Review: SpeakEasy Stage's Splendid A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE is Paul Daigneault's Fitting Farewell to the Company He Founded

For his final production as director, SpeakEasy Stage Company founder and Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault has aptly chosen the musical “A Man of No Importance,” a 1960s Dublin-set story of a closeted gay bus conductor, Alfie Byrne, whose greatest joys come from the poetry of Oscar Wilde and staging community theater productions with his local theater troupe.

Based on the 1994 feature film of the same name, the musical – with book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens – was first presented off-Broadway at Lincoln Center in 2002. The following year, Daigneault directed the musical for the first time, in a SpeakEasy Stage/Súgán Theatre co-production.

In the story, Alfie and his St. Imelda Players are stymied in their efforts to stage Wilde’s “Salome,” which, based loosely on a biblical story, climaxes with the beautiful young woman professing her love to the severed head of John the Baptist. When church officials shut the production down, Alfie must face down the forces of bigotry over both the play and what was then referred to as “the love that dare not speak its name.”

The show was revived by the Classic Stage Company in 2022 as the final CSC production by its then artistic director John Doyle, and featured his patented style of having his actors also play musical instruments. SpeakEasy Stage is now presenting the New England premiere of  the reimagined show under Daigneault’s spirited and insightful direction. Featuring a cast of some of Boston’s best actors, the musical is being given a fresh, funny, and deeply moving production at the Roberts Studio Theatre, Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through March 22.

During Daigneault’s tenure, SpeakEasy Stage produced more plays by the late McNally than by any other playwright. Prior to collaborating on “A Man of No Importance,” McNally, Flaherty, and Ahrens combined their talents on the Tony-winning “Ragtime,” but while that 1998 Broadway musical was a sweeping historical epic, “A Man of No Importance” is an intimate celebration of theater as community.

One of Boston theater’s ascendant stars, Eddie Shields has distinguished himself with leading roles in Central Square Theater’s “Angels in America” and in numerous SpeakEasy Stage productions including “The View Upstairs,” “Significant Other,” and “Casa Valentina.” As Alfie, Shields is once again superb, imbuing the character with a balance of affecting reticence and emerging confidence.

And Shields emerges as a singer, too, on “Man in the Mirror”—paired with the always wonderful Will McGarrahan as Wilde—and the solos “Love Who You Love” and “Welcome to the World.”

Aimee Doherty gives a multi-layered performance as Lily Byrne, Alfie’s stern sister, intractably  determined to marry her brother off to a woman so that she can settle down with a neighboring butcher, Carney (Sam Simahk). Doherty is expert at Irish characters like this one and Bridget in last season’s Lyric Stage Boston production of “Thirst,” and a terrific vocalist, too, as she reminds us on “The Burden of Life” and the heart-tugging “Tell Me Why.”

Other stand-outs include Dublin native Billy Meleady, who reprises his role as Baldy from the 2003 production. Meleady lands jokes like nobody’s business as a free-with-his-opinions elderly widower, and brings out genuine emotion in the song “The Cuddles Mary Gave,” which has him recalling his late wife in all her zaftig glory. Also on hand from the earlier SpeakEasy production is the always interesting Kerry A. Dowling, a 30-year veteran of the company, who played Mrs. Curtin in 2003 and is now taking on the role of Mrs. Grace.

As both the current Mrs. Curtin and Kitty, Kathy St. George is a whirling dervish of delight. She plays the accordion with aplomb and is splendiferous in a tap number, with crackerjack choreography by Ilyse Robbins that has the pint-sized performer humorously removing one after another of the famed seven veils.

Rounding out the cast are Jennifer Ellis as the adulterous Mrs. Patrick, Keith Robinson as Robbie—her young lover and the bus company colleague who also has Alfie’s ardor—Wyatt Anton as Breton Beret, Ronan Green as Peter Linehan, Joe LaRocca as Carson/Reeds, Meagan Lewis-Michelson as Miss Crowe, David Rabinow as Father Kenny, and Rebekah Rae Robles as Adele.

For this production, the Roberts space has been reconfigured to allow for audience seating on three sides. Jenna McFarland Lord has designed a set that’s part bandstand and part towering bookcase, and has a religious-themed stained glass window sharing space with a portrait of Oscar Wilde. Rachel Padula-Shufelt has designed a wide array of appealing, period-appropriate costumes, while Karen Perlow’s lighting design ably supports the numerous scene changes.  

Daigneault may be departing SpeakEasy Stage Company at the end of this season, but his remarkable run of first-rate musicals like this one, as well as “The Scottsboro Boys,” a Kander and Ebb masterpiece which Daigneault made a hit when Broadway could not, “Violet,” “Parade,” “Company,” “Allegiance,” and “The Prom” won’t be forgotten. Nor will the plays he programmed like “The Inheritance,” “Take Me Out,” “Significant Other,” “Mothers and Sons,” or this season’s “Laughs in Spanish” and “Pru Payne.”

Indeed, since its founding, SpeakEasy Stage has established itself as one of Boston’s finest theater companies, earning more Elliot Norton Awards than any other company of its size.

In the program for “A Man of No Importance,” Daigneault wrote: “I’ve often spoken about the ‘campsite rule,’ the idea of leaving a place better than you found it. That has been my guiding principle throughout my time at SpeakEasy. I hope, in some small way, I helped make Boston’s theater landscape more vibrant, more inclusive, and maybe more daring. I hope the stories we told have resonated, the risks we took mattered, and the community we built will continue to flourish.”

Well said and well done, Mr. Daigneault.

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