Theatre juggernauts THISISPOPBABY and cabaret star Emer Dineen bring their heartfelt, raucous, five-star musical extravaganza 0800-CUPID back to Irish stages for a summer tour, following a sell-out premiere season in Ireland and the UK in 2024:
★★★★★
“Hilarious, heartfelt theatre by one of Ireland’s rising stars” / “Entertaining in every way” – The Irish Times
★★★★★
“the highlight of Dublin Theatre Festival 2024” – Irish Examiner
★★★★★
“Feverish, fantastical soup of pop-star glam” – The Guardian
★★★★★
“Forget Cillian Murphy, Cork’s real superstar is Dineen!” / “A talent this big can’t possibly be contained. Dineen is simply phenomenal” – The Arts Review
★★★★★
“0800 CUPID is an incredible piece of theatre, bringing a queer story to the stage in an appropriately flamboyant fashion.” // ”virtuosic, life-affirming, and perfect.” – GCN
★★★★★
“Unmissable” – Everything Theatre
★★★★★
“Emer’s writing is like a big hug from someone you’ve cried to in a club bathroom!” // “Authentically queer, human, and life-affirming” – The Arts Dispatch
TOURS: Dublin / Cork / Galway / Clare / Sligo / Kerry: 3 June – 4 July
THISISPOPBABY are hitting the road with Cork-born, London-reared cabaret star Emer Dineen’s “unmissable” 0800-CUPID – a genre-defying queer, countercultural opus that fizzes between performance and reality. By turns heartfelt and raucous, this electrifying show charts a musical march into – and back from – one young woman’s existential brink.
The tour opens at Dublin’s Project Arts Centre before Dineen returns home to Cork as part of Cork Midsummer Festival 2026, followed by a nationwide run through to 4 July.
Dineen is a formidable talent – writer, actor, cabaret performer and house music vocalist. In 0800-CUPID, she collaborates with award-winning playwright and director Phillip McMahon on a bold, form-busting musical odyssey tracing one extraordinary year in her life. With wit, candour and soaring vocals, Dineen gives voice to a jilted, chronically online generation in a story that is at once universal, hilarious and deeply felt.
Sliding between fantasy and reality, the show takes audiences on a heady ride through a surreal chapter in Dineen’s life – navigating her father’s dementia diagnosis, her nightlife career in drag as crumbling club-kid ‘Cupid’ (a horny cherub matchmaker), a Tourette’s diagnosis, and the loss of her call-centre job – all against the pulse of London’s club scene. Amid the chaos of music, drag, toxic relationships and life’s curveballs, she searches for connection and meaning in the big city – finding answers where she least expects them.
This exhilarating music theatre experience explores identity, crisis and survival, charting a pilgrimage back from the brink through Dineen’s alter ego, ‘Cupid’. Featuring a live band and a cast of theatrical mavericks, the show unfolds as a high-octane queer party – capturing both the thrill and the quiet anxiety of being untethered in your twenties.
Written and composed by Emer Dineen, with co-composition by musical director Tom Beech and production by Irish EDM artist Elaine Mai, 0800-CUPID is powered by an exceptional creative team, transforming the stage into an avant-garde nightclub-meets-concert experience.
Produced by the multi-award-winning THISISPOPBABY, 0800-CUPID was hailed by the Irish Examiner as the standout hit of the 2024 festival before transferring to Soho Theatre, London, where it garnered rapturous audience and critical acclaim, including multiple five-star reviews. Audiences have called it “incredible, unmissable, riotous, good fun.”
Touring to six venues this summer, tickets are expected to move quickly – early booking is strongly advised for what promises to be a thrilling night at the theatre.
CAST: Emer Dineen, Isabel Adomakoh Young, Carl Harrison, Tom Beech (keys), Michael McCarthy (drums), Osazee Aiguokhian (bass)
CREATIVE TEAM:
Text, Composition and Lyrics – Emer Dineen
Directed and Developed by – Phillip McMahon
Co-Composer and Musical Director – Tom Beech
Music Producer – Elaine Mai
Choreography – Carl Harrison
Lighting Design – Sarah Jane Shiels
Set Design – Ellen Kirk
Costume Design – Lambdog1066
Band – Tom Beech (keys), Michael McCarthy (drums), Osazee Aiguokhian (bass)
Produced by Daniel Culleton & Carla Rogers
Photo (above) by Eoin Greally and Niall Sweeney
VIDEO TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/1145573523?fl=pl&fe=sh
Booking: https://www.thisispopbaby.com/book
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Project Arts Centre (Space Upstairs), Dublin
Wednesday 3 – Saturday 6 June / Tuesday 9 – Saturday 13 June @ 7.30pm | €15-€32
Matinees: Saturday 13 @ 2.30pm | €15-€28
Box Office – Tel: 01 881 9613 / https://projectartscentre.ie/events/0800-cupid-2/
The Everyman, Cork [as part of Cork Midsummer Festival 2026]
Thursday 18 + Saturday 20 June @ 8.30pm | €15-€32
Everyman Box Office – Tel: 021 450 16 73 / https://everymancork.com/events/0800-cupid/
CMF Box Office – Tel: 021 421 5159 / https://www.corkmidsummer.com/whats-on/0800-cupid
Town Hall Theatre, Galway
Tuesday 23 @ 8.00pm | €18-€22
Box Office – Tel: 045 448 327 / https://tht.ie/4743/0800-cupid
Glór, Ennis, Co Clare
Friday 26 June @ 8.00pm | €18
Box Office – Tel: 065 684 3103 / https://glor.ie/events/thisispopbaby-presents-0800-cupid/
Hawks Well, Sligo
Tuesday 30 June @ 8.00pm | €18-20
Box Office – Tel: 071 916 1518 / https://www.hawkswell.com/whats-on/shows/0800-cupid
Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, Co Kerry
Friday 3 + Saturday 4 July @ 8.00pm €18-20
Box Office – Tel: 066 712 3055 / siamsatire.com/
Running Time: 80 mins approx. (no interval)
Age: 14+ yrs
STAY IN TOUCH WITH THISISPOPBABY:
www.thisispopbaby.com
INSTAGRAM: @thisispopbaby