Irish-American comic Kathleen Madigan has slowly but surely been climbing to the top of the comic heap since she got her start at an open mike night in 1990. She has appeared on The Tonight Show a dozen times, a high point for any comic. But if her latest stint is any indication, her quest for success does not stop there. She is currently starring in a reality show called Last … [Read more...] about Last Comic Standing
Entertainment
Brían O’Byrne Wins a Tony
When he learned he had just won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a play, Irish actor Brían O'Byrne took to the stage looking stunned. "I'm not sure if a grinning Irish guy who's speechless for 45 seconds is going to make good TV," he said. "But it might be just what you get." Who cares if it makes for good TV? O'Byrne has shown he can rule the … [Read more...] about Brían O’Byrne Wins a Tony
Finian’s Rainbow Redux
The Irish Repertory Theatre's revival of Finian's Rainbow brightens New York's theatrical scene. ℘℘℘ A musical comedy that involves an Irishman and his daughter arriving in the mythical Southern state of Missitucky, followed in hot pursuit by a leprechaun whose crock of gold the father has "borrowed," not to mention black sharecroppers and a racist senator and his henchman. … [Read more...] about Finian’s Rainbow Redux
Solo Tenor
Following on the coattails of the great John McCormack, Ronan Tynan seems destined to be the most popular Irish tenor ever. ℘℘℘ "Let's listen to Ronan Tynan." The CNN commentators on President Ronald Reagan's funeral broadcast are silent as the Irish tenor's voice rises effortlessly in Schubert's "Ave Maria" filling the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. Tynan's face is the … [Read more...] about Solo Tenor
Book Reviews
A sampling of the latest Irish books. RECOMMENDED The Garden of Martyrs -- Michael C. White Before Emmett Till was killed in Mississippi in 1955 for being black, and before Leo Frank was lynched in Atlanta in 1913 for being Jewish, two Irish Catholic immigrants in Boston, in 1805, were victims of an angry city. Dominic Daley and James Halligan were traveling from Boston to … [Read more...] about Book Reviews