Kasey Mahaffy delivers an exhilarating, emotion-packed, career-redefining performance as Dublin bus conductor Alfie Byrne in A Noise Within’s stirring revival of Terrence McNally, Lynn Aherns, and Stephen Flaherty’s 2002 off-Broadway musical A Man Of No Importance.

 Based on a 1994 film that starred Albert Finney as the titular Man Of No Importance, the award-winning Lincoln Center musical transports us back to 1964 Dublin, where “confirmed bachelor” Alfie moonlights as the director of an amateur theater troop specializing in the works of his idol, Oscar Wilde.

When first we meet our protagonist, 40something Alfie has just learned that his latest project, Wilde’s Salome, has been shut down by a disapproving Father Kenny (Neill Fleming), in whose church the St. Imelda’s Players have been rehearsing for weeks and where the play was about to be performed.

 A Man Of No Importance then becomes the musical-within-a-musical which Alfie’s company of actors put on to pay tribute to their leader’s supposedly “unimportant” life, one which over the course of two acts proves quite important indeed, at least to those who love and respect him.

Though the reason for Alfie’s singledom will be quickly divined by 21st-century audiences, his contemporaries in 1960s Dublin—including Lily (Juliana Sloan), the mothering sister with whom he still lives—assume simply that the middle-aged bachelor just hasn’t “found the right girl.”

 In actual fact, Alfie has developed an impossible crush on a handsome young coworker, hunky bus driver Robbie Fay (CJ Eldred), an attraction that “dare not speak its name,” even in confession to Father Kenny.

As for the “right girl,” Alfie has indeed found her in the lovely Adele Rice (Analisa Idalia), though not in the way his sister might wish.

 No, Alfie’s interest in Adele is a purely professional one, the raven-haired Dublin newcomer being absolutely perfect for the role of Salome, if only Alfie can convince her to let go of her stage fright and join The St. Imelda’s Players, made up of amateur thespians so colorful, I could easily devote a sentence to each.

Composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens jam-pack A Man Of No Importance with one hummable song after another, this time round with a decidedly Irish lilt, in particular the thrilling showstopper that is Robbie’s rousing “The Streets Of Dublin” and “Love Who You Love,” a song so gorgeous and touching, I dare anyone to remain dry-eyed.

Four-time Tony-winning playwright McNally has adapted Barry Devlin’s screenplay with delicacy, power, and grace, and though Alfie may have come of age at a time when homosexuality could send a man to prison in the UK as it did his idol Oscar, his struggles with shame, repression, and unrequited love still resonate in these more liberated times.

 All of this adds up to the absolute best reason for SoCal audiences to make Pasadena their destination of choice this month, if only to catch A Noise Within favorite Mahaffy’s revelatory star turn as Alfie.

As red-headedly Irish as leading men get, and possessed of pipes more than capable of bringing out the best in Flaherty’s gorgeous melodies, Mahaffy digs deep into Alfie’s deep well of loneliness and his unabashed love of live theater to deliver the proverbial performance of a lifetime.

The always captivating Sloan is a revelation too as Alfie’s nurturing, self-sacrificing sister, Eldred gives dreamboat Robbie the most open of hearts and the most gorgeous of tenors, and recent CSUN grad Idalia makes it clear from the get-go why Alfie is immediately smitten with Adele (as are we).

Featured ensembles don’t get any more engaging than the all-around fabulous LeShay T. Boyce, Bryce Brock, Fleming, Emily Kosloski, Howard Leder, Amber Leikhus, Ed F. Martin, David Newell, and Jack Zubieta as some of the most colorful characters ever to sparkle on a musical theater stage, and the entire cast earns bonus snaps for their jaunty footwork in “Going Up.”

Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliot has not only elicited one superb performance after another, she has staged A Man Of No Importance with utmost imagination and visual flair, making the very most of Francois-Pierre Couture’s ingenious set (with special snaps to the multiple ways she makes use of a dozen or so straight back chairs).

 Add to this Angela Balogh Calin’s pitch-perfect 1960s costumes, Stephen Taylor’s equally authentic-looking props, Tony Valdes’s just-right wig and makeup designs, Ken Booth’s impactful lighting, and Jeff Gardner’s finely-tuned sound design and you’ve got the most eye-and-ear-catching of productions.

Last but not least, music director Rod Bagheri not only brings out the very best from a cast of vocally gifted actors but conducts and plays keyboard alongside fellow musicians Natalie Brejcha, Julian Cantrell, David Catalan, and Dylan Gorenberg, who get their own onstage showcase in the rousing Act Two-opening “Our Father.”

Ty Aldridge, Anna Demaria, Tim Frangos, David Kirk Grant, Euriamis Losada, Luke Matthew Simon, Alisha Soper, Jan Wikstrom, and Cortney Wright are understudies.

Angela Sonner is stage manager and Hope Matthews is assistant stage manager. Andrea Allmond is associate sound designer. Andrea Odinov is dialect coach. Sasha Smith is intimacy coordinator. Kenneth R. Merckx, Jr. is fight choreographer. Miranda Johnson-Haddad is dramaturg. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

Southland audiences have had to wait far too long for A Man Of No Importance to be given the top-drawer regional production it so richly deserves, and Saint Imelda be praised. A Noise Within’s magnificent revival makes it more than worth the wait.

A Noise Within, 3352 East Foothill Blvd, Pasadena.
www.ANoiseWithin.org

–Steven Stanley
May 10, 2025
Photos: Craig Schwartz

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: A Noise Within, Los Angeles Theater Review, Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Terrence McNally