Emmy winner Debra Messing and Tony winner Brían F. O’Byrne are bringing the aw-factor to Broadway as the central couple in John Patrick Shanley’s new play Outside Mullingar. Like a rom-com for theater audiences, Outside Mullingar is a will they or won’t they love story centered on Anthony (O’Byrne) and Rosemary (Messing), two middle-aged Irish neighbors who never found love.
Spoiler alert: at the end, Anthony and Rosemary give into their romance and end up happily ever after. Or do they? BroadwayBox caught up with the stars and creators of Outside Mullingar and asked them: Where do you think Anthony and Rosemary are five years after the curtain comes down, and does the gate between their farms ever come down? Check out their varying responses below.
Brían F. O’Byrne (Anthony Reilly)
“They are married and they have kids. I think the gate is down next week. I think she says it in the moment, but it’s down. It’s shocking anyone would think it’s up. Why would it be up if they are married and together? It’s down.”
Debra Messing (Rosemary Muldoon)
“They are married. I think we have a child and we are happy. The gate will always be up. Brían is wrong, the gate is up because that way I know I’ll have him forever.”
John Patrick Shanley (Playwright)
“I think they got a couple of kids and that Anthony is happier. And one day he finds himself singing in the field. The fence never comes down. Never.”
Doug Hughes (Director)
Dearbhla Molloy (Aoife Muldoon)
“My hope is that they have as good as marriage as my character had; but my fear is that because Anthony is Anthony, they’ll be incompatible in some way—because she’s so fiery and he’s so laid back.”
Peter Maloney (Tony Reilly)
“I think they have both farms and I think they joined them together in one. The gates are up. They have a 1-year-old and a 5-year-old, so the Reilly name is perpetuated—which is all I wanted in the first place. Anthony and Rosemary are very happy because they are destined to be together.”
Outside Mullingar continues at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre through March 16.
