Event

Hard Times

HARD TIMES is a soulful musical of clashing Irish and Afro-American cultures, written by Larry Kirwan of Black 47. Stylistically perched somewhere between ONCE and SPRING AWAKENING, Kirwan conjures the creation of Tap and explores the troubled life of Stephen Foster, the "Father of American Music."

"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."
--The New York Times

"Stephen Foster's songs and Larry Kirwan's songs counterpoint each other and create a fugue for freedom and future. "
--Theatre Reviews Limited

"full of unquestionably delightful music"
--The Village Voice

"music director Andrew Smithson gives vibrancy and power to the score, which combines Foster's classic Americana with Kirwan's modern sensibilities."
--Backstage

"Almeria Campbell is outstanding, conveying the broad range of emotions that Nelly Blythe experiences through the course of Hard Times"
--New York Irish Arts

"Under Kira Simring's sure-handed direction, "Hard Times" bursts with vitality"
--The New York Times