James Joyce's The Dead
- Music and Lyrics by Shaun Davey
- Directed by Richard Nelson
Shaun Davey is one of Irelands’ leading professional composers, with a career in international theatre, TV and film. His work includes live concerts, record production, compositions for orchestra, singers, choirs, and collaborations with traditional musicians in Ireland and elsewhere. He is also an accomplished painter. He lives in County Wicklow, Ireland, with his wife, the singer Rita Connolly.
Richard Nelson's plays include Farewell to the Theatre, Nikolai and the Others, Sweet and Sad, That Hopey Changey Thing, Conversations in Tusculum, How Shakespeare Won the West, Frank's Home, Rodney's Wife, Franny's Way, Madame Melville, Goodnight Children Everywhere, The General From America, New England, Misha's Party (with Alexander Gelman), Columbus or the Discovery of Japan, Two Shakespearean Actors, Some Americans Abroad, Left, Life Sentences, Principia Scriptoriae. He was written the musicals Unfinished Piece for a Player Piano (with Peter Golub), James Joyce's The Dead (with Shaun Davey), My Life With Albertine (with Ricky Ian Gordon), the screenplays for the films Hyde Park-on-Hudson (Roger Michell director) and Ethan Frome (John Madden director). He has received numerous awards both in America and abroad, including a Tony Award (Best Book of a Musical for James Joyce's The Dead), and Oliver Award (Best Play for Goodnight Children Everywhere), Tony nominations (Best Play for Two Shakespearean Actors; Best Score as co-lyricist for James Joyce's The Dead), an Olivier nomination (Best Comedy for Some Americans Abroad), two Obies, a Lortel Award, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Writers Award. He is the recipient of the PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and he is an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He lives in upstate New York. (As of January 2007)
When words fail, there is song. For Gabriel and Gretta, his wife of many years, what begins as another annual Christmas party, thrown by his two music-loving aunts, soon becomes a journey of discovery where a forgotten melody holds the key to lost worlds and passions long buried.
Featuring
Blair Brown
Paddy Croft
Brian Davies
Daisy Eagan
Dashiell Eaves
Sally Ann Howes
John Kelly
Brooke Sunny Moriber
Mami Nixon
Alice Ripley
Emily Skinner
Stephen Spinella
Christopher Walken
Has appeared as an actor in over fifty plays including: Copenhagen (Tony Award), James Joyce’s The Dead, Cabaret, The Secret Rapture, and The Threepenny Opera. She has directed Leslie Ayvazian’s plays Rosemary and I (Passage Theatre, NJ), and Lovely Day (The Play Company, NY). Recently, Blair also directed a workshop of A Feminine Ending at Portland Center Stage.
Creative Team
David Jenkins
Scenic Design:Jane Greenwood
Costume Design:Jennifer Tipton
Lighting Design:Scott Lehrer
Sound Design:Paul Huntley
Wigs:Shaun Davey
Orchestrations:Charles Prince
Musical Director:Matthew Silver
Production Stage Manager:Sean Curran
Choreography:Photos of (1) Brian Davies, Christopher Walken, Sally Ann Howes, Blair Brown, Alice Ripley, John Kelly, Emily Skinner, Dashiell Eaves; (2) Sally Ann Howes and Christopher Walken; (3) Sally Ann Howes, Marni Nixon, Blair Brown, and Christopher Walken; (4) Brian Davies, Blair Brown, Emily Skinner, and Dashiell Eaves by Joan Marcus.