A Man of No Importance Tickets

A Man of No Importance is at Classic Stage Company in fall 2022, featuring The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons. Get A Man of No Importance tickets now.

A Man of No Importance is a show about secrets, love, and putting on a play. The title character, Alfie Byrne, is an ordinary bus driver living in Dublin, Ireland in 1964. As a side hobby, he also heads up St. Imelda's Players, an amateur theatre troupe based at and named after his local church. His latest choice of show for the players to perform is Salome by Oscar Wilde, in which the title woman attempts to seduce John the Baptist. But church leaders deem the play blasphemous and try to stop the production from going forward.

Because of the backlash, his fellow players are hesitant to join the show. However, Alfie manages to convince Adele, a newcomer who Alfie is supposed to marry, to be Salome. His top choice for John the Baptist, his friend Robbie, refuses the part — and only then does Alfie realize he has feelings for Robbie. Suddenly, Alfie has a whole new struggle to contend with, and a secret that would endanger his quest to get his play done, not to mention his friendships and his job, even more. But as he wrestles with his own identity, he finds support in the most unexpected of places.

The three creators of the A Man of No Importance musical are frequent collaborators. Its music and lyrics are by the Tony- and Grammy-winning duo Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, who have co-written multiple other musicals with the now-late bookwriter Terrence McNally: the Tony-winning Ragtime and Once on This Island, the musical adaptation of the animated movie Anastasia, and Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life. Separately from McNally, Flaherty and Ahrens have written the popular shows Seussical and Rocky the Musical.

On his own, McNally was a five-time Tony-winning playwright whose other works include Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class, and the books for the musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Full Monty, and Catch Me If You Can.

A Man of No Importance is based on a modestly successful, mixed-reviewed 1994 film of the same name starring Albert Finney. The musical adaptation has never been performed on Broadway, but the show earned success of its own and made its way across the Atlantic Ocean and back. The 2002 world premiere of A Man of No Importance was off Broadway at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater; its cast included Tony winners Roger Rees and Faith Prince, and Steven Pasquale. After winning the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical in 2003, the show went on to play in California and twice in England. The 2022 production marks the first revival of A Man of No Importance in New York.

This production is led by Jim Parsons, a Golden Globe and four-time Emmy Award-winning actor for playing Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. Though his screen career — which also includes roles in Hollywood, Hidden Figures, and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile — made him a household name, he's also a stage veteran, having performed in theatre across the country since 1993. He made his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning The Normal Heart in 2011 and has since appeared on Broadway in Harvey, An Act of God, and the Tony winner The Boys in the Band and its Netflix film adaptation. He has performed in musicals with the now-defunct, Texas-based Infernal Bridegroom Productions, but A Man of No Importance marks Parsons's New York musical debut.

Tickets to A Man of No Importance are available on New York Theatre Guide.

By: Terrence McNally
Songs by: Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens
Director: John Doyle
Cast list: Jim Parsons (as Alfie Byrne), Shereen Ahmed (as Adele Rice), Alma Cuervo (as Miss Oona Crowe), Kara Mikula (as Mrs. Curtain), Da’Von T. Moody (as Breton Beret), Mary Beth Peil (as Mrs. Grace), Thom Sesma (as Mr. Carney), A.J. Shively (as Robbie Fay), Nathaniel Stampley (as Father Kenny), Jessica Tyler Wright (as Mrs. Patrick), Joel Waggoner (as Ernie Lally), Mare Winningham (as Lily Byrne), William Youmans (as Baldy O'Shea)
Design: John Doyle
Costume: Ann Hould Ward
Lighting: Adam Honoré
Sound: Sun Hee Kil
Other info: Orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin, music direction by Caleb Hoyer