A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
AN EVOCATIVE AND AWARD-WINNING MUSICAL SET IN 1960S DUBLIN
NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC’S PICK
October 11-December 18, 2022
A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
BOOK BY TERRENCE McNALLY
MUSIC BY STEPHEN FLAHERTY
LYRICS BY LYNN AHRENS
DIRECTED BY JOHN DOYLE
Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Terrence McNally’s acclaimed musical A Man of No Importance tells the story of an amateur theater group in 1960s Dublin and their leader, bus driver Alfie Byrne. Determined to stage a production of Oscar Wilde’s Salome despite the objections of local church authorities, Alfie confronts the forces of bigotry and shame over a love “that dare not speak its name.” This evocative and award-winning musical illustrates the redemptive power of theater, love, and friendship, all for a man of seemingly no importance.
A Man of No Importance is presented by arrangement with Tom Kirdahy and Mara Isaacs.
Shereen Ahmed, Da’Von T. Moody, Alma Cuervo, Joel Waggoner, William Youmans, Mary Beth Peil, A.J. Shively, Jessica Tyler Wright, and Kara Mikula in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Jim Parsons in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Mare Winningham and Thom Sesma in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
The Company of A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
A.J. Shively in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Alma Cuervo, Joel Waggoner, and William Youmans in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Jim Parsons and Mare Winningham in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Mary Beth Peil in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Nathaniel Stampley in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Thom Sesma in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
A.J. Shively and Jim Parsons in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Jim Parsons in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
A.J. Shively and Jim Parsons in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Jim Parsons and Shereen Ahmed in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Jim Parsons in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Shereen Ahmed, Jessica Tyler Wright, Joel Waggoner, Mary Beth Peil, and Da’Von T. Moody in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Mare Winningham in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
William Youmans in A Man of No Importance. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
Shereen Ahmed
Justin Scott Brown
Alma Cuervo
Lee Harrington
Benjamin Howes
Beth Kirkpatrick
Kara Mikula
Da’Von T. Moody
Jim Parsons
Mary Beth Peil
Thom Sesma
A.J. Shively
Nathaniel Stampley
Jessica Tyler Wright
Joel Waggoner
Mare Winningham
William Youmans
Terrence McNally (book), was an American playwright, librettist, and LGBTQ+ trailblazer, described by the New York Times as “the bard of the American Theater.” One of the few playwrights of his generation to successfully pass from the avant-garde to mainstream acclaim, Terrence redefined American playwriting for six decades and was the recipient of five Tony Awards (two for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class, two for the books to his musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, and the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement). He received the 2011 Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (he was Vice President of the Guild from 1981 to 2001), the 2015 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award, a 1996 induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and, in 2018, an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Other accolades include an Emmy Award (Andre’s Mother), two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards. Terrence was an alumnus of Columbia University and received honorary degrees from NYU and from Juilliard, where he helped create the playwriting program in 1993. His incredible legacy lives on in his plays, musicals, and operas that continue to be performed all over the world, as well as in his papers, which are kept and open to the public at the Harry Ransom Center in the University of Texas at Austin.
Stephen Flaherty (music) is the composer of the Broadway musicals Ragtime (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Awards, two Grammy nominations), Once on This Island (2018 Tony Award Best Revival, Olivier Award Best Musical, Grammy nomination), Anastasia (Drama Desk nomination), Seussical (Grammy, Drama Desk nominations), and Rocky. Additional Broadway includes Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life and Neil Simon’s Proposals (incidental music). Four musicals at Lincoln Center Theatre: The Glorious Ones, Dessa Rose, A Man of No Importance (all Drama Desk nominated) and My Favorite Year. Other theater includes In Your Arms (Old Globe), Little Dancer (Kennedy Center), Lucky Stiff (Playwrights Horizons), Loving Repeating (Chicago’s Jefferson Award, Best New Musical), Knoxville (Asolo Rep) and the upcoming musical Little Dancer. Film includes Anastasia (two Academy Award and two Golden Globe nominations), After the Storm, and Lucky Stiff. Mr. Flaherty’s concert music has premiered at the Hollywood Bowl, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Guggenheim. In 2014, he and longtime collaborator Lynn Ahrens received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2015 they were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. Council, Dramatists Guild of America; co-founder, Dramatists Guild Fellows Program. ahrensandflaherty.com
Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the Broadway musical Ragtime and was nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globes for Twentieth Century Fox’s animated feature film, Anastasia. She also provided lyrics for Anastasia on Broadway. Additional Broadway: Once On This Island (2018 Tony Award, Best Musical Revival), Seussical (one of the most produced shows in America), Madison Square Garden’s A Christmas Carol (composer Alan Menken), My Favorite Year, Rocky, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life. Off-Broadway: Lincoln Center Theater premieres of A Man of No Importance, Dessa Rose and The Glorious Ones; Lucky Stiff (Playwrights Horizons). Regional Premieres: Knoxville (Asolo Rep), Little Dancer (Kennedy Center). Film: Camp, After the Storm, Lucky Stiff, Nasrin. Ahrens is a four-time Grammy nominee, an Emmy Award winner and a mainstay singer/songwriter for the classic animated series Schoolhouse Rock. Her writings have been nominated for Best American Essays and the Pushcart Anthology. She serves on Council for the Dramatists Guild of America and co-founded the DGF Fellows Program for Emerging Writers. In 2014 she and longtime collaborator Stephen Flaherty received the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2015 they were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame. ahrensandflaherty.com
John Doyle (director) first joined CSC in 2013 as Associate Artistic Director and became Artistic Director in 2016. At CSC, he has directed productions of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins (2022, Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical), Pacific Overtures (2017), and Passion (2013, Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Allegro (2014, Drama League nomination, Best Revival of a Musical), as well as Dead Poets Society (2016), Peer Gynt (2016), As You Like It (2017), Carmen Jones (2018), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (2018), The Cradle Will Rock (2019), and Macbeth (2019). Additional theater in the U.S. includes: The Color Purple (Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical; Drama Desk Award, Best Director of a Musical), Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Best Director of a Musical; Drama Desk nomination Outstanding Set Design of a Musical), Company (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards Best Musical Revival; Tony and Drama Desk nominations, Outstanding Director of a Musical), A Catered Affair (Drama League Award, Best Musical Production; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical), The Visit (Tony nomination, Best Musical; Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Director of a Musical), Ten Cents A Dance (Williamstown/ McCarter), The Exorcist (The Geffen, LA), Road Show (Public Theater/Menier Chocolate Factory), Where’s Charley? and Irma La Douce (Encores!), Wings (Second Stage), A Bed and a Chair (City Center), Kiss Me Kate (Stratford), Caucasian Chalk Circle (ACT), Merrily We Roll Along and Three Sisters (Cincinnati). In the U.K., John Doyle has been Artistic Director of four regional theaters: The Worcester Swan, The Cheltenham Everyman, The Liverpool Everyman, The York Theatre Royal, and was also Associate Director of the Watermill Theatre, Newbury. During these residencies, he directed numerous productions of new and classic works. Notable credits include: Female Parts, Sweeney Todd, Gondoliers, Mack and Mabel (West End), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Oklahoma! (Chichester), Amadeus (Wilton’s Music Hall), The Millennium Cycle of Mystery Plays (London), Carmen, Fiddler on the Roof (Watermill), The War of the Roses, The Madness of George III (York), The White Devil, Othello, Candide (Liverpool). He is co-author of Shakespeare For Dummies.
John Doyle, Scenic Design
Ann Hould-Ward, Costume Design
Adam Honoré, Lighting Design
Sun Hee Kil, Sound Design
Judi Lewis Ockler, Fight & Intimacy Director,
Bruce Coughlin, Orchestrations
Caleb Hoyer, Music Director
Strange Cranium, Electronic Music Design
Alexander Wylie, Props Supervisor
Craig Burns, The Telsey Office, Casting
Bernita Robinson, Production Stage Manager
Hollace Jeffords, Assistant Stage Manager