Garth Brooks still hasn't found a way to reschedule the Dublin shows that were so disappointingly cancelled last year but an Irish theatre company has found a way to make some sort of entertainment out of the mess. Are You There Garth? It's Me, Margaret will tour the nation later during 2015 (from Rolling Stone).
Brooks made headlines in Irish newspapers and across the country music as a whole when he formally announced his return to touring after years of residency in Las Vegas. He was set to make his fateful return at Croke Park in Dublin: When the country star was last in Ireland, during 1997, the stadium was undergoing renovations and he promised the sellout crowd that he would return to play the finished venue one day. He finally made good on the promise during 2013, when he announced a pair of shows at the venue during 2014. Tickets sold out so quickly that he added a third, and then a fourth, and the a fifth show (similar to his strategy of touring the United States at the moment). Unfortunately he overlooked one detail: The stadium could only host, contractually, three concerts a year. When Brooks and team couldn't get licenses for the fourth and fifth shows, he cancelled rather than leave the audiences who bought passes for the cancelled shows out in the cold.
Are You There Garth? follows a Brooks super-fan, played by Deidre O'Kane, as she first learns that her hero will be coming back to Dublin, and then the traumatic learning that he's cancelled all of his shows. We haven't been able to find any of the script or video at this point but it sounds like satirical playwriting at its best (the title of course is a shout out to Judy Blume's classic novel Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
