Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen takes place primarily in a pub owned by a former executioner (photo by Joan Marcus)
HANGMEN
Golden Theatre
336 West 20th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through June 18, $59-$199
866-811-4111
hangmenbroadway.com
At the end of my review of the Royal Court Theatre/Atlantic Theater Company production of Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen, I wrote, “It’s not going to hang around forever — although a Broadway transfer would be most welcome — so book your tickets now.” The show has indeed made a terrifically executed transition to the Golden Theatre, where it will be holding its bitingly funny necktie party through June 18. Book your tickets now.
The story opens in 1963, in a prison cell where death-row inmate Hennessy (Josh Goulding), despite insisting on his innocence, is about to meet his fate courtesy of master hangman Harry Wade (David Threlfall), largely believed to be the second best executioner in the land, behind the far more famous Albert Pierrepoint (John Hodgkinson). Hennessy shouts, “He’s hanging an innocent man! They could’ve at least sent Pierrepoint!” Harry responds, “I’m just as good as bloody Pierrepoint!” Hennessy adds, “Hung by a rubbish hangman, oh that’s so me!”
Two years later, the death penalty has been abolished in Britain, and Harry runs a pub with his wife, Alice (Tracie Bennett), and their teenage daughter, Shirley (Gaby French). The bar’s regulars include the comic trio of Bill (Richard Hollis), Charlie (Ryan Pope), and the older, nearly deaf Arthur (John Horton), along with the more serious Inspector Fry (Jeremy Crutchley), who doesn’t seem to spend a lot of time on the job.
A creepy customer (Alfie Allen) menaces hangman Harry Wade (David Threlfall) in Broadway play (photo by Joan Marcus)
When Clegg (Owen Campbell), a young journalist, enters the bar seeking to interview Harry about the law change, Harry explains, “One thing I’ve always prided myself on, for right or for wrong, I’m not saying I’m a special man, but one thing I’ve prided myself on is that, on the subject of hanging, I’ve always chosen to keep me own counsel. I’ve always chosen not to say a public word on this very private matter, and why have I chosen to do that you may ask? . . . For the past twenty-five years now I’ve been a servant of the Crown in the capacity of hangman. ‘A What of the Crown?’ Did you say? ‘A spokesman for the Crown’? . . . When was the last time you heard a servant making speeches…?” Then Clegg has the temerity to mention that he will also be speaking with Pierrepoint, so, unable to resist the spirit of competition, Harry quickly hauls the scribe upstairs, where he spills all sorts of beans.
Meanwhile, the mysterious Mooney (Alfie Allen) has quietly entered the bar, a menacing sort who takes a shine to Shirley. Mooney is later joined by Syd (Andy Nyman), Harry’s former assistant, who appears to have a bone to pick. When Shirley goes missing, Harry throws the law of the Crown out the window in a desperate effort to find her.
Syd (Andy Nyman) has some information for his old boss (David Threlfall) in Hangmen (photo by Joan Marcus)
Despite the formidable subject matter, Hangmen is a rip-roaring, gut-bustingly dark comedic yarn from master author McDonagh, who has won an Oscar and three Oliviers and has been nominated for four Tonys; he has written such other plays as The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Pillowman, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane and such films as In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. He and director Matthew Dunster (The Lightning Child, Mogadishu) haven’t gussied things up for Broadway; the production is just as sharp, just as thoroughly satisfying as the off-Broadway version, with the same set and costumes by Anna Fleischle, lighting by Joshua Carr, and sound by Ian Dickinson.
Everything I said of that previous staging holds true for this one; the only difference is that about half the cast has changed. The marvelous Threlfall (Nicholas Nickleby, Frank Gallagher in the original British version of Shameless) takes over for Mark Addy and immediately owns the role of Harry, his moustache and bow tie reminiscent of Hercule Poirot, though he is not nearly so clever and more than a bit buffoonish. Also new — and excellent — is Allen (The Spoils, Equus), best known as the whimpering Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones. When Syd refers to Mooney as “a creepy-looking fella,” Mooney insists that he’s “menacing.” He’s both.
As I noted in my previous review, Hangmen is loosely inspired by the exploits of the real-life Harry Allen, an English hangman who at first assisted Pierrepoint (the subject of the 2005 biopic Pierrepoint — The Last Hangman) and later, as chief executioner, hanged a man named James Hanratty who professed his innocence to the very end.
Amid all the jokes, the play does make key points about the death penalty, which is currently legal in twenty-seven states. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, in America, “186 people have been exonerated and released from death row since 1973.” There’s no figure on exactly how many innocent people have been executed. And that’s no laughing matter.