The musical
"A Man of No Importance" doesn't exactly have a title that screams for attention. It's dangerously close to "A Show of No Importance." But then for the past 25 years, the team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens has doggedly penned musicals unconfined by obvious sources.
Flaherty and Ahrens are much admired at the Bailiwick Arts Center. In fact, they're appreciated all over Chicago—where serious, little musicals have long found an audience. "A Man of No Importance," a sweet composition telling the quirky tale of a Dublin bus conductor who uses the colors of community theater to escape his repressed, gray life, was produced in 2005 at the Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park. And while this new version is unlikely to set the city ablaze, it's good to see this title back in
Scott Ferguson's earnest and mostly well sung non-Equity production.
This is classic Flaherty and Ahrens. As the duo's most recent show, "The Glorious Ones," also reveals, this pair has great empathy for outsiders and an unfettered belief in the power of the arts to transform lives. Ferguson's production, which features a credible cast and a decent-size band, doesn't have the impact of Bailiwick's "My Favorite Year" last season, but it's still one of those warm and well-meaning shows wherein the human spirit overcomes most limitations.
The style is tricky. Based on the 1994 movie starring
Albert Finney, the action takes place amid a group of colorful Dublin denizens. I've always felt this show gets a bit lost in too much "Slings and Arrows"-type comedy, and needs more Irish veracity and less of the theatrically fantastic, especially toward the end. Similarly, Ferguson's overly choppy production features a few character actors inclined to overplay their eccentric creations. Ferguson directs with copious amounts of imagination and creativity, but the show also has too much stuff and too many needlessly complex transitions. You just want it to settle down and evoke more of the atmospheric ambience of Dublin life.
But there's also some talent on the stage—including the terrific Ryan Lanning as the love-interest Robbie and the charming Laura McClain as the show's complex ingenue. In the title role, Kevin D. Mayes doesn't fully find an innately simple man struggling for self-definition, but he does make a case that attention should be paid.
cjones5@tribune.com
'A Man of No Importance'
A bus conductor in Dublin with an artistic life on the side
When: Through April 20
Where: Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.
Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
Price: $25-$35 at 773-883-1090 and www.bailiwick.org
