IN THEATER, May 17 1999 (US magazine)
Up and Comer: Brendan Coyle
IN THEATER, May 17 1999 (US magazine)
Up and Comer: Brendan Coyle
"I was born in the midlands of England," says Brendan Coyle, who plays a bartender named Brendan in Conor McPherson's The Weir. "I didn't see my first play until I was nearly 16. It was Richard III, which we were studying in school: and when I saw it, something just went 'click'."
After high school, Coyle began training to become a butcher like his father. But he confessed to his mother his "notion" of becoming an actor, and she sent him to live with a cousin who ran the Focus Theatre in Dublin. "I had to observe for a long time," he recalls. "Finally, I was invited on stage and a teacher told my cousin, 'He has taken to it like a duck to water'."
A tour of Ireland as stage manager for a fledging theater company came next for Coyle: "We performed at schools during the day, halls at night, and then in bars later at night. We had a series of Volkswagen condos. It was a amazing experience."
He eventually applied to the Mount View Theatre School in London. "I was offered a chance to go up for a scholarship before a panel that included Judi Dench and Twiggy," he says. "I used Philadelphia, Here I Come! and a classic piece for my audition, and I got the biggest scholarship they had ever given out."
After doing three or four plays at the Royal Court in London, Coyle got wind of a play called The Weir by his friend Conor McPherson. He landed the part as the bartender - but not, he insists, "because Conor wrote the role or because he had named the character Brendan." Of playing a classic listener, Coyle says: "Because I had so few lines, I spent a long time creating his physical side - the ways he run the bar, deals with the money, cleans up the spills." The actor himself "cleaned up," winning an Olivier Award for his efforts.
Thrilled to be making his Broadway debut, Coyle has big plans after the run of The Weir: "I'm going to get into a car and drive into the desert, then drive to San Fransico, and then down Highway 1 into Mexico." Ah, the rapture!- Ricky Spears
The Broadway Box Office Statistics for 'The Weir' as detailed in that week's edition were as follows: (week ending April 25 1999)
THE WEIR Play, opened 4/1/99, 10 previews, 29 performances. Tickets $25-$60. Walter Kerr (947 seats). Box office receipts: $263,279 (Prv. $271.672); change in receipts: -$8,393. Attendance: 6,646 (Prv. 6,870). 87.72% of capacity.And in the Broadway Listings section:
THE WEIR American premiere of Conor McPherson's brew of Guinness and ghost stories; winner of the 1999 Olivier Award for Best New Play. Dir. by Ian Rickson. R.T. 1:50. Opened 4/1/99. Tu-Sa at 8, Su at 7; mats. Sa at 2 & Su at 3. $60. Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th St. 212-239-6200
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