GOD HATES THE IRISH: THE BALLAD OF ARMLESS JOHNNY
by Sean Cunningham, Music by Michael Friedman


show details
6 (3M, 3W)
Run time: 110 minutes


synopsis
Armless Johnny Kavanaugh is a poor Catholic boy from Northern Ireland. Also, he has no arms. As he seeks the promised land of America, he journeys from England to Ethiopia (his sense of direction isn’t very good) in a desperate attempt to escape oppression and find true love with the help of musical numbers by acclaimed composer Michael Friedman.


quotes & reviews
AWARDS
Drama Desk nomination
Three Time Out New York “Don’t Miss!” Critic Picks

QUOTES
“Theater as it should be: daring, subversive, and violently funny.”
—Mike Nichols

“A searing little ditty on the joys of torture that would knock ’em dead on The Daily Show.”
Variety

“Paul Green’s ‘Johnny Johnson’ and Dalton Trumbo’s ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ as filtered through ‘Alice in Wonderland.’”
—Jerry Tallmer, Downtown Express

“There is enough sex, murder, and scatological humor to make a Farrelly Brothers film look like Leave It to Beaver.”
The New York Times

-“The most foul-mouthed play ever staged Off-Broadway.”
The Irish Echo

-“Non-stop perversion, castration, incest, racism, fornication, sacrilege, bestiality, and torture—all done in the name of comedy. To merely call it tasteless is a huge understatement.”
—Broadway.com

-“Now I can reveal myself as a prude.”
The New York Sun

-“The Pope was alive when I entered the theater and dead when I left. Need I say more?”
—John Guare, author of Six Degrees of Separation