Irish Repertory Theatre

Irish Drama.
New York Style.

2017-2018 Season

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever

on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage

Music by Burton Lane
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
Adapted and Directed by Charlotte Moore

With Florrie Bagel, William Bellamy, Dewey Caddell (Aug 15-19), Rachel Coloff, Peyton Crim, John Cudia, Ben Davis, Melissa Errico, Caitlin Gallogly, Matt Gibson, Daisy Hobbs, and Craig Waletzko.

Extended to September 6, 2018

“a miniature musical of tremendous charm” – The Wall Street Journal

Daisy Gamble is a woman of extrasensory talents – she sings and flowers bloom, and she always knows where you’ve placed your keys – but it’s her smoking habit that leads her to Dr. Mark Bruckner, a psychiatrist who will attempt to hypnotize her addiction away. In Daisy, Dr. Bruckner discovers the case – and perhaps the love – of his life as he unlocks Daisy’s past self, an 18th century British aristocrat named Melinda Welles. Mark becomes increasingly enamored of Melinda as he watches her relive her great love affair with Edward Moncrief. All is going well until Mark decides to publish his findings, and Daisy realizes she’s been unwittingly along for the ride!

After last year’s acclaimed run of Finian’s Rainbow, Irish Rep is proud to present Burton Lane’s other great Broadway musical, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, written with Alan Jay Lerner, newly adapted by Director Charlotte Moore. This 1965 musical boasts one of Broadway’s most beautiful scores, with songs including “What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?” and the title song “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” performed at Irish Rep by an on-stage ensemble led by Conductor Gary Adler.

The all-star cast features Ben Davis (Les Miserables) as Dr. Mark Bruckner, John Cudia (Phantom of the Opera) as Edward Moncrief, and Melissa Errico (Finian’s Rainbow) as Daisy/Melinda. Stephen Bogardus ended his acclaimed run as Dr. Mark Bruckner on August 8.

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“The gorgeous high never really lets up.” – The New Yorker

“Any chance to hear Ms. Errico sing is a chance worth taking.” – The New York Times

“Only the most curmudgeonly could resist its undeniable charm.” – The Hollywood Reporter

“a moving and fun excuse to hear some of the best tunes of old Broadway…sung by three of the best performers in theater today” – Newsweek

Woman and Scarecrow

New York Premiere
in the W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre

by Marina Carr
directed by Ciaran O’Reilly

With Pamela J Gray, Stephanie Roth Haberle, Aidan Redmond, and Dale Soules

May 9 – June 24, 2018

“A blistering beauty of a play that rages with regret and pitch-black humor” – The New York Times

“Marina Carr is not only one of the finest women playwrights of her generation, but simply one of the finest playwrights of any generation.” – The Irish Times

“It’s a terrible state of affairs to arrive at the close of your life and realise you’ve nothing to confess …though, I suppose I committed the greatest sin of all… I refused to be happy”

Woman is dying. Mother to eight children and wife to an unfaithful husband, she is living her final hours with Scarecrow, her alter ego – her closest confidante and greatest critic – as death noisily interrupts from the sidelines. Together, the women revisit her life with biting humor and brutal honesty. Woman and Scarecrow is a fierce, passionate, and moving lament for a life half-lived.

Irish Repertory Theatre is proud to present the New York premiere of Woman and Scarecrow by Marina Carr, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed living playwrights. Carr is the author of more than 20 published plays, and has won numerous awards, including The Irish Times’ playwright award, the E.M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2017 Windham Campbell prize. Woman and Scarecrow premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in June 2006. It is Carr’s first work to be performed at Irish Repertory Theatre.

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Reviews of This Production:

“riveting; rife with poignancy, frustration, ego, anger, defiance, awareness, love, and emotional pain we rarely see in lives portrayed mid-journey. Not to be missed.” – Woman Around Town

“Exquisite, sublime, smart, and damn funny. This is one hell of a good play with an ensemble that takes your breath away, makes you think, and touches your heart…” – Front Row Center

“fiercely candid, surprisingly funny, and devastatingly poignant…delivered by a top-notch cast.” – DC Metro Arts

Reviews from Previous Productions:

“This is a play that seeps into your very bones, making you realise that in squandering love we squander the best part of ourselves” – The Guardian

“An extraordinary brew, bittersweet and totally intoxicating.” – The Times (London)

Support for this production is provided by Culture Ireland.

The Seafarer

on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage

by Conor McPherson
directed by Ciarán O’Reilly

with Matthew Broderick,
Colin McPhillamy, Michael Mellamphy, Andy Murray, and Tim Ruddy

Extended through May 24, 2018

After losing yet another job, Sharky has returned home to Dublin to build a new, sober existence with his cantankerous elder brother, Richard, recently blinded in a drunken accident. But it’s Christmas Eve, and the drinks are flowing as old friends convene for an annual game of poker. This year, an immortal stranger from Sharky’s past arrives, raising the stakes to eternal consequence.

Written by Irish Playwright Conor McPherson (The Weir, Shining City), The Seafarer premiered at London’s Royal National Theatre in 2006 and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Play. It premiered on Broadway in December of 2007, where it was nominated for four 2008 Tony Awards, including Best Play. This will be Matthew Broderick’s second production with Irish Repertory Theatre, the first in McPherson’s Shining City in 2016, hailed by The New York Times as “his most assured and affecting stage performance in years.”

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“Ensemble acting of unanimously high quality…a masterpiece.” – Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

“Broderick delivers one of the finest performances of his career” in this “first rate revival.” – Charles Isherwood, The Financial Times

“A solid, entertaining revival… O’Reilly is clearly having a grand time with his ensemble, who play off each other with bounce and ease.” – Sara Holdren, Vulture / New York Magazine

“This Seafarer offers a lucid and straightforward reading of a play that seems to grow only richer with increased acquaintance” – Ben Brantley, The New York Times

“[This production] delivers the mordant laughs, tragic pathos, and the possibility of hope and redemption in even the bleakest of situations.” – Deb Miller, DC Metro Theater Arts

“Nigh-perfectly directed by Ciarán O’Reilly” – David Gordon, Theatermania

“Irish Rep’s vibrant production teems with life…a compelling, often quite funny reckoning with lost souls.” – Patrick Maley, Exeunt NYC

“Director Ciaran O’Reilly… demonstrates a clear affinity for the playwright with this authentic-feeling and well-acted production. The ensemble delivers fully lived-in performances.” – Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter

“The size of the Irish Rep means you very much feel as if you are there, with the wind howling and the tense drama rising—with natural and engaging performances from each actor.” – Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast

“The Seafarer comes laden with good qualities: vivid performances, believable boozing and, of course, McPherson’s gorgeous dialogue.” – Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

“Matthew Broderick…delivers a damned fine performance” in this “top-notch production” – Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review

“Some of the best ensemble acting carrying on these days is hopping on the Irish Repertory stage. It’s the kind of acting that defies acting and just is.” – David Finkle, New York Stage Review

“The Seafarer operates on both metaphoric and literal planes, leaving a satisfying whole ripe with complexity.” – Jacob Horn, CurtainUp

“A terrific new revival… this Seafarer will amuse you and chasten you in equal measure.” – David Hurst, Talkin’ Broadway

“A well-crafted and well-played tale—so much so you totally forget the passage of time while it unfolds—this production of “The Seafarer” needs to be on everybody’s must-see list.” – The Epoch Times

Three Small Irish Masterpieces

W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre

The Pot of Broth, by William Butler Yeats, in collaboration with Lady Gregory (1903)
The Rising of the Moon, by Lady Gregory (1907)
Riders to the Sea, by John Millington Synge (1904)

Directed by Charlotte Moore

With Colin Lane, Terry Donnelly, Clare O’Malley, David O’Hara, Adam Petherbridge, and Jennifer McVey

Extended Through April 22, 2018

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A simple policeman looks into his heart and turns himself into a wide-eyed folk hero. A hungry trickster makes a hearty meal of a stone and a song. A poignant tale is told of a solitary man washed up by the sea on the faraway coast of Donegal. This is the stuff of which great drama can be wrought.

A one-act play can achieve a kind of greatness. If that one-act play is written by John Millington Synge, Lady Gregory, or William Butler Yeats, surely it has a head start in that direction. With their romantic views of the past, and their wondrous sets of laws and techniques, these three plays, lovingly presented, full of politics, wild humor, unique displays of language, and finally, deep tragedy, come as close as can be to masterworks.

In addition to their artistic merit, these plays are significant to Irish history. In the late 19th century, during the Celtic Twilight (also known as the Irish Literary Revival), Yeats and Lady Gregory turned their attention to Irish theater as a means of increasing national pride and identity through a shared mythology. These short plays, along with many others, were written and performed as part of this initiative. Joined by Synge and Edward Martyn, Yeats and Gregory founded the Irish National Theatre Society, which opened The Abbey Theatre in 1904, solidifying the preservation and presentation of Irish theatre going forward.

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Putting the word “Masterpieces” in the title seems to set an impossibly high bar for an evening of one-act plays. And yet the Irish Repertory Theatre clears it (and then some) in this delightful excursion to Éire.” – Theatermania

Jimmy Titanic

W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre

Irish Repertory Theatre presents
The Tír Na Theatre Company’s production of Jimmy Titanic

starring Colin Hamell
by Bernard McMullan
directed by Carmel O’Reilly

January 24 – February 18, 2018

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God is a Dublin gangster. Angel Gabriel is the plucky keeper at the gates of heaven and Titanic’s legacy isn’t the first class passengers, it is 700 crewmen enjoying newfound stardom in heaven. This is Titanic like you’ve never seen it before. Having gone down with the ship, Jimmy has rock star status and boy does he milk it. Flirting with angels, rewriting history  with a direct line to an unlikely God – Jimmy Titanic is a unique and hilarious take on the story of the most famous ship ever built.

Originally conceived to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the great ship’s sinking, the Irish comedy Jimmy Titanic stars Colin Hamell (The Fighter) as a Belfast shipyard worker named Jimmy Boylan, as well as more than 20 other characters whose lives were connected to the doomed ocean liner. From his new home in a humorously rendered heaven, Boylan remembers and relives events surrounding the voyage every day, consumed by its legacy. Written by Bernard McMullan and directed by Carmel O’Reilly, this one-man show presents an amalgam of historical drama and wry humor.

Jimmy Titanic first premiered as part of The Next Generation Play Series at Origin Theatre’s 1st Irish Theatre Festival NYC 2012. Irish Rep is proud to participate in this year’s 10th Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival with presentations of Jimmy Titanic and Disco Pigs.

“… a revelation” –Broadway World

“Be prepared to laugh out loud one minute, while choking back tears the next” –Boston Metro

“[Hamell’s] performance dazzles: This is the work of a virtuoso.” –Boston Edge

“outrageous characters… darkly funny… Colin Hamell is the real entertainer.” –The Boston Globe

“… manages to entertain, inform, move, and comment… a completely original point of view … inspired” –Woman about Town

“An ingenious conceit… a wild and thoroughly original ride.” –Santa Barbara Independent

jimmy titanic
Colin Hamell in Jimmy Titanic

Disco Pigs

Irish Repertory Theatre presents
The Tara Finney Productions 20th Anniversary Production

on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage

by Enda Walsh
directed by John Haidar
starring Evanna Lynch & Colin Campbell

Extended through March 4, 2018

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Born at the same time on the same day in the same hospital, Pig and Runt have been inseparable ever since. They speak in their own language, play by their own rules, and create a world for themselves in which boundaries blur between truth and illusion. Until, on their seventeenth birthday, they discover something more. As night falls, and the disco and drink take hold, they spiral violently out of control.

Enda Walsh’s breathtaking breakthrough play, Disco Pigs, “didn’t so much debut at the 1997 Edinburgh Fringe, as erupt there.” (The Guardian).

Marking the 20th anniversary of its explosive British debut, Disco Pigs comes to the Irish Repertory Theatre starring Evanna Lynch (Harry Potter, My Name is Emily) and Colin Campbell (Dublin by Lamplight, Through A Glass Darkly).

Irish Rep is proud to participate in this year’s 10th Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival with our presentations Disco Pigs and Jimmy Titanic.

“Fierce…Harrowing, exhilarating” -Ben Brantley, The New York Times, Critic’s Pick

“Brilliant and electrifying…one of the best shows I’ve seen on or off-Broadway in recent months.” -Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast

“Thrilling” -David Gordon, Theatermania

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