The second show at Summer Stage at Bishop Hendricken is the United
States premiere of "The Wire Men", a new Irish musical by Shay Healy. The
small village of Kilnacree is the setting for Shay Healy's charming musical
which is a picture of the past about a community that is on the brink of
change. This story captures the life of the small village and of the Foley
family that has grown smaller from the death of their father. In the corner
of the family's field sits the plow that the father died behind while
working so hard to keep his family's land from being taken away. His memory
and a promise made to him by his son prevent that field from being used in a
process that will bring electricity into this rural Irish community. The
Wire Men called the "Lightning Jacks" arrive from Dublin, the big city, to
connect electricity to Kilnacree. Their presence in the countryside of North
Mayo, challenge the old ways of thinking about family, life and love. It
brings about events and relationships that both literally and symbolically
bring about a brighter future for all involved and the illuminating
reality of how everything will never be the same. the electrification of
this small village calls into question what the future will hold, and how
lives will be forever changed. For the Foley family this reality is
especially meaningful. The show is filled with traditional Irish sound and
dance which has been created by Shay Healy. The sixty four year old author
was in attendance on opening night and will be there for all the
performances. His show is a delightful mixture of the old world values
meeting the realities of the future and the need for people to adapt and
change to a new and better way of life for the good of the whole community.
Director Brian Codeiro casts 53 multitalented teenagers in this US premiere
and the acting, singing and dancing of these young people is amazing to
behold with their brilliant and dynamic portrayals of these people of the
past. Their Irish brogues are all perfect and they make this show into one
that people of generations to come can enjoy. Bravo on a job extremely well
done.
Brian creates a picture perfect setting of a village in Ireland,
with astro turf, gardens, fences and little stones. He uses two standing
screens to depict the sky, stars and moon as well as easily moved table,
benches, chairs and set pieces to change the locales. Once the poles were
set up by the Wire Men, the four big electric lanterns lit up the whole
village. Shay's music ranges from toe tapping energetic numbers to tear
jerking ballads and all of them humable and sing able unlike a Sondheim
score and the cast excels in their vocals and dancing. The musical combo
included musical director, Justin Forte on piano, Greg LaPointe on fiddle,
Victor Main on guitar and Paddy O'Halloran on whistles, accordian and
uilleann pipes. The choreography by Teresa Pearson is astounding. She gets
everyone to dance in perfect unison to some difficult high stepping numbers
especially impressive are the 7 wire men who had several intricate dance
steps to do. Brian is aided in this huge task by his hard working stage
manager Chris Tucci, his technical director Brother John Kiernan, his
lighting designer, Jordan Fielding, Costume designer, Kerrin Nagle, sound
designer, Paul Silva and Sheila Hogg, the dialect coach who obtained perfect
brogues from all 53 performers. Kudos to the tech crew who kept things
running smoothly all night long.
Leading this huge cast as Paidi Foley, the hot headed son who wants
things to remain the same, is Hendricken high school senior, Joseph
Fielding. He is dynamite in his first leading role. Joseph is tall, blond
haired with blue eyes with the brooding and smoldering intensity that the
role calls for. He also has an excellent tenor voice which he uses in solo
lines throughout the show but he is very impressive in his poignant solo
"The Hills of North Mayo" where he reminisces about how he has taken care of
his father's field and how beautiful the countryside is, and also in the
tear-jerking duet "Mother and Paidi" where Paidi finally realizes
electricity is best thing for the whole community. ( I finally caught up on
things with Joseph's father, Steven who I hadn't seen since 1979 when we
both played roles in Prout/Hendricken's summer production of "1776".)
Playing Kate Foley is Katie Ryan, a senior at LaSalle who has a gorgeous
soprano voice and some high stepping and energetic dancing ability, too. She
leads the girls in the rollicking "In My Life" where she and her two sisters
wish for romance, "Don't Go Looking at Me'' where the daughters tell the
mother not to make them get engaged to a boring neighbor and "Older and
Wiser" where the daughters and mother console each other after the parish
priest "names" Paidi as a dissenter from bettering the community. "Older and
Wiser" is the most poignant song in the show with nary a dry eye in the
whole theater. Katie's duets with her love interest, the Lightning Jacks
foreman, Charlie Peacock played excellently by Chris Maymon, a Hendricken
junior, are "I Don't Know How Me Mother" where they debate how they should
tell her mother about them being in love and in "Sail Away" where they
wonder where to run to their next destination. Chris shows off his strong
singing voice in "Kilnacree" and "Waiting for Love" a gorgeous romantic
ballad. He and Katie deliver the goods in the romantic scenes as well as in
their argument scene, too. The matriarch of the Foley clan is played
fantastically by Ashley McKhann. She gives this woman a strong backbone to
deal with her head strong daughters and her angry son. Her beautiful singing
voice is heard in many numbers in the show including the comic "Don't Go
Looking a Me" with her daughters, the serious "Mother's Lament" where she
worries about her children and two songs which will tug at your
heartstrings, "Older and Wiser" with her daughters and "Mother and Paidi"
with her son. Her other two daughters, Brigid and Sarah are wonderfully
played by Sarah Lucier and Jess Keane who have lovely voices, too. They play
the broad comic moments with joyful glee and the poignant ones with
heartbreaking sentiment. Paidi's long suffering fiancee, Maureen is
beautifully played by Julianna Forsberg-Lary. She puts up with Paidi's
constant outbursts and still loves him dearly. Maureen gets a chance to
flirt with the head wire man, Tommo during their "Lightning Jacks'' song and
in "Supposin''' where they imagine what it would be like to love one another
but she eventually decides to stay with Paidi, admitting she loved him all
along.
The head wire man, Tommo Cavanaugh is fabulously played by James
Patefield. He and his band of impish, naughty wire men are fantastic in all
their songs and dances especially in "Lightning Jacks" their introduction to
the town, "The Good Old Ways" where they have a tug of war with the local
men and in "Dublin The Town". James is a wonderful actor, too. His merry
band of men are played by Scott Fielding, (Joe's younger brother) John
Ryan-Henry, Alex Fisher, Luke Doyle, Sean Flaherty and Alex McKhann. The
parish priest who runs roughshod over this village community is well played
by Hendricken senior Daniel Molloy. He gets to show off his singing voice in
"New Community" where he wants the old and the new ways to meld together for
the good of the community. The heavy drinking impish village matchmaker,
Michillin is excellently played by Colin Nagle who will be a freshman at
Georgetown University in the fall. He gets to sing "The Matchmaker's Song"
with Mrs. Foley and her neighbor, Tadghai Reagan where he wants one the
Foley daughters to be matched with her neighbor. Nathan Ricci plays the shy
neighbor wonderfully. Tadghai who is as meek as a mouse finally saves the
day when he offers to buy the Foley's field so electricity can come to this
town. Bravo to all the performers in this show who deserved the standing
ovation at the end of the night. So for a chance to see the United States
premiere of a stunning new musical, be sure catch "The Wire Men" at Summer
Stage. It's one of the must see shows of this summer. Tell them Tony sent
you.
THE WIRE MEN ( 27 July - 4 August, 2007)
Summer Stage, Bishop Hendricken High School Theater, 2615 Warwick
Avenue, Warwick,RI
