Martin McDonagh’s ‘Hangmen’ Sets Broadway Return With Alfie Allen, David Threlfall

Hangmen, Martin McDonagh’s Olivier Award-winning comedy that became (seemingly) an early casualty of Broadway’s 2020 Covid shutdown, has gotten a reprieve: The play will begin previews at Broadway’s Golden Theatre on Friday, April 8, with an opening night set for Thursday, April 21.

Co-starring in the limited 10-week engagement will be Alfie Allen, best known to American audiences for his indelible Game of Thrones portrayal of Theon “Reek” Greyjoy, and David Threlfall, returning to Broadway for the first time in 25 years.

The Royal Court Theatre/Atlantic Theater Company production of Hangmen will be directed by Matthew Dunster, who directed the pre-shutdown Broadway staging that co-starred Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens (in the role of Mooney, now to be played by Allen) and Game of Thrones‘ Mark Addy as Harry (now to be played by Threlfall).

Prior to the shutdown, Hangmen began previews at the Golden on February 28, 2020, and was scheduled to officially open on March 19. By the March 12 shutdown, the production had played 13 performances. Cast members were released from their contracts, with producers Robert Fox, Jean Doumanian, Elizabeth I. McCann and Craig Balsam noting at the time that the production did not not have “the economic resources to be able to continue to pay the theater owners, cast and crew through this still undefined closure period.”

McCann died Sept. 9, 2021. Producers Fox, Doumanian and Balsam are dedicating the upcoming production to her memory.

The production will also feature two-time Olivier Award winner Tracie Bennett, Owen Campbell, Jeremy Crutchley, Gaby French, Josh Goulding, John Hodgkinson, Richard Hollis, John Horton, Andy Nyman and Ryan Pope, with Sebastian Beacon, Peter Bradbury, Katie Fabel and Colin McPhillamy.

The official synopsis: In his small pub in the North of England in the mid-1960s, Harry is something of a local celebrity. But what’s the second-best hangman in England to do on the day they’ve abolished hanging? Amongst the cub reporters and pub regulars, people are dying to hear Harry’s reaction to the news when an intriguing stranger, Mooney, from London – with a very different wardrobe and motive – enters their world. Says Mooney, “Don’t worry. I may have my quirks but I’m not an animal. Or am I? One for the courts to discuss.”

Allen will be making his Broadway debut, while Threlfall returns for the first time since 1996’s The Rehearsal. He had previously played Smike in 1981’s The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.

Hangmen made its world premiere at London’s Royal Court Theatre in September 2015 before transferring to the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre in 2016 and going on to win the Olivier Award for Best Play. The play made its United States Premiere at Off Broadway’s Atlantic Theater Company in 2018, winning the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.