Mike McCarthy Biography
Mike McCarthy (Michael McCarthy) was born on 5 June 1966 in Turners Cross, Cork, Ireland. He is an Irish musical theater performer who is best known for his many appearances as Javert in the musical Les Misérables. He studied classical piano from a young age and started to perform professional roles, such as a member of the ensemble in Rigoletto, at the Cork Opera House, from the age of 15.
Other musical stage roles have included: Max in Cabaret; Sir Lancelot in Camelot; Thomas Inkle in a 1997 revival of Inkle and Yarico; the Phantom in Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera; Ivan Molokov in Chess and Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. McCarthy has also performed in operas, such as Rigoletto and dramatic roles including, Marco in A View from the Bridge, and Laurie in Little Women.
He has appeared in a number of high-profile concerts including playing the Factory Foreman in Les Misérables tenth anniversary show, Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert, and as Thomas Inkle in a concert performance of Inkle and Yarico at the Edinburgh Festival. He has recorded three albums Broadway (1994), Living for the Moment (2000), and You’re Still You (2012), and a number of his performances have been broadcast by the BBC and PBS. He continues to perform and runs workshops in performing arts.
Mike McCarthy Wife
McCarthy’s has been married to Stephanie since July 1990. Stephanie is a music teacher.
Mike Mccarthy Family
McCarthy’s has been married to Stephanie since July 1990. Stephanie is a music teacher and the couple have a son, Cían, born in 2004.
Mike Mccarthy Age
Michael McCarthy was born on 5 June 1966. He is 52 years old as of 2018.
Mike Mccarthy Career
Stage
During the 1980s, through to 1990, McCarthy performed in a number of professional productions at Cork Opera House in his native Ireland. Roles included: a member of the ensemble in Rigoletto; Patrick Dennis in Mame; Tom Trainer in No, No, Nanette; Sir Lancelot in Camelot; and The Red Shadow in The Desert Song. He also played Laurie in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women at Cork’s Everyman Palace Theatre in 1984.
He began his connection with Les Misérables in 1990, initially playing Combeferre and then the Factory Foreman and understudy to the part of Javert at the Palace Theatre in London. He took the role of Javert in his own right in the Palace Theatre in Manchester in 1992, replacing Philip Quast.
In November 1994 McCarthy appeared in a new musical, Out of the Blue, with Meredith Braun, who had previously starred alongside him as Éponine in Les Misérables in Manchester. However, bad reviews forced the show to close after just 17 performances at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. The songs by composer, Shun-Ichi Tokura, and lyricist, Paul Sand, were subsequently released by Stage Door Records in 2010.
He then went on to part of Javert which he played in thousands of performances, mostly in London, but also at: the Theatre Royal, Sydney, Australia; the Point Theatre, Dublin; Melbourne (cover for Roger Lemke); San Francisco; Shanghai, China; Seoul, South Korea and he finished the show’s run at the Imperial Theatre, New York for Terrence Mann.
He revived his role as the Factory Foreman for the Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert, the tenth anniversary concert of Les Misérables in 1995. He also played the role of Javert in concert productions: in 1997, at the Chelmsford Festival; in 2002 at the Globe Arena, Stockhlom; and in 2004 for the Queen and her guests at Windsor Castle.
Other concert performances as Javert include Guernsey and Dublin, both in 2008.
As well as Les Misérables, McCarthy has appeared as Thomas Inkle in a 1997 revival of Inkle and Yarico for the Holder’s season, Barbados. There were further performances in Washington, Edinburgh, and Berlin. He also starred as the Phantom in Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera (2000); as Ivan Molokov in Chess at the Oslo Spektrum, Norway (2006); and Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with The Göteborg Opera, in Sweden.
Further concert performances include: a centenary celebration of Ira Gershwin’s birth, Who Could Ask for Anything More?; a concert performance of Inkle and Yarico at the Edinburgh Festival, which was transmitted live to the Royal Opera House in London; A Night of 100 Stars at the London Palladium; and Opera In The Park in the grounds of Temple Newsam, West Yorkshire, with the orchestra of Opera North, Lesley Garrett and Ruthie Henshall.
He has played the part of Sky Masterson in a concert performance of Guys and Dolls with the Key West Pops Orchestra, Key West in Florida, and covered for Bryn Terfel at Terfel’s Faenol Festival in Gwynedd, North Wales. He has also joined Michael Ball in his concert show The Musicals on a Summer’s Eve on a number of occasions.
Recording and broadcast
McCarthy has recorded three solo albums of covers: Broadway (1994); Living for the Moment (2000); and You’re Still You (2012). He has also featured in recordings of musicals: Out of the Blue, as Dr. Akizuki (1994); It’s Just The Beginning: The Songs of Charles Miller & Kevin Hammonds, singing Sail Me There from their musical Hope (2010); and a concept CD of a musical version of Dracula by Gareth Evans and Christopher J. Orton, which features McCarthy as Dracula and was accompanied by the release of a music video of one of the tracks, Within My World.
Some of his concert performances have been broadcast and released on DVD, such as: Who Could Ask for Anything More? on BBC Radio 2; Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert; Inkle and Yarico, documentary filmed at the Holder’s Festival, Barbados; and Lesley Garrett – Music from the Movies taken from the Opera In The Park concert, broadcast on BBC Two on Christmas Day 2004.
Other broadcast work includes: the role of The Gypsy King in The 10th Kingdom; the role of Second Priest in a TV film adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar for PBS’s series Great Performances, which was also released as a DVD; and he sang Summertime, Nature Boy and If Ever I Would Leave You on BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night Is Music Night, presented by Ken Bruce.
Recent career
As well as continuing to perform McCarthy is the Executive Producer for the Harlequin Performing Arts Academy, at the Buccament Bay Resort, Kingstown in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He also runs the Performing Arts Summer School at Cork School of Music, is the guest musical director at Shorecrest Preparatory School, St. Petersburg, Florida, and has his own classes in St.Petersburg, Florida.
Mike Mccarthy Press Conference
Mike Mccarthy Photography
Mike McCarthy Performing
Mike McCarthy Interview
Mike Mccarthy Music
Spoon
- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (produced / recorded / mixed), Merge
- Gimme Fiction (produced / recorded / mixed), Merge/Matador
- Kill the Moonlight (produced / recorded / mixed), Merge
- Girls Can Tell (produced / recorded / mixed), Merge
Heartless Bastards
- The Mountain (produced / recorded / mixed), Fat Possum Records
- Dead Confederate
- Wrecking Ball (produced / recorded / mixed), TAO/Razor and Tie Records
Wild Sweet Orange
We Have Cause to Be Uneasy (produced / recorded / mixed), Canvasback Records
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
- So Divided (produced / recorded / mixed), Interscope
- Worlds Apart (produced / recorded / mixed), Interscope
- The Secret of Elena’s Tomb (produced / recorded / mixed), Interscope
- Source Tags & Codes (produced / recorded / mixed)
- Relative Ways EP (produced / recorded / mixed), Interscope
- Madonna (produced / recorded / mixed), Merge
Patty Griffin
- Children Running Through (produced / recorded / mixed) ATO records
- Lee Ann Womack
- Something Worth Leaving Behind (produced / recorded / mixed), MCA
- I Hope You Dance (recorded / mixed), MCA
- The Lonely, The Lonesome & The Gone (produced / engineer / mixer), ATO
- The Features
- Exhibit A (produced / recorded), Universal
- Fastball
- Keep Your Wig On (produced Recorded), Ryko
- Forget Cassettes
- Instruments of Action (produced / recorded / mixed), Theory 8
- Goudie
- Peep Show (produced / recorded / mixed), TMC/Elektra
- Sound Team
- Movie Monster (produced / recorded / mixed), Capitol
- Jack Ingram
- Electric (produced / recorded / mixed), Sony
- Sixteen Deluxe
- The Moonman is Blue (produced / recorded / mixed), Sugar Fix