"What's in a name?" asked Shakespeare's Juliet of her Romeo.
"That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet."
Maybe so. But what if the rose in question was called "The Dead"? Would anyone sniff it?
Therein lies the dilemma of opening a production of "James Joyce's The Dead," as Pioneer Theatre Company will do this week in Salt Lake City. The title Joyce gave his most famous short story suggests a dreary, depressing or spooky saga, not a life-affirming musical play about a holiday party in early 20th-century Ireland.
Attaching Joyce's name to the title doesn't help much either, given the number of people who remember wading through Joyce's stream-of-consciousness novel Finnegans Wake to satisfy college requirements. Yet "The Dead" is nothing like the dense novels Finnegans Wake and Ulysses. The story, the last in Joyce's collection Dubliners, is told simply, in lyrical prose. In Joycean fashion, the emphasis is more on the inner emotional life of central characters than dramatic events, but is easily accessible to any reader.
The musical stage version brings the story to life to the tune of Irish-flavored music by Shaun Davey. Richard Nelson's skillful adaptation of Joyce's story won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical when "James Joyce's The Dead" played on Broadway in 2000 in a production starring Christopher Walken.
"['The Dead'] is a very moving, exuberant and joyous piece with the absolute worst title for musical theater that anyone could conceive," said PTC artistic director Charles Morey, director of PTC's production of "The Dead." "Pardon the pun, but it's a deadly title for a wonderful piece."
Morey knows what he would have called the musical stage adaptation: "A Dublin Christmas."
That almost works, though the party that sets the plot events in motion happens two weeks after Christmas. The characters in the play gather on Jan. 6, 1904, for an evening of food, conversation, singing and dancing in celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany. The distinction is significant, since the story's central character, Gabriel Conroy, experiences a life-altering epiphany of his own during the evening.
Broadway actor Michael DeVries plays Gabriel in PTC's production. His wife, Gretta, is played by Brigid Brady, who portrayed Christine in the Broadway production of "The Phantom of the Opera" and starred in PTC's productions of "Anything Goes" and "Guys and Dolls."
The holiday gathering is hosted by Gabriel's elderly maiden aunts, two music teachers who have held this party on this day for three decades. The circumstances are common to any annual family party: Happy memories and old resentments intersect; departed relatives are remembered and missed; some guests are charming, others troublesome.
The guest list of these music teachers includes a number of talented amateur musicans. As per the custom of the day, the partygoers entertain each other with song renditions, line up for quadrilles and Irish country dances, and pair off for waltzing. To give the dance scenes the authenticity and spontaneity they require, Morey brought in nationally known choreographer Karen Azenburg from New York City. Patrons should not expect a "Riverdance" experience, Azenburg said, though fans of that Irish dance phenomenon will spot familiar elements.
"Riverdance is a heightened performance -- a professional version of what started in those little parlors," Azenburg said. She worked with the cast to make the dancing serve the play, making it look spontaneous and appropriate to the situation.
"The characters should look like who they are, not a Broadway chorus line in a sitting room," Azenburg said. "It's not about what big kick we could do here or there. There are no big kicks. It's about fun dance steps you would really do at a party like this."
The realistic staging of the party scene is offset by Gabriel's more ephemeral emotional journey. While the party guests sing for one another, a sweet Irish ballad triggers memories in Gretta that lead Gabriel to realize how little he knows the person he loves most. This first, wrenching realization is followed by a sweeter epiphany: the recognition that members of the human race are intimately connected -- the living and the dead.
Maybe that title works after all.
Making the connection
* "James Joyce's The Dead" is produced by Pioneer Theatre Company at Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, Salt Lake City. The show opens Wednesday and runs through March 5. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. for Saturday matinees.
* Tickets are $20 to $39, with discounts to students and groups. Free parking is available. Call 801-581-6961 or visit http://www.pioneertheatre.org.
