Beauty Queen of Leenane: What A Great Decision

Our final blog for Beauty Queen comes from our producer (and co-artistic director) TL Kolman.  Take it away, TL...

In the summer of 2005, August and I went to see Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Celtic Arts Center. We went in totally cold, not knowing anything about the play except from what we had read from their stellar reviews. The production blew us away, but I remember telling August that I could never sit through this play again because the story was so disturbing that it haunted me for days afterwards. 

Over the years many of our fellow artists kept suggesting that Beauty Queen would be a perfect fit for The Production Company, but we kept saying, yeah, but there was this fantastic production only a few years ago...

We started reading other works by McDonagh. The Production Company (along with every other theatre company in Los Angeles) had been trying to get the rights to another McDonagh play, The Pillowman, but kept getting denied because “they want the LA premiere to be done by a larger theatre”.  (FYI: They’re still waiting!)

Jump ahead to September 2011. The Production Company was in the process of picking its fifth season and once again the title of The Beauty Queen of Leenane was on the list of one of the most requested contenders. We decided to implement a series of staged readings in which Beauty Queen was the first offering. This presentation received such an overwhelmingly positive response from the audiences we felt the time had finally arrived for the Beauty Queen to make its ProdCo debut. 

And what a great decision that turned out to be. 

I have produced 28 productions for The Production Company and every once in a great while you feel in your gut that a certain production is going to be especially rewarding. I remember having that distinct feeling during our rehearsals for Equus and that same sensation came flooding back during the Beauty Queen rehearsal process. There is something magical and thrilling that occurs when you watch such a brilliant cast as we had work so intently with a passionate director, all expected to dig deep down and sometimes share the darkest part of their souls in order to tell their story that McDonagh has so beautifully laid out and watch it unfold as if witnessing a nightmare right in front of you – and still remember it’s a comedy! It’s when you don’t care what the critics will say because you know that you have something incredible on your hands and the vision of what you have created together is exactly what’s on that stage. 

The Beauty Queen of Leenane has been one of my proudest moments as a producer – and not only because of the rave reviews (including a Critic’s Choice in the LA Times ) but night after night witnessing the audience reaction. It is so thrilling to see how each individual is moved, disturbed and enthralled with the production, sometimes almost speechless upon leaving the theatre that all they can do is come up and whisper “That was fantastic” or just give you a congratulatory hug. 

It is thanks to an incredible ensemble onstage and off whose dedication has made this production such a success, critically, financially and most importantly, artistically: To August Viverito whose artistic gifts as director and designer extraordinaire never cease to amaze me; Ferrell Marshall, Judy Nazemetz, Alex Egan, Rob Herring and Dan Halden for trusting us (and themselves) to take this incredible journey and going places that they have probably never been expected to go before as performers – and for all the laughs we shared along the way; production stage manager Tiffany Cole for her professionalism, trustworthiness and humor; rehearsal stage manager and dialect coach Kelly Jean Clair for sharing her personal stories of Galway, Ireland and making sure the cast spoke as if they were from Connemara; and Jen Albert for her talents staging the fight scenes that still give me chills. And to the audiences that filled The Lex Theatre week after week – it would all mean nothing without your continued support of The Production Company.

As we approach the closing weekend, I know I will miss spending time with our cast and crew in our own little Connemara. And even though August and I are now heavy into rehearsals for our next production (a musical nonetheless!) the adventurous journey of The Beauty Queen of Leenane that we all took together will remained ingrained in my memory – and my soul - forever. 


“May you be half an hour in heaven afore the devil knows your dead.”

THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE runs through February 18th at The Lex Theatre, Hollywood. For tickets: www.theprodco.com