Irish Repertory Theatre has cast the holiday return of The Dead, 1904. Maggie Lacey and James Russell play Gretta and Gabriel Conroy, and Judy Kaye and Mary Beth Peil are the aunts who host the party. Previews begin Saturday, November 21, in a Fifth Avenue townhouse, for 54 guests a night.
The production runs at the American Irish Historical Society, 991 Fifth Avenue, with opening night on Tuesday, December 1, and a limited run through Sunday, January 3, 2027. Irish Rep co-founder Ciarán O’Reilly directs, fresh from the company’s revival of The Hairy Ape this fall. Irish Rep produces with Dot Dot Productions, in association with the American Irish Historical Society.
The adaptation of James Joyce’s story is by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon and novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz, who are married. It was their first collaboration.
The cast
Kaye plays Kate Morkan. She is a two-time Tony winner whose credits include Nice Work If You Can Get It. Peil, an Obie winner and Tony nominee whose credits include An American Daughter, plays Julia Morkan. Lacey’s credits include Our Town, and Russell’s include Philadelphia, Here I Come!
The rest of the company: Gina Costigan as Molly Ivors, Margaret Dudasik as Miss Daly, Terry Donnelly as Mrs. Malins, Ali Ewoldt as Mary Jane, Niall Powderly as Freddy Malins, Gary Troy as Mr. Browne, Ciara Van Buren as Lily and Clyde Voce as Bartell D’Arcy, with Asher Muldoon in the ensemble.
Design is by Leon Dobkowski (costumes), Michael Gottlieb (lighting), Florian Staab (sound), Deirdre Brennan (properties) and Kevin Foster II (wigs and hair). Barry McNabb choreographs. Mark Hartman is musical consultant and Jane Guyer Fujita dialects consultant. Casting is by Geoff Josselson Casting.
A party you attend
Joyce’s story is set at the Morkan sisters’ Christmas gathering in Dublin, and here the audience is on the guest list. The action moves across three floors of a townhouse built around 1900 and restored to period decoration: the lobby, the parlor, the dining room and the upstairs library.
The dinner scene is a real dinner. Great Performances cooks it on site for every show, based on the feast in the story, and cast and audience eat it together, with wine, stout and spirits. The menu runs from roast turkey breast and beef tenderloin with a fig and cocoa glaze to bread and butter pudding with vanilla custard.
Irish Rep first staged the piece in 2016 and brought it back in 2017, 2018 and 2024.
Performances and tickets
Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. There are none on Thursday, November 26, Thursday, December 24, or Friday, December 25. Extra 7 p.m. shows are added on Monday, December 21, and Monday, December 28. The Thursday, December 31, performance is at 5 p.m., and closing day, Sunday, January 3, has one show, at 7 p.m.
Standard and premium tickets include dinner and drinks. Four VIP premium seats at each performance put guests at the main table with the cast for the dinner scene. Show-only tickets are $250, with admission and drinks but no dinner. Group bookings are available. Two $59 general admission tickets per performance, dinner and drinks included, go through a TodayTix lottery.
