequent attender of the musical theatre at the Lyric over the years, always hugely supportive of those starting out in their career in music, and who were making musical theatre there.

In 2022 John paid a visit to the Lyric’s Theatre School to interview children, parents and facilitators for his radio programme, ‘The Roar of the Greasepaint’ which was released on BBC Radio Ulster in January 2023. John was so complimentary about the diverse nature of the Creative Learning programme at the Lyric and the theatre training it was providing to a new generation of theatre makers! We are so grateful to have had this opportunity to work with John one last time.

Sending our deepest condolences to his wife Marie, his family and the large number of friends and colleagues in music, broadcasting and the performing arts who mourn his passing. He really was a master of his trade and we owe a lot to his musical legacy.

Gallery: Jesus Christ Superstar 1974, Schweyk in the Second World War 1974, We Do it for Love 1975