Here’s who’s playing who in the Toy Show Musical

The show's little star will be announced this Friday.

The nights are drawing in, which can only mean one thing. Christmas is coming, and with it, the highly anticipated Toy Show musical. It was announced earlier this year that a musical show inspired by the magic of the RTÉ staple would come to the Convention Centre this winter, and now the preliminary casting has been revealed. Toy Show the Musical follows a little girl, Nell, during the Christmas season, and while the lead role has yet to be announced, we now know who will be playing her family. Jamie Beamish – who you may recognise as Lord Nigel Berbrooke from Birdgerton, or Ciaran from Derry Girls – will play Brendan Mooney, Nell's dad, while Clare Barrett will play Áine Mooney, her mother. Barrett has had roles in Fair City, Wild Mountain Thyme and Sacrifice. Completing the cast list for now is Emmerdale actress Anna Healy, who will play Nana. The show's young star, however, will be revealed on this Friday's Late Late Show. Giving theatre-goers a glimpse of what to expect, the musical's director Séimí Campbell said that it is a "celebration" of the resilience of children. "Toy Show the Musical celebrates one of our nation’s most loved traditions and in that, recognises the importance of play, the transformative power of the imagination, and the strength, bravery, and resilience of children," said Campbell. "We have this wonderful opportunity to take many families into the theatre for the first time, and with that comes a responsibility to show them the unequivocal power of theatre - of sitting in a room together with strangers but leaving with some form of shared experience. That connectivity is exactly what Toy Show encapsulates." Toy Show the Musical begins its run at the Convention Centre in Dublin on 10 December.