Ik was toch erg blij verrast toen ik gisteren het bericht las dat ‘A Man Of No Importance’ na de Europese première afgelopen november in het kleine off-West-End Union Theatre voor een ‘limited season’ de overstap maakt naar het Arts Theatre.
Ik ken de produktie alleen maar van de CD maar de musical heeft één van de meest mooie scores van Stephen Flaherty met teksten van Lynn Ahrens (o.a. ‘Ragtime’). Dit is zeker een aanrader als je in de speelperiode in Londen bent.
The Union Theatre’s acclaimed fringe production of A Man of No Importance, the award-winning Off-Broadway musical from the writers of Ragtime, will transfer to the West End next month, for a limited season at the Arts Theatre from 10 to 27 February 2010 (preview 9 February).
Based on the 1994 film of the same title starring Albert Finney, A Man of No Importance — with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, the same team behind Ragtime — was first seen Off-Broadway in 2002. This new production, which ran at the 80-seat Union Theatre in Southwark in November, marked the musical’s UK and European premiere.
In his off-duty time, poetry-loving Dublin bus conductor Alfie Byrne is as the director of the local community theatre, which operates out of a small parish hall in the neighborhood church. Alfie’s bus passengers are also his performers: amateur thespians that come to see the magic the theatre offers through Alfie’s eyes. Together, they are determined to present a version of Oscar Wilde’s Salome, despite church objections.
Paul Clarkson, who won an Olivier in 1984 for Howard Goodall’s The Hired Man, stars as Alfie, in a cast that also features Roisin Sullivan, Anthony Cable, [Dieter Thomas[ and Paul Monaghan.
The production is directed by Ben De Wynter, choreographed by Phyllida Crowley-Smith and designed by James Turner, with musical direction by Christopher Peake. Also in the cast are: Jamie Honeybourne, AJ O’Neill, Joanna Nevin, Ruth Berkeley, Kimberly Ensor, Emily Juler, Nicola Redman, Niall Sheehy, Daniel Maguire, Patrick Joseph Kelliher, Barra Collins and Adam Davenport.