Three Irish plays feature in this year's Tony Award nominations in New York, it was announced yesterday.
The Gate production of Brian Friel's Faith Healer, which opened this month to great reviews and has done excellently at the box office, was nominated in four categories: Ralph Fiennes for best performance by a leading actor; Ian McDiarmid for best performance by a featured actor; Mark Henderson for best lighting design; and the production for best revival of a play.
The Manhattan Theatre Club production of Conor McPherson's Shining City, which had a rave review in the New York Times last week, was nominated for best play and for best performance by a leading actor (Oliver Platt - familiar to Irish audiences from his role as White House counsel Oliver Babish in The West Wing). McPherson's play premiered here in a Gate/Royal Court (London) co-production.
The US production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh, an Atlantic Theatre production, is nominated in five categories: best play; best actor (Irish actor David Wilmot); best featured actor (Domhnall Gleeson, son of actor Brendan Gleeson); best featured actress (Alison Pill); and best direction (Wilson Milam).
The producer is the nominee in the best play and best revival categories. For Faith Healer the producers are: Michael Colgan and Sonia Friedman Productions, the Shubert Organisation, Robert Bartner, Roger Berlind, Scott Rudin, Spring Sirkin, and the Gate Theatre Dublin.
Its nomination for best revival must be especially sweet for Brian Friel. Faith Healer was first produced in New York in 1979 starring James Mason. It did not do well critically or commercially and closed after 20 performances.
Gate director Michael Colgan said yesterday that he and the other producers knew that in the US there was a dread of the "m-word, the monologue word", and there was concern about how the play would be received.
He was thrilled for Friel, he said, given the play's "ignominious Broadway debut". Faith Healer is "an important play for Brian Friel, even though he sees his plays like children - they are all equal".