If you were around this particular patch in 1999, you might have encountered an irreverent revue called “The Irish … and How They Got That Way,” as penned by Frank McCourt, red hot at the time as the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, mid-1990s memoir “Angela’s Ashes.”
The show was a celebration of the Gaelic soul in America and contained, as I recall, more than 30 Irish-influenced songs with authorships stretching from George M. Cohan to Bono and The Edge. Folks rolled into the Mercury Theater, then under the management of Michael Cullen, who conveniently owned the Irish pub next door, replete with a distinguished meatloaf. “The Irish” was a commercial production (now a rare thing in town) produced by Richard Frankel and Marc Routh and, while the alt critics at The Reader turned up their noses at its middle-of-the-Irish-road sensibilities (a fair criticism), it did very well. People flocked to hear an able quintet of musical-theater performers and the fiddle of Susan Voelz of Poi Dog Pondering fame. McCourt told me at the time that the show was based on his research about the Irish American experience for an unfinished dissertation at Trinity College Dublin, and it was especially beloved in Irish Chicago. With his jovial, ruddy-faced brother Malachy, he had performed “A Couple of Blaguards” at both the Royal George Theatre and the Briar Street Theatre.
The Royal George is currently being demolished; the Briar Street has an imminent date with the wrecking ball, and boo to both.
But “The Irish … and How They Got That Way” has returned, and just a few blocks away, too.
Porchlight Music Theatre has revived the title and it’s now under the direction of the esteemed Chicago actor David Girolmo, who happened to be part of that Chicago quintet in 1999.
The show is exactly the same. Or, if there are differences, they really are too slight to be of notice.
Most oldsters like myself still will probably find revisiting the piece enjoyable. Girolmo knows exactly what the show needs, and there is a musically adroit and highly personable cast in the not-entirely-Irish persons of Emily Goldberg, the singer-musician Michael Mahler, the fine tenor Luke Nowakowski and Leah Morrow. (It’s great to hear Morrow get a legit number, for she’s invariably cast in character roles around town.) David Fiorello, sporting a Notre Dame cap, musically directs from the keys and Elleon Dobias adds the Irish strings of various kinds. It’s as warm as a toddy on a frigid January night and as well harmonized as McDonnells curry sauce. (No Guinness in the lobby, alas; Porchlight would have made bank.)
Talk about a show ripe for an update, though. Ending the story in the 1990s doesn’t really cut it anymore and some of the focus on, say, Ronald Reagan (not exactly McCourt’s favorite Irish American) feels dated now, as, to be honest does the extended John F. Kennedy reverie. Certainly, such iconic figures still are very much part of the story but a lot has happened in Ireland and America since 1999.
Of course, both McCourt brothers are now deceased (Frank died in 2009; Malachy in 2024), so it would need a new collaborator. Somebody should step up. “We are the music makers,” the show asserts, and that’s still true with each successive generation.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “The Irish … and How They Got That Way” (3 stars)
When: Through March 15
Where: Porchlight Music Theatre at Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn St.
Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Tickets: $24-$110 at 773-777-9884 and porchlightmusictheatre.org
