A Man of No Importance

Book by Terrence McNally.
Lyric by Lynn Ahrens.
Music by Stephen Flaherty.
Directed by Ben De Wynter

A chamber musical about the power the theatre has to transform our lives and the capacity each of us has to love one another, A Man Of No Importance is a rare gem in the musical theatre canon.

Based on a 1994 independent film starring Albert Finney, A Man Of No Importance is about the journey of self-discovery and acceptance of Alfie Byrne, a Dublin bus conductor who is prone to reciting poetry to the patrons on his bus. He is also the director of the local community theatre, which operates out of a small parish hall in the neighborhood church. Alfie's passengers are also his performers: amateur thespians that come to see the magic the theatre offers through Alfie's eyes.

They inhabit the world of working-class Dublin in the 1960s, a world where the budding sexual freedom happening in other places is barely whispered about. Through the beautiful book by Terrence McNally, and the lyrical grace of the score by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the team that brought us the magnificent Ragtime The Musical now shine their light on A Man Of No Importance, illuminating the feeling we have all felt at one time or another of being an outsider and our universal need to love and be loved in return, connecting to something larger than ourselves.