Playwrights: Richard Nelson (book) and Shaun Davey (music). At: Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue. Tickets: 773-753-4472; www.CourtTheatre.org; $45-$65. Runs through: Dec. 9
For a refresher course about love, go see James Joyce's The Dead. The iconic Irish writer's name prevents us from thinking it's a zombie apocalypse, and reminds us that this 1999 chamber musical is based on a Joyce (1882-1941) short story. A sweetheart of a show as written and as staged, The Dead is rollicking and achingly tender in equal measures.
The emotional wallop is surprising, given that co-author Richard Nelson is an intellectual and political playwright, and James Joyce is regarded as a sensualist rather than a lover. Nonetheless, the show pushes heart buttons, not head buttons, by focusing on the genuine care and concern Joyce's characters feel for each other. There's sensuality, too, mostly non-sexual: the sensuality of music, dance and bodies in motion, of laughter, tears and sighs, of warmth and compassion.
The title suggests memories and feelings by which the dead maintain a hold upon the living, a hold which sometimes is a caress and sometimes a hard grasp. The title also references the living dead, devoid of feeling or soulful engagement with "fellow passengers to the grave" as Dickens put it. The focus of The Dead is middle-aged couple Gabriel and Gretta Conroy (Philip Earl Johnson and Susie McMonagle). They love each other until the unexpected intrusion of one long-dead threatens to turn them into the living dead. At the end of this 95-minute show, the future is unclear as both husband and wife have unexpected epiphanies.
Appropriately, the setting is the annual Feast of the Epiphany party hosted for decades by Gabriel's unwed aunts and attended by family and close friends. It's Dublin in 1904, and change is coming, be it Irish nationalism, Aunt Julia's fragile health or debilitating alcoholism. To the music of piano, fiddle, Irish drum, cello, flute and guitar, the household floats on the camaraderie and unforced affection of people who treasure each other. The songs reveal the spirit of each character—sentimental, wistful, raucous and saucy—cleverly sounding like old Irish airs even though purpose-written for this show.
The Court Theatre production is as perfect as can be, with nuanced performances from a fine ensemble crammed with gifted Chicago veterans such as Johnson, McMonagle, Mary Ernster and Anne Gunn (aunts Julia and Kate), Rebecca Finnegan and Rob Lindley (Mrs. Malin and son Freddy). The impeccable Doug Peck is the pitch-perfect musical director, the seemingly-spontaneous choreography is by Katie Spelman and the fluid staging and concept are by Charles Newell, who clearly deeply feels this material. Scott Davis designed the wide and not-really-empty setting (he also designed Failure: A Love Story, currently at Victory Gardens). James Joyce's The Dead is the non-holiday holiday show to see, a bittersweet elegy for hearts we miss.
