Jimmy O'Dea and Harry O'Donovan celebrate their coming-of-age as partners this Christmas with the musical show, "Alive, Alive, O!", which opens at the Gaiety Theatre on Monday evening. Curiously enough, they are not celebrating the anniversary by including one of their original 21-year-old sketches, although a link with the past is provided by the appearance of Jimmy O'Dea's first love, Mrs Mulligan, in a new sketch on an old theme - "Mrs Mulligan in the Pawnshop."
"Alive, Alive, O!", like last year's show, "Christmas Holiday", breaks away from the usual pantomime tradition. There is no principal boy, no good fairy, no demon king and no fairy-tale plot, and this will probably be welcomed by many patrons, since Jimmy O'Dea's character sketches and burlesques, always the most enjoyable feature of an O'Dea show, were necessarily restricted by the pantomime form, in which the comedian has to stick to one role throughout the evening.
In the new show, full advantage is being taken of the fluid revue form, and Jimmy O'Dea appears as a policeman, a cloakroom attendant at a dance, a Government Minister, and one of our national assets - the hen that produces Mr Dillon's export eggs. In some of these cameos, Jimmy O'Dea is aided and abetted by Vernon Hayden and George Arnett, who, in the national asset sketch, appear as two other export goods - bacon and beef. The whole cast have a big satirical comedy scene: "Dublin in the Stone Age."
The Irish Times, December 23rd, 1949.