A Man of No Importance

 A-

John Doyle ends his six-year tenure as artistic director of CSC with an excellent revival of this modest 2002 musical with book, music and lyrics by Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens respectively. The repressed homosexual protagonist, Alfie Byrne (Jim Parsons), is a Dublin bus conductor with a crush on his handsome driver Robbie Fay (A.J. Shively). Alfie lives with his older sister Lily (the always wonderful Mare Winningham), who has put off marriage until she sees her brother wed and settled. Alfie’s main interest in life is the amateur theater group devoted to the works of Oscar Wilde that he leads at the local church. His latest project is Wilde’s Salome even though it is unlikely that the church will allow it. He recruits the reluctant Adele (Shereen Ahmed), a beautiful young woman newly arrived in Dublin to play the title role. The cast is universally excellent. The motley crew of amateur actors are played to the hilt by a fine ensemble that includes CSC alums Mary Beth Peil, Thomas Sesma, Alma Cuervo, Kara Mikula, Jessica Tyler Wright and William Youmans, as well as Da’von T. Moody, Nathaniel Stampley and Joel Waggoner. As actors in a Doyle production are wont to do, most of them also play instruments. Doyle's set is bare-bones with folding chairs prominently deployed. Flaherty’s Irish-inflected score is easy on the ears and Ahrens’s lyrics develop character and move the plot. McNally’s affecting book stumbles a bit toward the end, but not enough to diminish one’s pleasure. I know I was deeply moved. Running time: one hour 45 minutes, no intermission.

The Suitcase under the Bed

C

The Mint Theater is to be commended for their ambitious efforts to renew interest in Teresa Deevy, an Irish playwright whose career had some success in the mid 1930’s. I did not see the three full-length plays they have presented since 2010, so I cannot judge how representative these four one-act plays are of her work. I did not find any of them fully satisfying. Marriage or the prospect thereof plays a part in each play. “Strange Birth” is little more than a brief character sketch that ends just as it is getting interesting. “In the Cellar of My Friend” was the most self-contained piece, but the characters were cliched and the situation unconvincing. “Holiday House” seemed like the first act of an abandoned play that attempted to blend Shaw with Coward. “The King of Spain’s Daughter” is grittier than the others, but the relationships among the characters were confusing. The production is admirable. The cast of seven (Ellen Adair, Gina Costigan, Sarah Nicole Deaver, Cynthia Mace, Aidan Redmond, Colin Ryan and A.J. Shively) is strong. Their Irish accents were mostly convincing. One of the main pleasures of the evening is to see them play multiple roles. Before the second and fourth plays, one of the actors recites a poem with a verse that contains the title of the play that follows. The costumes by Andrea Varga and wigs are very good. The sets by Vicki R. Davis are modest, but attractive. Jonathan Bank’s direction is leisurely. The praise Mint’s earlier productions of Deevy’s plays received may have set me up for disappointment. Perhaps some manuscripts are left in a suitcase under the bed for a reason. Running time: two hours 20 minutes including intermission.

February House **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
The Public Theater is to be commended for commissioning Gabriel Kahane, an up-and-coming singer/songwriter, to write music and lyrics for a musical based on life at 7 Middagh Street in 1940-41. The flamboyantly gay editor George Davis hoped to turn a rundown Victorian house in Brooklyn Heights into a communal home for an unlikely bunch of talented misfits that included W.H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Benjamin Britten and Gypsy Rose Lee. Surely, the concept was a promising one. Unfortunately, the result is wildly uneven. In general, Kahane's lyrics are better than his music. The way he makes seamless transitions from dialog to song is admirable. Through words and music, the first act leisurely portrays the characters and their relationships. The second, livelier, act describes the loss of utopia. The cast of nine (Stanley Bahorek, Ken Barnett, Ken Clark, Julian Fleisher, Stephanie Hayes, Erik Lochtefeld, Kacie Sheik, A.J. Shively, Kristen Sieh) is mostly strong, although Sieh's voice lacks color. For me, the play's worst moments involved Gypsy Rose Lee. Her character is much too broadly written and played. It is unfortunate that they felt compelled to include a striptease number -- after the one in Gypsy, it was doomed to fall flat. The book, by Seth Bockley, could use some more tweaking. Riccardo Hernandez's set and Jess Goldstein's costumes are excellent. Director Davis McCallum as allowed the play to gain 20 minutes since previews began. They should be trimming, not adding. A book doctor might be able to make significant improvements. In the unlikely event you are not familiar with the past and future achievements of the house's residents, you probably will not find the play interesting. Even if you are, you still might not. Nevertheless, I am glad I saw it and support the Public for taking it on. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes including intermission.