Theater Thursday - A Man of No Importance

We were given complimentary tickets to A Man of No Importance for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are own.

What: A Man of No Importance

Where: Classic Stage Company

             136 E.13th St.

              New York, NY

Who: Recommended for Ages 12 and Up 

When: Through December 18, 2022

Me - A Man of No Importance was a good show. I didn't know what to expect because I didn't know anything about the plot going in. I just knew it had a good cast, and I knew that the music was by Ahrens and Flaherty who did the music for one of my favorite shows. 

When I heard the show was an hour and forty-five minutes long without an intermission, I was very anxious. I have a very short attention span and I expected the show to drag and seem really long. However, it went by surprisingly fast. It felt a lot quicker and shorter than I had anticipated.

I really enjoyed it. The story was interesting. I liked the characters. The show was unpredictable but in a good way.  I didn't know where it was going and how things were going to end up, but I was very pleased with the way they turned out though. The music wasn't memorable, but even so, I really liked the show. 

Mom - The title A Man of No Importance is a bit misleading. The show is not really about the unimportance of Alfie Byrne, the lead character of the musical, but rather about how important he is maybe not to the world at large but to those that care about him. It turns out to be a surprisingly heartwarming story about people coming together (in this case to perform a play) and forming a family and standing by each other and supporting each other no matter what. It is both a comment on small towns and theater and the way both have the potential to bring people together. 

The stellar cast is lead by four-time Emmy winner, Jim Parsons. His character does bear some resemblance to his most famous character, The Big Bang's Sheldon Cooper, in his absolute convinction that his way is the best way and that he is always right.  Although in the end Alfie Byrne shows a lot more vulnerability than Sheldon every would and for a while it seems like the show could go in a much different darker way but luckily it doesn't. Others in the cast include recent Tony nominees Mare Winningham  and AJ Shively and more. All in all, the show is extremely well-cast and extremely well-acted and definitely worth seeing.

And that's our view. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.classicstage.org.

Tune in Sunday for this week's Sunday Scoop.

Photo credits: 

All A Man of No Importance production photos by Julieta Cervantes