Brian F. O'Byrne and Debra Messing (photo: Joan Marcus)
The notion that you can’t go home again is answered unequivocally
with a yes-you-can by Pulitzer Prize-winner (“Doubt”) John Patrick Shanley with
his Irish-ized, romantically-motivated comedy “Outside Mullingar.” A pairing of
well-matched stars – Brian F. O’Byrne and Debra Messing – not only insured it a
Broadway berth, but it also brings further validation of the inherent quality
and worthiness of Shanley’s entire canon.
There is a touching and delightful mix of grit and wit with
a touch of malarkey in what is essentially a love story that stretches
credibility. The plot hinges on the rightful ownership and future of a small tract
of land situated between two neighboring families. But fueling that issue is
the strange relationship between thirty-something farmer Anthony Reilly
(O’Byrne), a sullen loner and the thirty-something Rosemary Muldoon (Messing),
a gregarious and also gorgeous neighbor that has gone unresolved over the
years, The play also lingers on a long-standing squabble between Anthony and
his father Tony (Peter Maloney) that prompts lots of bickering and airing of
regrets until, of course, everyone lives happily ever after and content with
the way things turn out. Although this is not a musical, the original
underscoring by Fizz Patton is mood-enhancing and charming.
It doesn’t really matter that superb Byrne, who played the
alleged pedophile in “Doubt,” appears to be too good-looking, sturdy and virile
have totally given up on romance since being jilted by a girlfriend years ago,
or that a wonderful Messing, best known for her TV roles in “Will and Grace’
and “Smash,” gives us flashes of the kind of feminine fire that will remind you
of Irish film star Maureen O’Hara. Together they establish an almost John Wayne
meets O’Hara rapport under the bright and tender when necessary direction of
Doug Hughes.
One might swear there is music embedded in the words that
Shanley has put into the mouths of his glib characters, basically to give voice
to the contentiousness of two families – The Reillys and the Muldoons – locked
into fight over the rightful ownership of the tiny piece of land that divides
their farms. There is more than a bit of bitterness in the volatile relationship
between Anthony and Tony his obstinate father (played with a spirited
belligerency by Maloney) whose unjustifiable intention is to leave the farm to
a distant cousin in America rather than to the sullen but steadfast Anthony who
has taken care of the farm all his life.
Neither Rosemary nor her mother Aoife (Dearbhla Molloy) has
any intention of giving up the land that became theirs in one of those
implausible plot twists. Molloy is wonderful to watch as she gets her dander up
in confrontations with Maloney.. Tempers flare and emotions run high among these
close neighbors as we wait patiently knowing that a true and lasting love is
bound to be poignantly revealed between two people destined to be a couple.
There is a climactic revelation that borders on the silly,
if not absurd, but it somehow seems ultimately acceptable in the light of
Shanley’s lyrical prose, much of it very funny. John Lee Beatty’s four settings
evoke the Midlands of Ireland, as does this exemplary, Irish cast, including
the terrifically authenticated Messing.
“Outside Mullingar” (through March 16, 2014, extension possible)
Manhattan Theatre
Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th
St.
For tickets ($67.00 - $127.00)
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