Also this issue:

The Bone Collector
-Susan Hagen

Love Songs
-David Anthony Fox

Underneath the Sari
-Helen i-lin Hwang

Willkommen
Philadelphia hosts a convention dedicated to the art of the cabaret.
-David Anthony Fox

Laura Zigman
-Alex Richmond

May 30-June 5, 2002

theater

Low Spirits

by David Anthony Fox

James Joyce's The DeadThrough June 16, Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. Second St., 215-922-8900

I love musicals, but the form doesn’t always serve literary classics. There are exceptions -- a few gifted composers and lyricists have captured the flavor of great poetry. But in mundane hands, nuances disappear under a barrage of song cues. Plot overrides subtext, coarsening everything.

So the first thing to say about James Joyce's The Dead is that it's not James Joyce.

Oh, the plot of the show mostly conforms to the story. One snowy evening at the turn of the 20th century, the elderly Morkan sisters throw their annual Christmas party. Attendees include Gabriel, their nephew, and his wife, Gretta. As always, there's dining, singing and some old family business. What is different this year is that Gretta remembers something. It's information that will change her relationship with Gabriel.

The real beauty in Joyce's story lies in its delicacy. No single element is as important as the sense of mood. Everything is lyrical and indeterminate. There's sentiment, but also a worldly edge.

In Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's musical, Joyce's bittersweetness turns treacly. The subtle is made obvious. Thus the moribund Aunt Julia of the story now not only dies on stage, she does it while in a duet with her younger self. Gabriel becomes the narrator, giving him undue prominence. Gretta's confession is soap-opera sludge, set to very mediocre music.

To be fair, that's the worst of it. The best is fairly entertaining. Nelson and Davey capture some of the gaiety of the party. The score here is mostly adapted from period songs, and they have charm.

Paradoxically, it's in those scenes that the Arden's production falters. There's a level of polish to the execution, but director Terrence Nolen has taken the title of the musical too literally. He seems over-awed by Joyce, and he puts ghosts on the stage rather than people.

So the Christmas festivities have no celebratory energy. There isn't even overlapping conversation, lest we miss the Importance of Every Word. With large scenes so enervated, we also lose the contrast between group moments and intimate ones.

Most of the competent ensemble cast register only as archetypes. Best are Lorraine Foreman as Aunt Julia and Anthony Lawton as Freddy. Greg Wood (Gabriel) projects a single note of nostalgic yearning -- not wrong, but there's more to it. Derin Altay (Gretta) doesn't rise above her mediocre material. Though the characters are meant to be amateur singers, James Joyce's The Dead still needs musical skill. That's only intermittent here -- ensemble harmonies regularly disintegrate mid-phrase.