Milo's Return

AFTER a gap of many years Milo O'Shea will be making a return visit to the Irish theatre this summer. Though he has been a regular visitor here since then, the last time O'Shea appeared on a Dublin stage was in the musical I Do I Do in 1973. Since then he has lived in New York and appeared in plays, films and television shows too numerous to mention.

For his return he will be reprising a part he also last played here back in the Seventies, one of a pair of crotchety old vaudeville actors who hate each other but are re united for a television show, in the Neil Simon comedy The Sunshine Boys. Back then his co star was the late Eddie Byrne, this time it will be another long time friend and partner in comedy, David Kelly.

The Sunshine Boys is due to open at the Gate Theatre on June 11th and will run during the summer. Then it will be back to New York for Milo to await the outcome of his nomination for an Emmy, the American television awards, for a guest appearance as a psychiatrist in the comedy series Frasier.

Also in the award news lately is another play that started at the Gate, Brian Friel's Moll Sweeney, currently running in New York. It recently won the Outstanding Play prize in the recent Lucille Lortel Awards for achievement Off Broadway, and has been nominated for five more in the annual Outer Critics Circle Awards, given by out of town writers on the New York theatre. All three of the cast. Catherine Byrne, Jason Robards and Alfred Molina get nominations, as does Brian Friel for Best Director and the play itself for Outstanding Off Broadway Play.