By the end of the evening, the audience is up, cheering and stamping. In “Hard Times,” Mr. Kirwan has not only delivered a knockout entertainment, he’s done a public service, reacquainting us with the Foster songbook and the striving, teeming America for which it was written. New York Times
HARD TIMES reopens at the cell 3338 W. 23rd Street, NYC from Jan. 9th until Feb. 2nd. Tickets are $18. For
full details of dates and times of performance go to www.thecelltheatre.org
HARD TIMES, written by Larry Kirwan (of Black 47), soulfully revitalizes the songs of Stephen Foster while telling the story of Foster's troubled life during his stay in New York City's notorious Five Points neighborhood. This stay coincided with the Draft Riots of July 1863. HARD TIMES takes place in Nelly Blythe's tavern and dancehall "down in the Points" where Foster takes shelter from the riots and encounters an old acquaintance. The play deals with some of the hot-button issues of then and now - immigration and racial equality, and provides a window into the short-lived world of Amalgamationism when Irish and African-Americans loved, laughed, drank, danced, made music and created Tap together in the Five Points. This dramatic story is all tied together by Kirwan's re-imagining of Foster's iconic American songbook.
