Gaiety Theatre, Dublin Previews Mar 13-14 7.30pm Opens Mar 15-24 €15-€49.50 01-6795622 gaietytheatre.ie

One of the most rewarding things about the sublime success of Rough Magic’s 2004 musical was just how unlikely it seemed. Partly this was to do with Arthur Riordan’s subject matter: A crossword puzzle solver turned spy investigates Emergency-era Dublin while a constellation of literary and scientific cameos gather around him, from Myles na gCopaleen, Erwin Schrödinger and John Betjeman to a clutch of historically accuratish Nationalist Nazi sympathisers. Add to that a writer with effervescent ideas and who never met a pun he couldn’t spin into a lyric: “You were the one across from me, so I was not two down.”

The greater unlikelihood, though, owed something to the fact that – for all its musical culture – Ireland has no culture of musicals, famed more for its Shaws than its Sondheims. Even Bell Helicopter (Conor Kelly & Sam Park), who matched Riordan’s wordplay with an eclectic cabaret of musical styles, were first timers at the form.

There is, however, an unstoppable momentum in the improbable. Lynne Parker's hilarious, high-spirited production may have kick- started a new tradition now evident in the work of THISISPOPBABY and Randolph SD. Improbable Frequency's progress from the Dublin Theatre Festival to Poland to the Abbey to New York and now the Gaiety has a trajectory that seems . . . well, you get the picture.

Can't see that? Catch this

Showstopper! The Improvised MusicalGeorge Bernard Shaw Theatre, Carlow; Hawk's Well Theatre, Sligo