February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
?[He] is fooling the people,? Kavanagh wrote in his newspaper column. ?By his own admission, he can neither sing or play the guitar.?
Drew recounted the story with a wry chuckle about halfway through his stage show, ?An Evening with Ronnie Drew,? which is playing at the Irish Arts Center through Sunday, March 21. It?s one of the many well-chosen anecdotes, poems and songs in a show that has enthralled audiences and critics on both sides of the Atlantic.
Accompanied by Stockton?s Wing alumnus Mike Hanrahan, the former leader of The Dubliners
sings an eclectic mix of songs both traditional and contemporary, leaving his own indelible stamp on the material. This personal imprint comes from a combination of things: his inimitable growling vocals, his deceptively simple delivery, and an instinctive, genuine understanding of his characters.
In his opening number, Drew infused the well-worn chestnut ?Finnegan?s Wake? with all of the bite and cynical humor that?s been diddly-idle-ayed out of it by a generation of bar bands. He also displayed a biting wit while introducing ?McAlpine?s Fuselliers,? noting that the real-life inspiration for the song, the hard-nosed British contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, probably got his knighthood for getting rid of ?so many Paddies? during World War II.
It?s said that every singer secretly wants to be an actor, and vice versa; the show makes it clear that Drew is equally at home in both worlds. Interspersed throughout the evening were readings from the work of James Joyce, Arthur O?Shaughnessy and Louis McNeese. The poetic interludes underscored Drew?s innate sense of the theatrical, particularly when he read an excerpt by Irish poet Brendan Kennelly, or put on a posh British accent for ?The Captains and the Kings.?
Old favorites in the set included ?Red Roses for Me? and ?Nora,? the latter of which was followed by Drew?s reading from another Sean O?Casey work, ?The Plough and the Stars.? He prefaced ?The Auld Triangle? with stories about Brendan Behan; ?If Ever You Go to Dublin Town,? and, particularly, ?On Raglan Road? brought up more stories about the eccentric Kavanagh.
?Luke Kelly sang the definitive version of this song,? admitted Drew. ?But I like it, so I?m going to sing it anyway.?
What sets Drew apart from most of the veteran artists in the genre is his willingness to embrace contemporary material. Shane MacGowan?s chilling ?Dunes,? and Christy Moore?s wistful tribute ?La Quinta Brigada? were two of the high points of the evening.
Hanrahan shone during his solo spots, which included his new songs, ?Firefighter? and ?Garden of Roses.? He reminisced about youthful stint in a sort of music commune in Cork, before launching into his Stockton?s Wing classic ?Beautiful Affair.?
?This song changed my life,? he said. ?It?s taken me all over the world.?
Drew ended the show on a hand-clapping note, with the rousing oldie ?Dicey Reilly.? But the opening night audience wasn?t about to let him off without an encore, so he came back onstage to sing ?The Parting Glass.?
The Irish Arts Center?s theater, which seats just 100 people, gave the show a clubby, intimate atmosphere, and Drew and Hanrahan kept things simple onstage, with just a small table and a black curtain. The austerity of the surroundings, and Ronnie Drew?s straightforward style, allowed the excellent material to take center stage. The genius of Drew?s performance lies in its lack of flourishes; his charm is that of the genuine article.
In his way, Kavanagh was right. Ronnie Drew is trying to fool the people — but the people can see the brilliance behind his gruff, low-key demeanor. ?An Evening with Ronnie Drew? is an evening not to be missed.