Some 1,200 supporters of New York’s venerable Irish Repertory Theatre gathered on Monday evening at the Town Hall for the Rep’s annual gala which was co-hosted this year by Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick.
A throng of media attended the event, which paid tribute to the 150th anniversary of W.B. Yeats.
“Sarah Jessica and Matthew were fantastic as hosts, and the event went off better than we could have hoped,” Irish Rep co-founder Ciaran O’Reilly told the Irish Voice.
Other notables who turned out to support the Irish Rep on its big night included John Slattery of Mad Men, Oscar winning actress Olympia Dukakis and many more. A chorus of Broadway singers converted many of Yeats' poems and performed them as songs.
Parker, famous for her years as Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City, told the Irish Independent that she and Broderick, with their three children, would be visiting Ireland this summer and would even be happy moving there. Broderick’s family comes from Kilcar, Co. Donegal, and the A-list couple has often vacationed in the west of Ireland.
“It always feels like it’s a place that is perhaps foolishly more private to us, and there’s a simplicity to the time that we spend there, and the people are so lovely. At this point it feels a little bit like home, in some way,” Parker said.
“We would be delighted to decamp to Ireland. Move the children, put them in school there, have tea every day, a proper fry. It’s just an exquisite, beautiful, relaxing, wonderful place for ourselves and for our children.”
The actress and designer also applauded the Irish vote in favor of same sex marriage last month.
“I think it was really surprising, amazing, that of all the places that were pondering that decision, that it was Ireland first, given its religious history and the history with the Catholic Church, and the role that the church plays in people’s lives. We were texting our friends in Ireland, and they were giving us the counts by county. It was very interesting,” Parker said.
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