Martin McDonagh Returns to Broadway With ‘Hangmen’ After Pandemic Pause: ‘I’ve Learned a Few Hard Truths’
variety.comBrent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaMartin McDonagh has a profound feeling of déjà vu these days.The last time he was in New York, McDonagh was in the thick of Broadway previews for “Hangmen,” his criminally funny look at an executioner-turned-pub owner forced to grapple with his past when capital punishment is made illegal in the U.K.
The play was scheduled to open on March 19, 2020, but COVID upended those plans and those of so many other productions, shutting down Broadway for two years.
Now, McDonagh is back and remounting the show that was snuffed out before it ever really had a chance, and it’s making him feel a little out of place.“It’s almost like these two years didn’t happen,” he says. “I’m in the same apartment, doing the same play, walking by the same bodega each morning on the way to rehearsal.” And he’s talking to one of the same reporters who interviewed him prior to Broadway’s shutdown.
At the time, McDonagh, the creator of hit plays like “The Pillowman” and films like “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” was depressed about the state of the theater business.
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