Michael John McCarthy is a composer, sound designer and theatre-maker from West Cork.
He has worked on over 100 theatre productions which have won many awards, including twelve Edinburgh Fringe Firsts. He is also the musical supervisor and co-sound designer on the Olivier Award winning Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) which continues to tour internationally. In recent years Michael John has worked with the Abbey Theatre, the BBC, Landmark Productions, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, the Young Vic, Druid Theatre Company, the Lyric Theatre Belfast, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, the Traverse Theatre and the Tron Theatre amongst others.
Music credits for film & television include Pitching Up, On The Hemline and Where You're Meant To Be. A selection of his production music for screen can be found here.
His band Album Club released their debut LP on Last Night From Glasgow in May 2022. It reached #6 in the UK Vinyl Albums chart, and #2 in the Scottish Albums chart, spending 6 weeks in the Top 100. He was a member of Zoey Van Goey and Elephant, and has also played and recorded with Aidan Moffat, Emma Pollock, Niall Connolly, Trembling Bells & Bonnie Prince Billy, Alasdair Roberts and Air In The Lungs amongst others.
Current & Forthcoming Projects include:
The Plough And The Stars - Abbey Theatre, Dublin (Music & Sound Design)
Artist Residency (with Bernardo Cubria) - Cove Park (Music & Writing)
The Prometheus Project - Luke Murphy/Attic Projects (Music & Sound Design)
The Seagull - Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh & Chichester Festival Theatre (Music & Sound Design)
Offspring (A Modern Frankenstein) - Emily Terndrup (Music & Sound Design)
Recent Work includes:
Tam O'Shanter (by Gary McNair) - BBC Audio Scotland
Sound Design, and Music with Malin Lewis. Winner - Best Adaptation, BBC Audio Drama Awards 2025
The Fair Maid of the West (by Isobel McArthur, after Thomas Heywood) - Royal Shakespeare Company
★★★★★ "Music is one of the keys to the success of the production. The score is cleverly constructed from twentieth-century pop hits arranged by Michael John McCarthy and directed by Tarek Merchant. And in context, every one of their choices adds to the narrative and emotion of each moment in the story." The Reviews Hub
★★★★ The Guardian ★★★★ The Times ★★★★ Financial Times
The Grand Old Opera House Hotel (by Isobel McArthur) - Traverse Theatre / Dundee Rep Theatre
★★★★★ "Remarkably inventive"
The Times
★★★★ "In Gareth Nicholls’s beautifully timed production, Michael John McCarthy’s score moves centre stage, the arias come sweeping in and wild, romantic gestures take the place of minor domestic gripes from the pernickety guests [...] as formally adventurous as it is extravagantly funny."
The Guardian
Winner Scotsman Edinburgh Fringe First 2023
England & Son: A Play for Mark Thomas (by Ed Edwards) - Tin Cat Entertainment / HOME Manchester
★★★★ "Cressida Brown’s powerful direction, and the effects of Richard Williamson’s lighting and Michael John McCarthy’s sound design add to the mounting sense of panic as Thomas recounts incident after incident that turned him into the man he is [...] A triumph for all concerned." Whats On Stage
Winner Scotsman Edinburgh Fringe First 2023
Kidnapped (with Isobel McArthur) - National Theatre of Scotland
★★★★★ “Scottish theatre at its absolute finest."
Broadway World
★★★★★ "Kidnapped is a piece of theatrical brilliance. "
Theatre Scotland
★★★★★ "McCarthy's rearrangements of such unlikely songs as Kenny Rogers' The Gambler, Talking Heads' Road to Nowhere, and Yazoo's Only You are folksy and funky by turns, and an absolute hoot [...] This is a special show."
The Stage
Castle Lennox (by Linda McLean) - Lung Ha Theatre Company/Lyceum Edinburgh
★★★★★ "The mood of the show, therefore, has something of the texture of life itself; often brutal and heartbreaking, but also funny, beautiful, and sometimes downright magical."
The Scotsman
★★★★★ "Composer Michael John McCarthy and on-stage Arranger & Musical Director David Paul Jones conspire to soundtrack proceedings with a dynamic song-book and soundscape [...] a layering of songs, hopeful and heartbroken, motifs which follow the story through the long years towards a final liberation."
Brickbats & Bouquets
Stage Music Sampler
If you want to find out more about any aspect of Michael John's work, please write to [email protected].
Michael John is represented by Davina Shah at TEAM: [email protected]
