Garry Hynes, who won a Tony for her direction of “The Beauty Queen of Leenane”
will direct the production that opens tomorrow at BAM’s Harvey Theatre.
By Orla O’Sullivan
A woman I had just met insisted that I go to see "Finian's Rainbow" recently. She had by then seen the musical at the Repertory Theatre five times, she said.
Maybe she’ll go again, now that the show, originally slated to end Dec. 18, has been extended to Sunday, Jan. 29, and named one of the best shows of 2016 by the Wall Street Journal. (And maybe I’ll add to my new year’s resolutions not to forgo a show with a leprechaun out of reflexive bias against anything “diddly-I.”)
The Rep has been on a roll since its return to its West 22nd Street home in summer, after a nearly two-year renovation. It began with a trumpeted production of “Shining City” starring Matthew Broderick and continued with, amongst other things, guest directing by Joe Dowling, a legend in Irish theatre, fresh off his retirement as artistic director of Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theatre.
The year ended with a reportedly sold-out novel fundraiser: a $300 dinner performance of “The Dead,” reenacting the Christmas-time dinner party from Joyce’s short story. The adaptation, “The Dead, 1904” was written by Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon and his wife, the novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz. The fitting location was the landmark Fifth Avenue building that is home to the American Irish Historical Society.
Next month, the Rep opens with Honor Molloy’s “Crackskull Row,” described by the New York Times as “a grotesque but richly satisfying drama.”
Molloy’s play, set in Dublin in 1966 and 1999, was a hit in Origin’s 2016 1st Irish Festival in the fall, garnering a couple of the festival’s awards and a Critic’s Pick distinction from the Times.
The Times compared Molloy to other gothic Irish playwrights, including that pillar of Irish theatre Martin McDonagh. The play that made his name, “The Beauty Queen of Lenane,” celebrates its 20th anniversary by opening tomorrow night at BAM’s Harvey Theater. The visiting production by Galway’s Druid Theatre runs through Feb 5.
McDonagh’s dark take on a mother-daughter relationship is set in the West of Ireland, where the prospect of late romance makes sinister the trapped, spinster daughter.
Druid co-founder Marie Mullen, who won a Tony for her performance as Maureen in the original production, ages into the fearsome role of the mother Mag. She is directed by Garry Hynes, Druid co-founder and artistic director, who also won a Tony for directing that Broadway production.
Tickets for the plays can be purchased at irishrep.org and www.bam.org.
