Mrs. Nugent should have quit while she was ahead. When she went to the Brady home to complain that her son Philip was being bullied by Francie Brady, Francie’s ma was ready to punish him. Yes yes I know I will of course, Mrs. Brady assured Mrs. Nugent. Francie, overhearing the exchange, was sure his ma would come flying up the stairs, get him by the ear and throw him on the step, which she would have done “if Nugent hadn’t started on about the pigs.” On and on she rants, dissing the Brady home, the father’s drunkenness (no better than a pig), and shouting Pigs-sure the whole town knows that as she strides off.
That incident, on page four of Patrick McCabe’s 1992 prize-winning novel “The Butcher Boy” sets the trajectory of its anti-hero narrator, Francie Brady.
Francie Brady (Nicholas Barasch) is haunted by porcine imaginings, portrayed by cast members in “The Butcher Boy” [Production photos: Carol Rosegg]
In yet another incarnation, “The Butcher Boy” has now been adapted by Asher Muldoon (book, music and lyrics) into a musical, directed by Ciarán O’Reilly and running through September 11 at Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan. The unlikely musical hews largely to the novel and the film, with a few elisions, including one that heightens the climactic impact. The musical falls somewhere between the novel and the film, lacking the former’s narrative nuances and the movie’s colorful Irish backgrounds, but you won’t be bored.
Francie (Nicholas Barasch) with his ma (Andrea Lynn Green)
If “The Butcher Boy” is a coming-of-age tale, it is an unsavory one, more lurid than illuminating. Francie, propelled by reckless bravado, develops an obsession with pigs…and with Nooge, as he dubs Mrs. N. Unstable from the start, he trashes the Nugent home and does…well, what pigs do, on the kitchen floor. Committed to a medieval-inspired mental institution, he is further traumatized by his mother’s suicide and by the defection of his erstwhile best friend Joe, who adds insult to injury by buddying-up with Philip Nugent. Released from hospital after some extreme intervention, and faking recovery, Francie finds employment in a hog slaughterhouse, an atmosphere that triggers his descent into utter derangement.
Dicey doings for a musical, yes? But somehow, Muldoon, a rising senior at Princeton and musical theater veteran despite his youth, pulls it off, with the estimable aid of actor Nicholas Barasch’s sensitive Francie. Exhibiting minimal signs of Francie’s imbalance – no tics, leers, or other bizarre tropes – Barasch nonetheless conveys the inner turmoil that sets Francie aboil. His is a textbook less-is-more performance.
Francie and Joe (Christian Strange), best pals…until they’re not
Much of the action takes place in Francie’s imagination, including pig-masked people who torment him and who would be funny if not for the macabre context. The detachment from reality allows Francie and the others to sing out their feelings; none of the numbers is particularly memorable, but there are a couple nifty vaudeville song-and-dance routines. Barry McNabb’s unpretentiously performed choreography has a sprightly comic flavor, and music director David Hancock Turner’s efficient Slaughterhouse Five orchestra is a perfect fit for the intimate auditorium.
Adapter Muldoon and director O’Reilly get a lot right; there is enough here of the novel to maintain the flow. One deviation from the original stands out as an improvement: the ending. Where so many plays and musicals continue past their natural denouements (“Bridges of Madison County” anyone?), “The Butcher Boy” musical eschews what is essentially an epilogue and concludes with a scene that will either chill or exhaust you. Either way, “The Butcher Boy” ends with a bang, not with a whimper.
Through September 11 at Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, NYC. For performance schedule and tickets: www.irishrep.org
