[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of A Noise Within’s A Man of No Importance, composer Stephen Flaherty, lyricist Lynn Ahrens, and bookwriter Terrence McNally, running May 4 – June 1.
What does art mean to us? Really. In our everyday existence, how many times each day does it touch us, change us, heal us?
A Man of No Importance is a story about a humble bus conductor, Alfie, whose life revolves not around his job or his life at home with his sister Lily living in the house their parents left them, but in a local amateur theatre group he runs. His art. His real world and the reason he wakes up every day and moves through an otherwise ordinary life is his creative life. Many of his theatre troop, his friends, take the bus each day to their own jobs, and each morning he reads to them from his vast collection of poems, plays and novels. And together they see their lives through this lens. But Alfie has a secret and it’s the kind of secret that in 1960’s Dublin, he’s mortally afraid of even admitting to himself, let alone his sister or the rest of the world. Alfie is gay. His sister is determined to marry him off, stalling her own intended nuptials to the local butcher and Alfie’s star actor Carney until Alfie is wed and out of the house. Which is, of course, never going to happen.
So Alfie carries a heavy load. He is closeted and desperately lonely, and his acting troop is based in the local church and therefore more than a little hampered by the association. Alfie decides to throw caution to the wind and picks Oscar Wilde’s Salome as their next production. Chaos obviously ensues and the troop is betrayed by their leading man Carney and thrown out of the church for good.
In amongst all this is Alfie’s love for his other leading man, Robbie, the bus driver. He pines for him, and Robbie, who is undoubtedly straight, seems to love him anyway.
You might expect A Man of No Importance to turn dark and hopeless. While there are some stormy moments, it does the opposite. The people around Alfie, his troop, his friends, even Robbie, all rally round him. They love him, they support him, and they save him.
There is something so beautifully hopeful about this story. There are some of the classic tropes you might expect – betrayal, homophobia, jealousy and revenge. But they are served in smaller amounts than you might expect, and really only from one or two sources. Those that count, the main characters in both the story and Alfie’s life, are absolute heroes and bastions of artful virtue. They remind us all that humanity is almost always good and decent, given half the chance to be. And right now, that is a useful reminder for us all, don’t you think?
And the music…oh the music. A fabulous live band on stage playing the gorgeous, gentle Celtic, utterly beautiful songs and moving us all through Alfie’s days, the good and the bad.
Every single cast member sings from their hearts and souls. Their voices both together and alone are absolute perfection. Juliana Sloan as Lily is exceptional and heartbreaking and vulnerable and powerful all at the same time, which is quite a feat. Kasey Mahaffy as Alfie is utterly sublime. He is the center of everything, and yet he seems to carry this weight like a gloriously soft and and hopeful feather. CJ Eldred is Robbie the bus driver and wow…what a powerful and warmly incredible voice he has.
But every single cast member is wonderful, they embody the characters with sweet perfection, and when they are singing as a chorus, I swear I felt the rafter rise…just a little.
In short, A Man of No Importance is an inspiring and highly entertaining show. Packed full of the most brilliant music and powerful performances with a poignant and ‘important’ message to us all. Acceptance, love, community and most importantly understanding…
I highly recommend A Man of No Importance. What an absolute gem of a show!! I will be back myself and I am bringing all my friends and family!!! Bravo!!!!
The Cast
Joining Mahaffy on the A Noise Within stage are Juliana Sloan as Lily, Alfie’s sister; Neill Fleming as Father Kenny; and CJ Eldred as Robbie, bus driver to Alfie’s conductor. Bryce Brock, LeShay Tomlinson Boyce, Emily Kosloski, Howard Leder, Amber Liekhus, Ed F. Martin and David Nevell star as members of the St. Imelda’s Players, with Analisa Idalia as newcomer Adele. Jack Zubieta plays the unsavory Breton Beret.
The Team
Director Julia Rodriguez–Elliott and music director Rod Bagher. The rest of the creative team includes scenic designer François–Pierre Couture; lighting designer Ken Booth; sound designer Jeff Gardner; costume designer Angela Balogh Calin; wig and make up designer Tony Valdés; properties designer Stephen Taylor; fight choreographer Kenneth R. Merckx, Jr.; dialect coach Andrea Odinov; intimacy director Sasha Smith; and dramaturg Miranda Johnson-Haddad. The production stage manager is Angela Sonner, assisted by Hope Matthews.