“I saw the power Gay Byrne had at that time – tickets were selling and we starting to get paid…”
British-born Rebecca had just come to Ireland playing Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers for the first time in 1985.
The show had been a smash hit in the UK, but it failed to draw a crowd in its first three weeks at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre and looked doomed to failure.
Then radio and TV king Gay Byrne went to see it and gave it rave reviews on his morning radio show.
Gaybo also offered to have Rebecca sing the showstopper Tell Me It’s Not True.
Gay Byrne raved about the show
“I was performing in Blood Brothers on the same night, so it was arranged for me to go straight from the stage in the Olympia to the Late Late Show where I would make it just in time to sing the song at the end,” Rebecca tells the Sunday World.
“So I came off stage looking dishevelled after the final number because Mrs Johnstone is crying at the end, and I was rushed to a limousine that was waiting outside. Then we took off with two police outriders on motorcycles with blue lights flashing leading us, and I remember we went the wrong way up a one way street.
“It was all so exciting. This was my first time in Ireland and I thought, ‘this is so thrilling, it’s insane, I love this place!’
“We got to the TV studios in RTE and I didn’t have time to go to make up. Gay Byrne said, ‘she’s here!’ and I went straight on to the show and sang Tell Me It’s Not True.
“I’ll never forget that night for as long as I live. I also saw the power that Gay Byrne and The Late Late Show had at that time. The following week the tickets were selling and we started to get paid.
Rebecca will perform in Wexford and Kildare next month
News in 90 Seconds – 22 November 2025
“Gay Byrne was very supportive and you are forever grateful to somebody like that. The whole country trusted him.”
Rebecca says landing the role of Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, which she’ll reprise at Dublin’s Bord Gais Energy Theatre early next year, was her big showbiz break.
“I was really, really lucky the day I auditioned for Blood Brothers and 42 years later I’m still doing it,” she acknowledges.
“The door opened and it never really closed. It was one hundred per cent life-changing for me. It’s been a glorious role for me over a 50-year career. It was the making of anything that became successful for me.
“Blood Brothers led on to starring roles in Evita and Les Miserables. I didn’t even audition for those parts because they come to see you in a show and you then get offered other roles.”
From Calendar Girls to Chess, Cats, Aspects of Love, you name it, Rebecca has done it. She devised, directed and starred in Hollywood Ladies, a tribute to her many movie star influences, among them Barbara Streisand, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews and Gracie Fields.
She’s been in the British charts with songs such as Putting On The Show, and performed on BBC’s Top Of The Pops.
Rebecca, who lives in Naas, Co Kildare, with her musician husband Kenny, has been honoured with her handprint on our own Gaiety Theatre Walk of Fame.
The work keeps rolling in with shows such as Letters From The Front in Carlow this month, but Rebecca says she’s particularly looking forward to two special nights of performances spanning her 50-year career with songs from the musicals and her personal favourite numbers at Wexford Opera House and the K Club in Co Kildare next month.
Billed as An Evening With The First Lady of Musical Theatre, she will perform songs from Evita, Les Miserables, Chess and, of course, Blood Brothers.
“I leave the Blood Brothers songs to the end,” Rebecca laughs. “I know a lot people come for those and if I did them at the beginning they’d probably be off to the bar,” she jokes.
Rebecca Storm has enjoyed a 50-year career and says getting the role of Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers was her big break.
“The problem with Blood Brothers is that there are so many people who love that. One woman who came to see Evita back in 1989 actually wrote to me afterwards and said, ‘why did you not sing Tell Me It’s Not True at the end?’”, she laughs at the memory.
“People ask me, ‘Do you ever get sick of singing Tell Me It’s Not True, Rebecca?’ No I don’t. I actually don’t because it has bought me two houses and it has kept me in work for all those decades. Why would I get sick of it? It has also stood the test of time.
“I have a six-piece band of world class musicians for the shows in Wexford and the K Club and I just love performing with them.
“I absolutely love the singing side of it. It’s like a night out for me. I put the eyelashes on and get the hair done and I still get that buzz when you’re on the stage with world class musicians. And of course the audiences here are always so wonderful and engaging. I’m living here for the last 25 years and I’ll be forever grateful to Ireland. I love it here and it gave me a chance to have another life outside of showbusiness.”
Tickets are available for An Evening With the First Lady of Theatre, Rebecca Storm at Wexford Opera House (December 6) and K Club, Kildare (December 28).