Cork’s star set designer Bob Crowley: ‘A bad review in The New York Times is like a death in the family’

The seven-time Tony Award winner reveals how seeing a production of ‘Oliver!’ as a teenager in his native Cork set him on a star-studded path

Gavin Adams, Yeukayi Ushe and ensemble in Aladdin which is running at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre

Chris Wasser

Bob Crowley’s life was ­forever changed the night he saw Oliver! at the Everyman ­Theatre in Cork. It was the late 1960s, and a teenage Crowley – an aspiring artist with a head full of ideas – was slowly beginning to figure himself out.

In the end, it was a hometown production of the triumphant Lionel Bart musical – featuring the accomplished design work of Tipperary’s finest, the late, great scenic and costume designer, Sean Kenny – that turned Crowley’s world upside down.