James Joyce's the Dead

James Joyce's the Dead (1999), a musical play by Richard Nelson (book, lyrics), Shaun Davey (music, lyrics). [Playwrights Horizons, 112 perf.; NYDCC Award.] At the Dublin home of the Misses Morkans ( Sally Ann Howes, Marni Nixon, and Emily Skinner), the annual Christmas party brings together relatives, friends, some students, and even an opera celebrity ( John Kelly) for conversation and singing. But, as in Joyce's novella, memories are evoked and relationships are altered during the course of the evening. The lovely, subdued piece was successful enough Off Broadway that Playwrights Horizons transferred it to the Belasco Theatre where it failed to find a mainstream audience. Richard NELSON (b. 1950) was born in Chicago and educated at Hamilton College before working as a literary manager for various theatres. Nelson's plays were first produced regionally, and in 1978 he made his Manhattan debut with Conjuring an Event at the American Place Theatre. His writing credits include the revised book for the musical Chess (1988); Some Americans Abroad (1990), concerning educators from the States touring the English theatre circuit; Two Shakespearean Actors (1992), illustrating events leading up to the Astor Place Riots; New England (1995), a look at discontented Brits living in America; and Goodnight Children Everywhere (1999), about an English youth returning home after spending the war years in Canada. Nelson's career is unusual in that many of his works are about Englishmen and are usually produced first in London where he is more popular than in the States.