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Fans of Irish theatre: don't miss Juno! Not the Academy-Award winning film, but the 1959 musical based on Sean O'Casey's 1924 classic Juno and the Paycock. Encores!, the acclaimed program celebrating rarely-heard "concert versions" of American composers and lyricists is presenting Juno with music by Marc Blitzstein (The Cradle Will Rock) and book by Joseph Stein (Fiddler on the Roof). The 1959 adaptation of O'Casey's masterpiece about a hardworking Irish family caught up in the confrontation between the Irish Republican Army and the British in 1920s Dublin had only 16 performances for its Broadway run.
Encores! series present just 5 "concert performances," at New York City Center, but the series has such a great rep (and history of Broadway transfers) that tickets sell fast and the press cover each show. Originally directed by Jose Ferrer and starring Shirley Booth and Melvyn Douglas, the production may have lacked that touch o' the Irish. The Encores! director is steeped in Irish theatre and idiom:Garry Hynes, founder of Ireland's Druid theatre Company, which brought its sold out production "Druid-Synge" to Lincoln Center last year, the first woman ever to win a Tony Award for Directing (for Martin McDonagh's Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1998. The A-list company includes Tony-Award winner Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza) as Juno Boyle and Dermot Crowley, who appeared in Conor McPherson's The Weir and Brian Friel's Translations on Broadway, as Joxer Boyle.
CelticCafe will post our review after the weekend but don't wait for that to recommend the show. Get your tickets now—if any are left!
Here's a link to a preview at Broadwayworld.com …
