BWW Review Storytellers, Musicmakers, Dreamers: McCourt's THE IRISH Captivates in Portland

"We are the storytellers; we are the musicmakers; we are the dreamers of dreams." With these words the cast of Frank McCourt's The Irish and How They Got That Way brings to a close a spellbinding evening of story and song that has the audience clapping, foot-tapping, weeping, and laughing in one of the most vibrant theatrical experiences in recent memory. The co-production of Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt's 1997 play with music marks a stunningly successful collaboration between Maine State Music Theatre and Portland Stage and promises to be a major hit for its brief four-week engagement.

McCourt's one-hundred-minute drama tells the story of several centuries of the Irish experience on both sides of the Atlantic. No mere history lesson, however, as much knowledge as the play does impart, rather The Irish is a poetic, saucy, irreverent, and exquisitely beautiful tapestry of music, language, narrative, peopled with colorful characters and showcased in compelling song and dance.

Entrusted to the brilliant staging of director/choreographer Marc Robin (in his Portland debut), the production takes hold of the audience's sympathies from the first bars and leads them on a sometimes breathlessly paced journey of emotional highs and lows that makes for a collectively cathartic experience. Robin is a master of tempo and balance, letting the mood turn seamlessly on a dime, and eliciting richly detailed and nuanced performances from the cast. The staging is attentive to the larger pictures at the same that it is skillful in its subtle detail and intimacy.

Set in an Irish pub - (Robin's concept)- the production is visually splendid. Anita Stewart's multi-level, burnished wood-paneled décor is dominated by an imposing fully stocked bar (with working tap), dotted with authentically themed paintings and a large upstage screen for vivid projections that poignantly complement the design. Gregg Carville's lighting adds warmth and coziness to the ambiance, while John Morrison's sound design is perfectly balanced. Kathleen Payton Brown provides the attractive costumes - tweed jackets, skirts and trousers - that conjure up the Emerald Isle.

The Irish employs existing Celtic music ranging from traditional airs to Broadway anthems to contemporary songs in original arrangements by Rusty Magee. The four-musician band under the able direction of Edward Reichert at the keyboards, with the dazzling fiddle playing of Ernest Sauceda and rousing support on drums by Eric Landau and guitar, banjo, and accordion by Jimmy Dority, is effectively integrated on stage into the fabric of the piece. Many of the twenty-seven songs are arranged in fascinating harmonies for the four principals, who are then each given several solo moments to shine. The variety of musical styles accounts for a large measure of the show's appeal with company numbers such as "Shores of Amerikay," "Give My Regards to Broadway," "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" - (envisioned as a tribute to John F. Kennedy), and the rousing U-2 finale "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" creating stirring moments.

The small cast, comprised of four soloists and two supporting actors, coalesces into a vivid ensemble. The production is cast with performers who all possess a wealth of vocal riches and dance abilities, the chameleon skill to inhabit the numerous characters whose stories they bring to life, and the energy and emotion to tap the depths of the piece. New to their roles, Charis Leos and Cary Michele Miller create a series of vivid portraits of indomitable Irish women. Leos is side-splittingly funny as the Widow Clancy and delights in her rendition of "Finnegan's Wake", but she is also heart wrenchingly intense in her stories about the potato famine. Miller offers a youthful pluck to her various personae and delivers a mournful "Fields of Athenry" that is one of the highpoints of the evening.

Reprising their roles from several of the original productions, tenors Curt Dale Clark and Peter Cormican demonstrate their identification with the material and their ability to mesmerize an audience. Using his considerable talent for accents and dialects, Cormican paints a series of characterful portrayals - often outrageously funny ("Moonshiner"), but also intense and passionate in stirring moments such as "The Ghost of Molly McGuire" or his dramatic evocation of the hated Charles Trevelyan. Clark is tasked with many of the show's most memorable tunes to which he brings his rich vocal range, lovely phrasing and diction, and warmth and vibrancy of tone. His renditions of "Rare Ould Times" and his solo in "Skibereen" are poignantly delivered, and he displays his comedic gifts with Cormican in "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?," as well as his tap dancing prowess in the three Cohan numbers. But perhaps it is his melting interpretation of "Danny Boy" with its purity of intonation and subtle sadness which affords the play its most haunting memory. Cameron Wright as the Bartender and Emily Davis as the Waitress ably round out the ensemble.

The Irish and How They Got That Way has had a stage history of taking its audiences by surprise, and this revival in Portland is no exception to that tradition. Frank McCourt's play, which was largely unfamiliar material for Maine theatregoers, was greeted on opening night with the kind of clapping, foot-tapping, totally engaged identification that bespeaks the magical properties of the piece and the production.

Thanks to the innovative vision of the producers, MSMT's Curt Dale Clark and Stephanie Dupal, and Portland Stage's Anita Stewart, this bold new collaboration has proven to be an adventure well-launched and one which hopefully points to future shared endeavors. In the intimate 265-seat house, Maine State Music Theatre and Portland Stage have pooled their resources to create an evening of enthralling power.

Photographs courtesy MSMT and Portland Stage, Roger S. Duncan, photographer.

The Irish and How They Got That Way runs from August 19-September 11 at Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME www.msmt.org 207-725-8769 www.portlandstage.org 207-774-0465

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