Sinead O'Connor stage show to open in Manchester this summer

A new stage production celebrating the life and legacy of Sinéad O'Connor is set to open in Manchester's The Hall on June 25.

The show, titled Surge: An Ode to Sinéad O'Connor, will run for three nights, honouring the late musician's legacy through dance, music and spoken word passages taken from her 2021 memoir, Rememberings.

The production is directed by Tony Award-winning choreographer Sonya Tayeh, who's known for her work on Moulin Rouge! The Musical.

“Sinéad has been a part of my life since her first album arrived, blaring out car windows in Detroit, where I’m from,” said Tayeh.  “All of those memories came flooding back when she passed.

“I was heartbroken. I then had this sudden vision of 10 women standing in a straight line at the edge of a stage and I was hearing (her song) ‘Troy’ in my ears.

"That’s when I knew this was the next art quest and Sinéad is the path."

“Just playing Sinéad’s music in a dance studio does something to the psyche,” she added. “It feels as though the music itself is saying, ‘Here’s where you pour it all out and see what’s left’—holding joy and grief, strength and sorrow, faith and family, integrity and self-righteousness all at once.”

O’Connor, who died in 2023 at the age of 56, became one of Ireland’s most influential cultural figures.

Her 1990 album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, topped the U.S. Billboard chart for six weeks and included the global hit ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, which earned her a Grammy and multiple other awards.

Beyond her music career, O’Connor was known for her outspoken activism, challenging sexism in the music industry and criticising the Catholic Church.

Her 1992 protest on Saturday Night Live, when she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II, drew worldwide controversy.

Tickets for the production go on sale on Tuesday, January 27, and can be purchased here.