PUBLIC REVIEW

Society: New Ross Musical Society

Production: Ghost: The Musical

Credits: Dave Stewart, Glen Ballard & Bruce Joel Rubin

Venue: St. Michael’s Theatre, New Ross

Adjudicator: Tony McCleane-Fay

Date Attended: 6 March 2020

Celestial Intervention

New Ross Musical Society staged the challenging Ghost: The Musical at St.
Michael’s Theatre, New Ross in early March this year. Directed by Derek Shannon
with musical direction by Philip Kennedy and choreography by Anne-Marie Cooney,
this spooky tale of grief and loss worked on a number of levels; touching, humorous,
scary and astral. A very fine cast gave excellent performances and really emotionally
connected with the material.

On entering the foyer, ushers were handing out tissues and not because we were in
the middle of the Covid-19 epidemic, but to mop the expected tears as they
proclaimed the piece to be a tear-jerker. Many partook of the tissues, some hard-
hearted punters stoically refused. I took some, just in case. I mean I’m used to
writing my observations in the dark, but I didn’t want to risk a soggy page of
incomprehensible notes.

The plot of Ghost is lifted straight from Jerry Zucker’s 1990 film, which starred
Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. Sam and Molly move into a cool
New York apartment and go out to celebrate, sadly they are attacked and Sam dies.
However, he does not go straight to meet his maker but lingers on Earth as a spirit.
Nobody can see him or hear him except other ‘ghosts’, who give him advice. A fake
psychic medium, Oda Mae, can hear him, much to her surprise and he convinces
her that Molly is in danger from the man who attacked them. So begins his quest to
save Molly from the attacker and the man who employed him.

The licence to produce this show includes projection files, so that it will look similar to
the original show, but director Derek Shannon decided to not use them and to try,
with set designer Ray Shannon, to create the spectral special effects live in real time.
I applaud this decision as it really made this production quite magical and unique,
and not a direct visual copy of the original. Ray Shannon’s set design was quite
imposing; a series of vertical stanchions with louver dressing and huge cross-pieces
bisecting the playing area. Upstage was mostly in darkness throughout the show
allowing performers to almost materialise on stage. A cross-section of a subway train
was used for the important station scenes and Molly’s apartment was set and struck
by stage hands dressed as removal men in brown coats. A small bedroom was built
on the stage right apron with a ramp leading into the ‘apartment’. Oda Mae’s
consulting room was cleverly created by affixing a heavy drape across the up-stage
centre exit. This was a very cleverly designed set, which made good use of the stage
depth. However, the real surprise was when Sam apparently walked through the
solid door, parts of him disappearing as he pushed through. This got gasps and a
round of applause from the audience.

As Sam, Cormac Malone gave us a warm, likeable character with commitment

issues. Refusing to say the three little words Molly longed to hear, he nonetheless
portrayed the character’s protective nature, in life and as a spirit, with a strong
assurance. Mr Malone played his spirit’s anguish and helplessness with palpable
emotional intensity and channelled this poignancy into his singing. The ubiquitous
“Unchained Melody” was sung by Sam a number of times, most effectively when he
lampooned it on acoustic guitar. “Here Right Now”, the opening number was nicely
sung by Sam and Molly with Carl and “Three Little Words” was excellent. Molly was
played by Ashley Doran in a highly emotional performance. She portrayed Molly’s
journey from a happy young woman in love with life and her art to a grieving,
frightened nervous wreck with a fine proficiency. Her singing was also very emotive,
particularly on “With You”, where the free tissues certainly came in handy as she
brought the house down in a beautiful rendition of this, the song of the show. Sam’s
colleague Carl was played by Cian O’Dowd in another super performance. He
played Carl’s guilt and desperation with a high tension and his fear of Sam’s spirit
was tangible. He sang with passion on “More” and really personified the high
achieving businessman with an obvious drug problem.

After Sam was fatally injured, he travelled to the hospital, where we saw the mortal
remains of Sam on a gurney. He met a ghost in the hospital, played by Declan
Taylor who told him that he was indeed dead. Mr Taylor sang “You Gotta Let Go”,
with the ensemble as grey-clad spirits, a song imploring Sam to pass on. Mr Taylor
really looked the part in his three-piece suit, hat and cane, like a New Orleans
gentleman. He had a fine voice and performed with a lovely refined dignity and I felt I
wanted to know his backstory. Sam spotted his assailant, Willie, and followed him to
his apartment. Played by Nicholas Flynn as a Latino character, Willie was hired by
Carl to assault Sam and get his computer passcodes not to kill him. Not having the
codes Willie planned to visit Molly to get them from the apartment. Mr Flynn played
him with a menace but also as a weak-willed small-time crook. Frustrated with being
unable to interject or interact with Molly to save her from Willie, Sam called upon a
psychic medium called Oda Mae to help him

Joanne McCabe’s comedic portrayal of Oda Mae was fantastic. Bearing in mind
Whoopi Goldberg’s iconic performance in the film, Ms McCabe did well to fill her
shoes and her performances of “Are You a Believer?” and “I’m Outta Here” were the
real showstoppers of the production. Attended on by her ‘minders’, Louise and Clara;
hilariously played by Kerrie Campbell and Bronagh Hogan respectively, and Ortisha
played by Carmel Rowe, Ms McCabe embraced the African American idioms of the
character’s speech and her timing was razor sharp. When she realised that she
could actually commune with the dead, her reactions were comic gold. A stand-out
performance from Ms McCabe. A special mention must go to the client Oda Mae
was fleecing, Mrs Santiago as played by Niamh Bolger. Ms Bolger’s characterisation
was full of nervous tics and broken-English, barely holding it together as she tried to
commune with the dead through Oda Mae. At the end of “Are You a Believer?”, she
released this amazing voice that soared around the theatre! Sam also met a
Subway Ghost and convinced his to teach him how to move corporal objects. This
ghost was played by Seán O’Brien in a physically powerful performance, quite scary
and clearly deranged. His song “Focus” was brilliantly performed, full of anger and
bitterness. Edward Hayden played the soft-spoken minister at Sam’s funeral in a
nicely judged performance.

This was a strangely uplifting production, give the subject matter. It celebrated
everlasting love and, in a sense was a morality tale of good vs evil. When the bad
characters died, they were taken down into the orchestra pit (standing in for Hell, I
assume) by black clad demon dancers, whereas Sam eventually walked into bright
light. The musical direction by Philip Kennedy was exquisite, lovely interpretations of
the score. The band of nine were superb, particularly Kevin Kennedy’s piano and
Tomás Kavanagh’s trumpet and the reeds and strings were gorgeous. Mr Kennedy’s
chorus work was also quite good, particularly on “Are You a Believer?”, “I’m Outta
Here”, “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Miracle” and “More”. Anne-Marie Cooney’s choreography was
very suitable for the production, the scary demons were very reptilian and the bigger
numbers: “Are You a Believer?”, “I’m Outta Here” and “More” were well-drilled and
fun. Stage manager, Mark Heyden and his crew kept everything moving along nicely.
Lighting by Anthony Quinn was excellent and sound by Abe Scheele, whilst a little
underpowered and slightly off-balanced at times, was quite good.

Director Derek Shannon created a fairly unique version of Ghost. His flair for comedy
was very evident in Oda Mae’s scenes but he also had a fine touch with Sam and
Molly’s relationship. The pace was quite slow because of the many transitions, but it
certainly picked up at the end. The special effects and set design were seamlessly
integrated into what was a magical night at the theatre.

Tony McCleane-Fay
February 2020.