A Man of No Importance (2002 Off-Broadway Cast)
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDFormat: Cast Recording
CD Release Date: 2003-04-15
Music Label: Jay Records
Soundtracks:
- A Man of No Importance - Alfie and Company
- The Burden of Life - Lily and Alfie
- Going Up - Carney and the St. Imelda's Players
- Princess - Adele and Alfie
- The Streets of Dublin - Robbie and Company
- Books - Carney and Lily
- Man in the Mirror - Alfie and Oscar Wilde
- Love Who You Love - Alfie
- Our Father - Mrs. Patrick and Company
- Confession - Alfie, Robbie and Father Kenny
- The Cuddles Mary Gave - Baldy
- Art - Alfie and the St. Imelda's Players
- A Man of No Importance (Reprise) - Mrs. Patrick, Breton Beret, Sully O'Hara; Confusing Times - Carney and Alfie
- Love Who You Love (Robbie's Reprise) - Robbie and Alfie
- Man in the Mirror (Reprise) - Oscar Wilde, Alfie and Company
- Tell Me Why - Lily
- Love Who You Love (Adele's Reprise) - Adele and Alfie
- Welcome to the World - Alfie
- Poem - Alfie, Robbie and Company
- Love's Never Lost (bonus track) - Sean McCourt and Antoine Silverman
Free Music Notes for A Man of No Importance (2002 Off-Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Moving
Hit: 5 Stars
I first heard about this musical when a friend told me she was auditioning for a production. Her brief synopsis was enough to get me interested, and I got the CD. The musical is based on the 1995 film of the same title, not on a novel. After listening, I was intrigued enough to purchase the movie.
It's the story of a bus conductor in Dublin, Ireland. A quiet man who's job is to collect the fares of bus riders. But he plays a role in the lives of his riders, reciting poetry and verse during the ride, engaging his passengers and making their trip something more than just a ride.
The opening number is a wonderful and poetic description of the seemingly mundane act of riding the bus to work in the morning being transformed from drudgery to a lively part of the daily round.
Many of his riders participate in his amateur theatre productions at a local church hall. His spinster sister has put her life on hold until her brother meets and marries a wife.
The conductor, Alfie, is a homosexual, who retreats from his own life into one of fantasy built around the poetry and prose of his inspiration, Oscar Wilde. His emotional outlets are narrowed to books and cooking, and his creativity is directed to his plays.
As his life rumbles forward on the bus, the pain of living this way becomes clear. The pressures of self denial press in on him. He longs to live a real life, and to feel the pleasures of love with another human being.
He longs, secretly, of the driver of his bus, but is caught in a net of Catholic guilt and social pressures, so shuns involvement in the outside world, preferring the safety and security of the secret world inside his own head.
Until, that is, the need for human interaction - both physical and emotional - drive him to a desperate point.
Beaten and humiliated by his only attempt to be himself, he finds that he is a man of importance to those around him. That being Oscar Wilde isn't who he needs to be, but instead, the man he is, Alfie Byrne.
The musical seems to flesh out some of the characters better than the movie, and improve on some of the vagaries of the film. The motivations of his sister, Lil, are more understandable because her relationship with Carney, the butcher is more clear, for example.
On first hearing, I found the story moving, but a little confusing - mostly keeping the characters in order. After reading the liner notes I had a much better feel for the action and interrelationships, and enjoyed it even more. The music captures the character and emotions of the story quite well.
The score uses Irish influences extremely well, and eschews the current style of rock rhythms and American Idol style vocal acrobatics, resulting in a good, solid and serious musical.
It's a sensitive story, well told by well written and evocative music.
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