The Artistic Team
Mark Lococo, Director
Mark Elliot & Malcolm Ruhl, Musical Director
Rita Vreeland, Stage Manager A.E.A.
J Branson, Set Designer
Gina Patterson, Lighting Designer
Patti Roeder, Costume Designer
artistic
team | cast | press | photos | tickets
The Cast
 |
Barbara Clear
(Mrs. Curtin) This production reunites Barbara on stage with her husband Patrick Clear and Ross Lehman. Barbara has worked at the Guthrie Theatre, Playwrights Center in Mpls. and PA Centre Stage among others. Favorite roles include Molly in The Front Page, Joan in Saint Joan and Joan in Dames at Sea. Barbara hold an MFA in Acting from Penn State Univ., and an MS in Child Development from the Erikson Institute in Chicago. Fulfilling a wish of her daughter, Emma, to see her Mom and Dad together in a play, Barbara dedicates this production to her and to Patrick, the loves of her life.
|
 |
Patrick Clear
(Carney) returns to Apple Tree where he appeared in Design for Living and Private Eyes . He appeared on Broadway in Hollywood Arms and Noises Off . Other Chicago area appearances include The Goat, Hollywood Arms, Arcadia, Dancing at Lughnasa, Miss Evers' Boys and Christmas Carol at The Goodman; As You Like It, King Lear, All's Well That Ends Well, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, Henry V, Timon of Athens and The Merry Wives of Windsor at Chicago Shakespeare; Song of Jacob Zulu and Secret Rapture at Steppenwolf; and Pygmalion and House of Blue Leaves at the Court. Regional credits include Indiana Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Guthrie, American Shakespeare, Center Stage, Folger Shakespeare and Cincinnati Playhouse. Film/TV credits include Losing Isaiah, The Babe, “The Untouchables,” “Early Edition,” and In the Best Interests of the Children. 27 years since their last show together, he is delighted to be sharing the stage once again with his wife, Barbara, and his old friend, Ross Lehman.
|
 |
Elizabeth Clinard (Adele Rice) Elizabeth is thrilled to make her Apple Tree debut with this fantastic cast! Originally from Richmond, Virginia, she just graduated from Northwestern University as a Theatre and English major in the Music Theatre program. She most recently appeared as Judy Turner in Theatre at the Center's A Chorus Line and in Light Opera Works' Camelot . Favorite Northwestern credits include Footloose (Ariel), Irving Berlin's American Vaudeville , The Dybbuk (Fradde), and Into the Woods (Florinda). She would like to thank to her family for being a constant source of love and support.
|
 |
Laurie Empen
(Mrs. Patrick) is very pleased to be making her Apple Tree Theatre debut. Other recent musical theatre roles include Sarah in Company and Margie MacDougal in Promises, Promises, both with Porchlight. Additional Chicago credits include work with Silk Road Theatre Project, Light Opera Works, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, Bailiwick Director's Festival, Bowen Park, Emerald City and New Tuners. She is currently an ensemble member of Wavelength - a comedy/improv troupe presenting to educators across the US. Regionally, she has performed for New American Theater, Festival Theatre, New Court Theatre and TimberLake Playhouse. She is also an Outreach Associate with Northlight Theatre. Peace.
|
 |
Mary Ernster
( Lily ) Mary Ernster is delighted to be back on the stage at Apple TreeTheatre where she also serves on the Artistic Board. Previous Apple Tree appearances include Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac , Lizzie in 110 In The Shade , and Edith in After the Fair . A true Northerner, Mary is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado and Northwestern University and lives on the North Shore in Northbrook. She is the recipient of two Joseph Jefferson Awards- The King and I (Anna) and Me and My Girl (Lady Jacquie), seven Jeff nominations, and an After Dark Award. Other credits include Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at First Folio Shakespeare Co., Mother in A Christmas Story at Theatre at the Center and Glinda in Wizard of Oz at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Television credits include "Early Edition" and the HBO film "Normal". Mary is married to Kyle Andrews and is the proud mama of seven year old Isabella. She can be seen this fall as Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast at Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre.
|
 |
Zach Ford
(Robbie Fay) is excited to be making his debut at Apple Tree. He recently completed his BFA in Musical Theatre from The Chicago College of Performing Arts (CCPA) at Roosevelt University. Recent credits include The Cradle Will Rock at TimeLine Theatre; A Little Night Music , Taming of the Shrew , and The Winter's Tale at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Cymbeline at The Colorado Shakespeare Festival; and Pal Joey and Something for the Boys (which was recorded for the Cole Porter and Lincoln Center Archives) at CCPA. Zach thanks his friends and family for their brilliant love and support.
|
 |
Ross Lehman
(Alfie) This is Ross' ninth performance at Apple Tree. Some of his favorite roles here include The Dresser , Syncopation (Directed by Mark Lococo), Sugar , Waiting for Godot (directed by Eileen Boevers and Mark Lococo), Amadeus , and Where's Charlie (Jeff Award). Ross now lives in Milwaukee where he just appeared at the Chamber Theatre in Homebody/Kabul . He has appeared as Trinculo in The Tempest (with Patrick Stewart), Harding in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum . Off Broadway, he appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of ‘ Tis Pity She's a Whore , and Wings . He has played Koko in several productions of Hot Mikado , a role for which he has won the Joseph Jefferson Award (Chicago) the Helen Hayes Award (Washington D.C.) and a nomination for the Lawrence Olivier Award (London's West End). Some of his Chicago roles include Fool in King Lear , Costard in Love's Labour's Lost , Cloten in Cymbeline , and both Tranio and Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew , all at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. He's appeared at Steppenwolf in Mizlansky/Zilinsky , The Man Who Came to Dinner , and Cuckoo's Nest. At the Goodman Theatre he appeared in The Rover , A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Jeff Award), and Waiting for Godot .
|
 |
Dan Loftus (Paddy) is very pleased to be returning to Apple Tree Theatre, having last appeared here in Anna Karenina as Stiva. He has appeared in numerous area productions and was most recently seen as Tomaso in the American Theatre Company production of Strictly Dishonorable , and as John in Drury Lane Theatre's production of The Man Who Came to Dinner . Other recent favorites include Herr Schultz in the Metropolis Theatre production of My Fair Lady , Billy Crockett in the Buffalo Theatre production of Chicago , Father in the Pegasus Players production of James Levines' Muscle , and John Morse in the Circle Theatre production of Murder Americana . Dan has also sung with the chorus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the ensemble of Chamber Opera of Chicago. Much love and thanks to Erica, Mike, Gretchen and Max.
|
 |
Darrelyn Marx (Mrs. Grace) is thrilled to be making her Apple Tree debut. Most recently she appeared as Lady Jane in the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company's production of Patience . Favorite roles include Anna in The King and I , Abigail in 1776 , Hodel in Fiddler On the Roof , and April in Company . She has also appeared as Solveig in Peer Gynt , Gwendolyn in Becket , and Head Nun in The House of Blue Leaves . She also understudied the role of Jan in The End of the Tour at Victory Gardens last spring. Darrelyn would like to dedicate this performance to her terrific husband, whose support means everything; and Mark Lococo, for the opportunity.
|
 |
Natalie Monahan
(Miss Crowe) hails from Brooklyn, NY and is a recent graduate of Northwestern University's Theatre program. Some of her favorite off-off Broadway credits include: Martha in The Secret Garden, Alice! Adventures in Wonderland, and Emily in Our Town. She recently dialect coached for Umalleniay's production of Pool of Bethesda. She is so proud to be a part of this important production and is excited to be in a musical again for the first time in five years.
|
 |
Mark Mysliwiec
(Fr. Kenny/Sully) From traditional theatre and performance art, to design and multimedia production, Mark's work has been seen and heard throughout Chicagoland on stage, screen, in galleries and museums. Mark has performed with Lifeline Theatre, NOWtheatre, Terrapin Theatre, Organic Theatre and Irish Rep to name a few. He has been designing and teaching mask work for actors and non-actors for the past 18 years; and is currently producing and directing promotional videos for the 2005 International Conference of the Institute of Internal Auditors.
|
 |
Jason Sperling
(Ernie Lally) Jason is happy to be making his Apple Tree debut with A Man of No Importance . Most recently, he was seen in The Man Who Came to Dinner at Drury Lane Oakbrook. Previously, Jason has worked with The Noble Fool, Northlight, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Pegasus Players, Light Opera Works and Porchlight, among others. Jason is an original company member of Barrel of Monkeys, a children's writing and theater program, and can often be seen in their show That's Weird, Grandma, now in its third year at the Neo-Futurarium. Jason also tours the country with Wavelength, a company that does sketch comedy for educators. Jason loves GCH.
|
 |
Ed Westfall
(Rasher) Most recently he appeared as Selsdon Mobray in "Noises Off", Fezzywig in "Christmas Carol", Capt. Brackett in "South Pacific", Heck Tate in "To Kill A Mockingbird", and Lt. Rooney in "Arsenic And Old Lace" at the Metropolis Theatre. Other credits include H.C. Curry in "The Rainmaker", Harry Roat in "Wait Until Dark", Mel Edison in "Prisoner Of Second Avenue", And Father Benjamin in "The Gravity Of Honey.
|
artistic
team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Press
Pick a review...
Pioneer Press Feature
Northshore Magazine Feature
Copley News Service
Chicago Tribune Review
Chicago Sun-Times Review
ChicagoCritic.com Review
Pioneer Press Review
Chicago Reader Review
Theatreworld Internet Magazine Review
Gay Chicago Review
Highlights from the Pioneer Press feature by Catey Sullivan
How to find significance, beauty and color in a world painted in shades of mundane gray?
For Alfie, the lonely soul at the heart of the Apple Tree Theatre's production of the musical "A Man of No Importance," the search for beauty and meaning ends with Oscar Wilde.
"A large part of what this play is about is the desire to find something sublime in the world," said Mark E. Lococo, who is directing the musical, opening this week at the Highland Park theater.
Set in 1963 Dublin, the musical centers on Alfie, a fortysomething closeted gay man who lives with his older sister, a woman intent on finding a suitable wife for her brother. Alfie would be the drab quintessence of the sad little man in the gray flannel suit were it not for his life-affirming immersion in the words of Wilde.
An artist trapped in a banal existence, Alfie lights up when staging community theater productions of Wilde's plays (usually the warhorse, "The Importance of Being Earnest"). He presides over rehearsals in the local church basement, creating shows that are mediocre at best. Alfie's passion for them is ferocious.
"This is not a simple story," Lococo noted. "It's about family dynamics, coming to terms with your own wishes and desires. It's also about religion."
That would be the Catholic religion. It's easy to see why Alfie stays in the closet: Being opening gay in the stridently Catholic Dublin of the early 1960s would result in far more trouble than being denied Communion. Such a revelation would brand an individual with a scarlet letter, as a leper among men and a tacitly approved target for all manners of hideous abuse.
But even closeted, Alfie drawn the ire of the church. When he decides to stage Wilde's "Salome" -- the writer's most overtly sensual piece and a play condemned as smut when it was published -- he is condemned by the stringently religious. Further complicating matters: During the course of his embattled staging of "Salome," Alfie falls in love and comes out. But "A Man of No Importance" is not really a tale of coming to grips with one's sexuality, Lococo said.
"This isn't really a story about coming out. It's more of a story about Alfie realizing that he can love another person, and finding out that true love can be beautiful," Lococo said.
Broadway veteran and Chicago theater stalwart Ross Lehman plays Alfie, and has his own vivid take on the character.
"We all know people like this," Lehman said, "Alfie is a genius, but he's an oddball. He's the person who can inspire others, but he's not terribly attractive as a person in the traditional sense. He's off-center. He's vulnerable."
And there's a clear reason Alfie is drawn to the brilliant, showboat Oscar Wilde instead of another Irish writer such as Yeats or Synge or Beckett, Lehman said.
"The one thing Oscar had that Alfie doesn't have is Oscar's ability to be himself without apology. Wilde was never afraid of being witty, flamboyant and poetic. He reveled in it. Alfie is afraid of everything," Lehman said.
Alfie is not the only character shying from his deepest desires and true personality in "A Man of No Importance."
Mary Ernster plays Alfie's overprotective older sister Lilly. She insists that she cannot marry until her brother is wed, since single men need someone to look after them. Ernster says Lilly's really covering for her own fears.
"She has her own fear of commitment," Ernster said, "As long as she insists she has to take care of her brother, she doesn't have to get along with her own life."
For all its provocative themes, "A Man of No Importance" is thick with humor, Lococo, Ernster and Lehman stress.
People may walk away from the show the production with a lot to think about, but they'll also walk away with plenty of giggles, Ernster said.
That would be typical of the acclaimed composer/lyricist/book team behind "A Man of No Importance."
Book writer Terrence McNally, composer Lynn Ahrens and lyricist Stephen Flaherty teamed up for the gorgeous musical "Ragtime," another piece in which humor and thought-provoking materials meshed into a Tony Award-winning stunner.
Ahrens and Flaherty created the music and lyrics for "Once on This Island," another Tony winner that the Apple Tree presented in 2000.
The rich music in "A Man of No Importance" runs the gamut from vaudeville to arias to Irish-tinged foot-stompers.
And in the end, the man of no importance blooms in the poetry and plays of Wilde, and in the wild words of the great writer, finds truth, beauty and a catalyst to change his life.
So is it a happy ending? Not exactly, Lococo says.
"It's happy, but it's not neat. It's too complex. There's no big 'Oklahoma!'-like song at the end.
"Nothing turns out as Alfie hopes," he added. "But ironically, he starts to become the person he most wants to be."
artistic
team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Northshore Magazine feature by Penelope Mesic
"SOMETIMES YOU WANT TO PLAY PARTS because they're not like you," says Ross Lehman , a veteran stage actor who has played everything from an Afghani poet in Homebody Kabul to a sympathetic madman in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. "But the role of Alfie Byrne I have an affinity for." Alfie is the title character in A Man of No Importance, a musical set in Dublin about a shy bus conductor who finally dares to pursue his dreams. The show opens June 21 at the Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park . Slipping easily into a Dublin accent, Lehman reels off his Irish credentials. "Me mother's mother was Mary Margaret MacElhaney; my father was about 5 feet tall and nicknamed 'The Leprechaun. 'We sang' Danny Boy' at my mother's funeral." Lehman understands Irish exuberance, Irish melancholy and the Irish theatricality that often goes with quite genuine emotion. Or as Lehman irreverently puts it: "Just because we cry in our beer, doesn't mean there's not real sadness there."
He adds, "I love Irish music and always have. This show uses that traditional instrumentation of fiddle, accordion, flute, but it's not that tweedly-deedly stuff (Lehman clutches his head and rocks side to side like the Hunchback of Notre Dame maddened by the bells) that drives you crazy." In fact, it's an amazingly mellow mix of ballads, church music, and pop (the musical is set in 1964) by the same virtuosos, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who took home a Tony for Ragtime. Terence McNally, who was also p art of that illustrious creative team, wrote the book for this musical as well, based on a 1994 film also titled A Man of No Importance.
It was a coup for Apple Tree to secure the rights for what will be the Midwest premiere of the show. "It's a vest-pocket musical perfect for a theater this size," explains director Mark Lococo . "This is a play about dreams and emotions. Not big production numbers."
Despite its small scale, the show's satisfactions are great. As it begins, Alfie is having
what for most of us would be the week from hell. He's in danger of losing his job as a bus conductor because his habit of reciting poetry to his passengers causes delays on the route. He has just been tossed out of the local church for attempting to stage an amateur production of Oscar Wilde's scandalous play Salome, which features incest, belly dancing and the head of St. John the Baptist served up on a plate,. "Here's how naive he is," Lehman says.
"He's shocked the priest would object,, because it's art , and the story's from the Bible." But these momentary troubles are, nothing compared to his long-term circumstances: Alfie is a celibate, middle-aged gay man who yearns for companionship, but lives with his repressively religious: older sister, who's deeply suspicious of books, theater and such culinary eccentricities as spaghetti Bolognese, which she seems to regard as a form of curry. Needless to say, she has no clue about who her brother really is as a person.
"This guy's been hiding all his life," Lehman explains. "In the course of the show, he finally allows the world, and himself, to know who he is. He pays a price, gets beaten up for it, but by the show's end he experiences love, the camaraderie of art ists in rehearsal, a way of sharing himself with the community. It's a very funny show, with a surprising sweetness."
Indeed, the intimate scale of this musical is the key to its charm. There are songs that mock the dullness of ordinary life: "There's got to be more to life/Than one pint or the Pope!/Too late for my Da/But for you, mate, there's hope!" But there are many that celebrate daily pleasures - the variety of faces in the Dublin streets, the affections of married life and the excitement of show business (even show business in a church basement). The most touching is sung by Baldy, a widower, about his late wife: "She made the soda bread of angels/And the house was always clean/And the way she pressed a collar/I looked fit to meet a queen/But if there's one memory I'd save/Well, it's the cuddles Mary gave..." And not only audiences but the highly professional cast of the Apple Tree production are likely to get a kick out of the big ensemble number "In A Week, This Will Be Art," in which Alfie's amateur crew propose some "brilliant" innovations. The costume designer suggests a dance of the seven zippers; the choreographer offers a dance of the seven veils that becomes a tap routine; and the set designer rigs up an electric "moon" that suddenly flickers, buzzes, goes dark and explodes.
As a troupe, the St. Imelda Players Alfie directs are undoubtedly dire, but as Mark Lococo points out, "It's not the success or failure but the joy and camaraderie of their attempt that matters." Their ideas for Salome may be ridiculous, but in their affection for and commitment to each other, the characters have enormous dignity. And best, from an actor's point of view, Lehman says: "The St. Imelda Players are supposed to look like real people, the butchers and bus drivers they are in their daily lives, so we actors are not the usual pretty-pretty chorus types. It's so great that big roles in a lovely musical go to middle-aged character actors. We get to shine together, and it's a real treat."
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Copley News Service review by Dan Zeff
"A Man of No Importance" is a wistful, sentimental little musical that proves good things in the theater do happen in small packages. The show has no big production numbers, no large chorus, and no huge pit orchestra. What it does have is humor, charm, poignancy, and lots of heart.
"A Man of No Importance" is based on a 1994 English motion picture of the same name. It was adapted into a musical by three of the major figures in the contemporary American theater, Terrence McNally (book), Stephen Flaherty (music), and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics). The show had a decent run at Lincoln Center in New York City in 2002, but never gained the hit status it deserved. The Apple Tree Theatre is presenting the local premiere of "A Man of No Importance" in an intimate and persuasive production that should stimulate sighs of pleasure and satisfaction from its audiences.
The show's score relies heavily on the sound of traditional Irish music, its reels and ballads. The small offstage orchestra has the unusual instrumentation of piano, flute, guitar and bass, cello, accordion, and violin. The result is a melodic and understated sound that perfectly matches the delicacy and sentimentality of the story.
The show is filled with delightful Irish types, the kind who fill the Dublin pubs with their beer drinking and music. Some of the rehearsal scenes for "Salome" are a hoot in lampooning the artistic vanities of the comically inept troupe.
It all adds up to a lovely show, physically humble in scale, but with a true emotional center. The play finds sympathy for every character. Even Carney, Alfie's nemesis, is a decent man who feels he is in a struggle for Alfie's immortal soul in closing down the revival of "Salome."
The Apple Tree production puts 13 performers on the stage and they are all wonderful. Ross Lehman is magical as the repressed Alfie, fighting for his art and trying to deal with his barely understood personal demons. It's a wry performance of enormous subtlety and dramatic substance.
Mary Ernster is superb as Lily, exasperated with her brother but a loving sister throughout. Patrick Clear is very fine both as Carney and as the shade of Oscar Wilde come to offer Alfie his counsel.
The revelation of the production is Elizabeth Clinard, a recent Northwestern graduate, as Adele Rice, a young country woman cast by Alfie as Salome. Clinard sings like a nightingale and her grasp of the shy and troubled Adele is breathtaking.
The remainder of the ensemble play the members of the St. Imelda acting company (and other roles), and a delightful and entertaining lot they are, as performed by Mark Mysliwiec, Darrelyn Marx, Natalie Monahan, Dan Loftus, Edward Westfall, Barbara Clear, Jason Sperling, Zach Ford, and Laurie Empen.
Mark Lococo directs with a flawless eye for the show's intimacy and lack of pretension. J. Branson's set, Gina Patterson's lighting, and Patti Roeder's costumes combine to forge an atmospheric physical production that perfectly accommodates the small Apple Tree stage..
The show gets a rating of four stars.
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Chicago Tribune review by Chris Jones
More than any other Chicago-area troupe, the Apple Tree Theatre of Highland Park has built a stellar reputation for very decent, moving productions of intimate American musicals based on the everyday lives of regular folks. It's an artistically vital niche in grave danger of disappearing.
These days, the boundaries of what constitutes a commercially viable piece of musical theater have shrunk so far they require a microscope. For commercial success in the current climate, you either need to be a big-title blockbuster slap bang in the "Hairspray" mode or employ a cast no larger than three. That's a death sentence to a huge swath of serious musical fare.
Neither of those fiscal parameters applies to "A Man of No Importance" — a largely unfamiliar contemporary musical from Terrence McNally and the "Ragtime" duo of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Part "Waiting for Guffman," part "The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde" and part Dirk Bogarde in "Victim," the show recounts the 1960s travails of a repressed gay Dublin bus conductor named Alfie for whom community theater is the only means of escape from a bland, existential hell of self-denial. This is a quiet, self-reflective little show about people fighting for color and self-realization amid their gray lives. It would be strangled to death by a huge theater. But it's still a work of artistic substance needing both a small orchestra and a cast of 13.
Thus it cannot be done well on the cheap. And that means Apple Tree is about the only local theater likely and able to give it the kind of shot it needs in a space that befits it. And thanks to a veritable plethora of unflashy but nonetheless terrific performances, the result is both impressive and, for fans of this kind of thing, not to be missed.
Granted, you can't claim that "A Man of No Importance" is a musical for the ages. Based on the 1994 Suri Krinamma movie (with Albert Finney), McNally's book not only has one of the most forced happy endings you've ever seen, but it wanders far too often on the wrong side of that vital dividing line between credible emotional exploration and bathos. As one would expect in this thinly veiled allegory, religious zealots and small-minded conservatives provide the predictable antagonists. Long on social agenda but short on true observed detail of place and era, the piece leaves you wondering how much time any of its creators ever spent in Dublin, let alone on a bus.
But I've long been a sucker for Flaherty's ballads, and this show is full of full-throated, resonant numbers. Even when the lyrics lack subtlety (as in a wistfully over-the-top song called "The Cuddles Mary Gave"), the music remains intensely beautiful.
Happily, the capable director Mark E. Lococo has found a terrific cast whose work is so simple, vulnerable and naturalistic that it largely cures the excesses of the material and makes this show thoroughly recommendable. In particular, two youngsters do the kind of work that suggests very bright futures — the terrific Elizabeth Canard is just goofy enough to be credible as Adele Rice, the show's fallen virgin. And Zach Ford, who has a huge tenor voice, is a font of creative interest in the role of Robbie, the object of Alfie's affections.
...Ross Lehman is...known for broad musical comedy, but here he offers a wistful, intensely moving version of a sad but kind man, desperately trying not to merely ride a bus to the end of his sad little existence.
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Chicago Sun-Times review by Hedy Weiss
'A Man of No Importance" is one of those lovely, unflashy, human-scale musicals that receives a New York premiere, oddly fails to make a huge splash and then seems to fade from view. Happily, two years after its debut at the Lincoln Center Theatre, Apple Tree Theatre has blessed the show with a new life and a wonderfully brave performance by veteran actor Ross Lehman. The result is a production that should become a surprise hit of the summer theater season.
If the show's title sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Not only did it grow out of a 1994 film starring Albert Finney, but its title is a variation on Oscar Wilde's comedy "A Woman of No Importance."
And Wilde is very much the muse and guiding spirit in this gentle, deeply moving musical, whose beautiful, pristinely crafted score and literate book are the work of the "Ragtime" team: lyricist Lynn Ahrens, composer Stephen Flaherty and playwright Terrence McNally.
Mark E. Lococo's sensitive direction (complemented by musical directors Mark Elliot and Malcolm Ruhl, their first-rate musicians, J. Branson's evocative minimalist set and Patti Roeder's wool-and-tweed costumes) hits precisely the right tone. And Lehman's exquisite performance, masterful in its avoidance of sentimentality and in its balance of vulnerability and steel, is deeply moving.
Patrick Clear is superb as the conservative butcher who dates Lily and as the ghost of Wilde. Ford, a young talent to watch, is one of those impressively relaxed actors who just seamlessly melts into a role. Ernster gets every emotional note right. And there are delicious character turns by Barbara Clear, Laurie Empen, Dan Loftus, Darrelyn Marx, Natalie Monahan, Mark Mysliwiec, Jason Sperling and Edward Westfall.
The show may have a few too many endings (I'd prefer a slightly less upbeat one). But "A Man of No Importance" has true value. artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the ChicagoCritic.Com review by Tom Williams
Based on the 1994 film staring Albert Finney, A Man of No Importance has the collaborators from Ragtime—The Musical , Terrence McNally (book), Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty (music) doing a lovely piece filled with lilting Irish sounds, peopled in a working-class milieu dealing with friendship, secrets and the effects of the creative spirit. This is a gem of a show! It deals with how it feels to be an outsider in one's neighborhood while holding the ultimate desire to love and be loved while connecting to something larger than us. With subtle layers of meaning, this musical grows in importance as a mirror of reality for many.
A Man of No Importance is about the journey of self-discovery and acceptance of Alfie Byrne ( Ross Lehman ), a middle-aged bus conductor in 1964 Dublin . He lives with his sister Lily ( Mary Ernster ) in a flat above his friend Carney ( Patrick Clear ) butchers shop. Lily is always trying to find him "the right girl". However, Alfie is infatuated with the bus's driver, Robbie ( Zach Ford ).
With the cute “Going Up” number, an ode to every community theatre troupe in existence, we see Alfie's passion for theatre (and Oscar Wilde in particular) and we see how ordinary folks (with non-existent talent) can develop friendship as their creative spirit binds them together. Full of haunting reels, ballads (I liked ”The Street of Dublin”) Irish folk melodies (even sacred church music) Flaherty's score sets a touchingly sentimental tone not heard since The Quiet Man. Lynn Ahrens' lyrics range from cute to poignant.
Ross Lehman , a major talent, is perfect as the bashful, unassuming bus conductor. He has the right blend of innocence, humor, sadness and passion to make Alfie a memorable character. His “The Man in the Mirror” song laments his melancholy and the “Love Who You Love” song hints at his secret desire. Lehman has made Alfie, his role.
Mary Ernster as Lily, Alfie's sister who tries to get him a wife so she can marry Carney, the butcher, anchored the 13 cast members. Ernster has a lovely voice. Patrick Clear is commanding as the butcher and conservative Catholic determined to guard the morals of the community. The players are loveable as they butcher their rehearsals. Barbara Clear, Dan Loftus, Laurie Empen, Natalie Monahan, Jason Sperling and Edward Westfall are terrific as the no talent Thespians. They sing nice harmonies and cutely butcher their p art s in Alfie's play. Excellent Dublin accents through by all cast members. Zach Ford as Robbie demonstrated his strong vocals and smooth charm while Elizabeth Clinard exhibits beauty and sensuality as Adele, Alfie's new leading lady.
This well-crafted show uses sole flute and piano/flute/violin melodies (even a bodhran--an Irish flat drum was used) to underscore the emotions of the moment to astonishingly marvelous effect. Combine the humorous vaudeville and show biz dazzle of “Going Up” and “Art” with the haunting “Tell Me Why” and the waltz “Love Who You Love” and a tender, he art -wrenching show waits. Tolerance, acceptance and friendship win out as the creative spirit dominates.
A Man of No Importance is excellent musical theatre with a he art felt, passionate book. This is a “must see” show.
Highly Recommended
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Pioneer Press review by Robert Loerzel
Ross Lehman, artistic director of Apple Tree, is masterful in his portrayal of Alfie, capturing the character's carefree enthusiasm for directing theater as well as his uncertain grappling with sexual urges. With his soulful face, Lehman reveals just enough of the pain and repression that Alfie feels without ever becoming overwrought. Despite all of the difficulties he faces, Alfie still seems to be an optimist.
The rest of the cast is a colorful bunch, including Mary Ernster as Alfie's sister, who doesn't quite grasp what Alfie's all about; Zach Ford as the handsome (and heterosexual) bus driver Alfie's in love with; and Patrick Clear as the butcher who lodges a complaint with the church about Alfie's scandalous choice for the next theatrical production at St. Imelda's.
The music in this show flows along quite easily, always pleasant and tuneful - even if you don't exactly remember any of the melodies after you've seen the play just one time. As appropriate for the setting in Dublin, the music has a Celtic tinge.
Director Mark E. Lococo deserves praise for bringing together such a strong ensmble and presenting the show with fairly simple staging - a few small pieces of furniture are moved around to create different rooms, the scene changes always taking place smoothly. The movement of the actors during the songs is subtle, too. The emphasis is more on creating natural-looking scenes thatn showstopping dances.
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Chicago Reader review by Jack Helbig
In a New York Times interview Terrence McNally admitted that he and songwriters Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens wrote their musical adaptation of Suri Krishnamma's 1994 film "very quickly." That might explain why McNally's book contains so few of his trademark flaws, most notably the habit of undercutting moments of emotional truth with silly jokes. Moreover this charming little show--about a closeted middle-aged Dublin bus conductor who finds the courage to come out, sort of, while attempting to direct Oscar Wilde's Salome at his local parish--is tightly constructed, with seamless transitions from story to song and back. Flaherty and Ahrens have a gift for mimicking musical styles, a talent they displayed to advantage in Ragtime . Here they borrow from Ireland's rich musical heritage, with pleasing results--though from time to time one wonders what's under their chameleon skins. The best part of this musical, though, is that it doesn't flinch at portraying the more provincial, hidebound, priest-ridden qualities of the Irish. Nor do the folks at Apple Tree, who freely show what homophobes the Irish could be in 1964. Brilliant in the title role, Ross Lehman conveys more about his character's dead-end life with a squint and a quick gesture of the hands than most actors can accomplish in 20 minutes onstage.
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Theatreworld Internet Magazine review by Catey Sullivan
More than a century after his death, the genius of Dublin-born poet, playwright and essayist Oscar Wilde retains the power to spark the intellect and elate the heart.
That power is evident in the Apple Tree Theatre production of ``A Man of No Importance,'' a gem of a musical in which the writing and the persona of the Wilde loom large.
Directed by Mark E. Lococo and starring Broadway veteran Ross Lehman, ``A Man of No Importance'' is a celebration of beauty, art, individuality and the struggle to find those things in the mundane, workaday world.
Thanks to the authors (book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty), ``A Man of No Importance” is no saccharine, feel-good, extended Hallmark card of a musical.
Tragedy, heartbreak and the uglier aspects of the human condition – hatred, intolerance, and ignorance – are on full view. The beauty of the piece lies in watching the characters triumph over the soul-sapping forces of the pettiness and evil that can make up so much of life here on earth.
Filled with music ranging from peppy (the hilarious “Going Up,'') to almost unbearably poignant (the introspective “The Man in the Mirror”) ``A Man of No Importance'' it is as inspiring as it is entertaining.
What Lehman makes sweetly, sadly clear in a performance that captures Alfie's heartbreaking innocence and troubled conscience, is the reason for the character's devotion to Oscar Wilde.
"A Man of No Importance'' is loaded with excellent performances. As Alfie's sister Lily, Mary Ernster is a tart-tongued, emotionally controlled spinster whose eyes are gradually opened to a wider, more loving world.
Other standouts include Elizabeth Clinard, the troubled, beautiful girl Alfie casts as Salome; and Mark Mysliwiec as a sorrowful, gentle priest who must shut down Alfie's production of ``Salome.''.
And as Oscar Wilde himself, Patrick Clear delivers a cameo performance that is rich with dignity, glorious grandiosity, kindness and razor wit. Somewhere, one hopes, Wilde is smiling on this production.
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Highlights from the Gay Chicago review by Jeff Rossen
Each of us finds a means of escape from our day-to-day world, whether we admit or are even aware of it at all. For some, it's simply a way of shrugging off the demands we face and allowing ourselves a bit of time that is simply our own, taking us to a place where there's nothing but us and our thoughts, our dreams, our fantasies. For some, though, it's a means of survival, getting to a place where the reality of life plays no part, allowing us to find the strength to return to the real world in order to face what otherwise would crush us.
For Dublin bus conductor Alfred "Alfie" Byrne, that escape comes from Oscar Wilde, whose words allow Alfie to see life and a world full of passion and color, not in the drab greys that surround him or the nearly claustrophobic binding in which the life he lives has encased him.
Based on the 1994 film, Terrence McNally (book), Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) and Stephen Flaherty's (music) musical adaptation is a pure gem of an intimate and moving work, brought to meaningful and poignant life by director Mark Lococo and his superb cast on the small stage at Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park . With a remarkably subtle and raw performance by Ross Lehman as Alfie, a character portrait that stands as a vibrant companion to his work as Norman, the dedicated servant to a bombastic actor in Apple Tree's 1996 production of "The Dresser," Lehman's delicacy and detail tugs at our heart and encourages our soul. This is one of the season's finest performances.
Lococo's restrained direction gently coddles both the story and its characters, moving each along with a gentle guidance that allows the tale to unfold with ease and warmth while encouraging the actors to evolve at a natural pace. This is especially true when it comes to the engaging Elizabeth Clinard as the nervous and mousy Adele who boards Alfie's bus one day and becomes his ideal Salome, finding a new sense of purpose for her life in the process, and in Mary Ernster's firm yet loving portrait of Alfie's spinster sister, Lily, who's put aside her own life in order to make one for Alfie. With the beautifully sung and assured performance of Zach Ford as Robbie Fay, Alfie's driver and unsuspecting love object, and Patrick Clear's wide-ranging turn as the butcher who wants to be a star and also marry Alfie's sister but becomes the unwitting catalyst for Alfie's eventually self-realization and expression, along with the sublime musical direction by Mark Elliott and Malcolm Ruhl of the small but perfect orchestra and the voices onstage, and J. Branson's realistically detailed church basement setting that serves as on everywhere locale for the story's various settings, "A Man of No Importance" is an exquisite triumph and an absolute must-see. (****)
artistic team | cast | press | photos | tickets
Photos
 |
"You had better propose to her fast!" sings Lily to her brother Alfie.
Mary Ernseter and Ross Lehman |
 |
On the Streets of Dublin
Ross Lehman and Zach Ford |
 |
"I was talking about marriage, Lily, my dear."
Patrick Clear and Mary Ernster |
 |
St. Imelda Players
back: Mark Mysliwiec, Elizabeth Clinard, Darrelyn Marx, Edward Westfall
front: Jason Sperling, Barbara Clear, Ross Lehman, Natalie Monahan, Dan Loftus |
 |
"Welcome, my dear friends..."
Ross Lehman (standing)
to his left: Zach Ford, Laurie Empen, Barbara Clear, Mary Mysliwiec (in back)
to his right: Jason Sperling, Darrelyn Marx, Edward Westfall, Elizabeth Clinard, and Dan Loftus |
artistic
team | cast | press | photos | tickets
|
