Blaguard promotional material

Kath Buckell
Producers, Inc
347-965-6560
kathbuckellpi@gmail.com
w w w. p roducersinc.com
www.acoupleofblaguards.com
Dear Steve,
I wanted to write and tell you how wonderful the production of A Couple of Blaguards
was at Algonquin Arts. From the moment we engaged the production, you were great
to work with, including press interviews and the promotional video clips you prepared.
The show is superbly written and very funny. Our audience members had fabulous
things to say about the show and you were all so gracious at our post show reception.
Truly a special evening was had by all.
Thank you very much and we send our highest recommendations.
Best,
Stephanie Chaiken, Artistic Director, Algonquin Arts, Manasquan, NJ 08736
Stephanie@algonquinarts.org
“MEMORABLE!
“The brothers McCourt bring their two best selling books to the stage...
the show has a roguish appeal”
- Peter Marks, The New York Times
“AN UNHOLY AMOUNT OF CHARM!”
“The Washington Post”
“MIXES THE SWEETNESS AND KICK OF AN IRISH COFFEE”
Newsday
“A Couple of Blaguards” is a two-character comedy with incidental music, created by the brothers
Frank McCourt and Malachy McCourt. These master raconteurs have laced their combined experiences growing up in Ireland, and their escape to America into a vaudeville of comedy, Irish songs
and a gallery of relatives, rogues, fools and petty tyrants -- priestly and otherwise.”
- Lynne Heffley, Los Angeleles Times
“A Couple of Blaguards” with Howard Platt and Jarlath Conroy as the lads, is so funny and plays
well in the mind’s eye that it isn’t until you’re half-way out the door that you realize how tough
and unsentimental it is. The boys have seen so much that there can be no more tears: All that’s left
to do really is laugh and keep moving.” - Lawrence Christon, Variety
“You don’t have to be Irish to appreciate the familial tales and good humor of this all ‘round top
notch production.” - Stage Struck, Joanne Greco Rochman
“Somehow in the best of Irish writing there is a painful point where the warmth of recollection
meets the truth of recognized pain. In their salty theatre piece, now mesmerizing audiences nightly
at Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre, the McCourts stand onstage, larger than life, re-created in
ingratiating performances from Jarlath Conroy and Howard Platt. With a table, two chairs, and a
pint of Guinness each, these spritely leprechauns create a dizzy world of recalcitrant Roman
Catholic schoolboys, gossiping kerchiefed crones and snivelling self-righteous priests.
It’s wonderful entertainment, richly laced with laughter.” - Hamilton Spectator
For video clips of the show go to:
w w w. a c o u pleofblaguards.com
A WORD FROM THE AUTHORS
Frank McCourt…
Malachy stood behind the bar and told his customers stories. I stood before the blackboard and told my students
stories. At holiday gatherings we told our families stories. They said, “Why not get together, cobble these stories
into a script and tell the world.
Malachy McCourt…
This show is the result of Frank and myself listening to the stories of our elders which in turn tunes the ear, the
eye and the tongue to observe and give voice to even the most trivial of events. I think we had more fun than
anyone writing and performing “Blaguards” which has become an affectionate term for the rowdy outgoing and
sometimes drinking sort boys. If you don’t have a good evening, you should have yourself checked to make
sure you haven’t died during the day. Blessings!
FRANK McCOURT taught high school and college English for three decades in New
York and occasionally, Dublin. Frank’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes, published in September of 1996 by Scribner, was honored with The Pulitzer Prize for literature, the National
Book Critics Circle Award, the Boston Book Review’s Non-Fiction prize, the Abbey
Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and spent more than 100 weeks on the
New York Times bestseller list. His second book, ‘Tis, another bestseller, was released
in the fall of 1999. A major motion picture based on Angela’s Ashes starring Emily
Watson and Robert Carlisle premiered late the same year. As a speaker, Frank was
always in demand, having spoken at countless special events, colleges and universities
worldwide. He has been keynote speaker at the White House on several occasions, and
his dedication to education and the teaching profession have even prompted invitations
from Congressional committees focusing on education in America.
Malachy McCourt was born in Brooklyn, USA and from the age of three was raised in Limerick, Ireland. A
very undistinguished academic career plus the need to eat led him to leave school at the age of thirteen to begin
work in Ireland and England as a laborer.
He returned to the land of his birth at the age of twenty and again worked at the manual
tasks such as longshoreman, truck loader, dishwasher, until he became an actor. That career took him to Broadway and Off-Broadway and regional theatres in plays such as Mass
Appeal, DA, The Hostage, Inherit the Wind, Carousel and
Translations. The soap operas such a Ryan’s Hope, Search for
Tomorrow, One Life to Live were also a good source of work
and sustenance as were the movies Molly Maguires, She’s
the One, The Devils Own, Green Card, and TV movies such
a You Can’t Go Home Again and the Dain Curse. Due to a
heavy schedule of writing, book signings and public appearances McCourt had to
take a sabbatical from the acting trade but is now back after completing five movies
Happy Hour, Guru of Sex, Gods and Generals, The Last Run and Ash Wednesday
plus a running part in the HBO prison series Oz.
Malachy has written his own New York Times bestseller memoir, A Monk Swimming, published by Hyperion Press. His most recent memoir, Singing My Him
Song, now out in paperback is published by Harper Collins. Malachy’s new books are: Danny Boy, a history
of the song Danny Boy; Voices of Ireland, an anthology of Irish literature; History of the Claddheh Ring; and
a book of affirmations, Harold B Thy Name. Malachy writes a column, Sez I to Myself, that appears weekly in
the Manhattan Spirit, The Westsider and Our Town in NYC.
A Couple of Blaguards
Howard Platt (Malachy McCourt, Director) is a show business veteran of more than 35 years. As an actor
he has appeared in at least 100 plays assuming the roles of everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Santa Claus to
Frank McCourt. He has made numerous comedic and dramatic appearances on television, most recently as Rev.
Weber on What About Joan, and is best known for his
roles as Hoppy the Cop on Sandford and Son, Dr. Phil
Newman on The Bob Newhart Show, Marvin on Alice
and Judge Jonathan Stockfish on Evening Shade. As a
series regular he played Captain Doug March on Flying
High (with Connie Sellecca, Pat Klous and Katherine
Witt), Roger Martinson, Esq. on Empire and Raymond
Peterson on Me, On The Radio? with Sally Struthers.
His many movie roles include The Rock and Norma
Jean & Marilyn. Mr. Platt has directed a dozen shows
including A Couple Of Blaguards, Don’t Dress For
Dinner, Pump Boys And Dinettes, Love Letters and
Steel Magnolias. Among 20 shows Platt was involved
in producing in Chicago with Cullen, Henaghan and
Platt, his association with Robert Whitehead during
the first Broadway Alliance production, Steve Tesich’s
Speed Of Darkness, was a theatrical high point, exceeded only by his long friendship with Frank McCourt and
brother Malachy. For more information go to: www.howardplatt.com
Jarlath Conroy (Frank McCourt) was in A Couple of Blaguards at the Triad Theater in New York City.
His Broadway credits include: The Weir, The Iceman Cometh, On The Waterfront, Ghetto,
The Visit, Philadelphia Here I Come!, Comedians. Off-Broadway: A Man of No Importance
at Lincoln Center, Our Lady of Sligo, A Life, Pigtown at The Irish Repertory Theater, also
Gardenia, Translations at Manhattan Theater Club, and The Matchmaker, Playboy of the
Western World at The Roundabout Theater. Regional roles include:
Drumm in Hugh Leonard’s Da at the Guthrie Theater, Thomas Dunne
in Sebastian Barry’s The Steward of Christendom (Barrymore Award),
Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Uncle Sid in Ah,Wilderness!, Fluther in
The Plough and the Stars, Scrooge in A Christmas Carol , Frank in Faith Healer, Fluellen
in Henry V (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind,
Joxer in Juno and the Paycock (Helen Hayes Award). He was in Cromwell and Hamlet
at the Royal Court in London . TV and film: “Law and Order”, “NYPD Blue”, “Law and
Order:Criminal Intent”, “The Beat”, “Summer”, “A Marriage: O’Keeffe and Stieglitz”,
“The Elephant Man”. “Heaven’s Gate”, George Romero’s “Day of the Dead” and the
yet to be released “Kinsey”, “Stay” and “The Baxter”. His directing credits include True
West and Human Resources.
Kath Buckell
Producers, Inc
347-965-6560
kathbuckellpi@gmail.com