Successes of DANCING AT LUGHNASA and THE BEAUTY QUEEN...

In 1992, Dancing at Lughnasa received 8 Tony nominations, winning three - Play, Director, Featured Actress (for Brid Brennan's Agnes). In 1998, Beauty Queen of Leenane earned 6 Tony nominations, winning four - Director, Actress (for Marie Mullen), Featured Actress (for Anna Manahan) and Featured Actor (for Tom Murphy).

Can anyone that saw these original productions on Broadway share their memories and thoughts? Was Marie Mullen that amazing that she deserved the Tony for Best Actress. What was it about her performance that earned her such an honor? And what about Brid Brennan who was plucked out of all 5 women (and 3 nominees from the same play) and won the Tony...what was so brilliant about her Agnes?

Would anyone disagree with the fact that these winners deserved these awards - what about the other Best Actress nominees of 1998. It seems to me that Marie Mullen had no training and when you hear of her story about how she came to be an actress in Galway in Ireland originally, etc., eventually winning a Tony for her performance. I wish I could see these original productions of both of these plays...

In certain interviews, they show clips of the original Beauty Queen; they seemed to have filmed the production in the late 1990s....oh to get my hands on that

My college did Dancing at Lughnasa in my freshman year. I went and I was bored out of my mind.

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I saw and enjoyed BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE, and can't imagine anyone deserving those Tonys more than the folks who won them. Marie Mullen was splendid in the lead, but I have to single out Anna Manahan and Tom Murphy for their splendid performances -- their big scene together (where Murphy has a letter to deliver into Mullen's hands only and Mullen is late and he has to decide whether to trust it to Manahan) is one of the funniest things I've yet seen onstage. Anna Manahan's performance as the vile Mag was just unforgettable.

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I could never understand why Beauty Queen... didn't win Best Play.

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I loved Mullen and Managhan. I can't easily tell you what made Mullen's performance so special except to say that the teamwork of the two was seamless and that there was a sense of danger throughout the performance that was palpable.

Maybe it was just my mood, where my head was at, or something about the performance the night I saw Dancing - which, as I've said, didn't impress me all that much, and, indeed, I agree that it was boring - but for me the acting standout was Rosaleen Linehan as Kate. I was quite surprised that Brid Brennan got the tony nod instead of her.

Would you guys say the movie version of Dancing At Lughnasa is worth checking out? I wonder how Brid Brennan's performance in the film differs from what she did on stage.

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I agree that the film is flat. The play's magic did not translate. See the upcoming Off-Broadway revival instead!

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Drama, the Irish Rep is mounting a revival this fall. October 19-December 11.

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Unfortunately the cast was not exactly full of Irish people. Of the five sisters only Brid Brennan was Irish. That said Sophie Thompson was a superlative Rose. It was a pity the play's magic didn't really translate to film. It was to be expected really given how much of the Abbey's original production's beauty was not realistic - the set and lighting owed more to Fr. Jack's Africa than to Donegal. I would hope someone might film it for television on a small scale with the original text someday. When Mike Nichols made Angels in America he did very little to disguise the fact that it was a filmed play rather than a movie and so preserved its greatness.