Review: American Repertory Theater's NIGHT SIDE SONGS Shows Power of Community and Music

Serious illness is a part of each of our lives. It cannot be avoided. As writer Susan Sontag once put it, “Illness is the night-side of life.”

Anyone who has been around a family member, friend, or loved one during a long illness, and gathered around that person’s hospital or hospice bedside at darker moments, where one day fades into another somehow unseen, knows what Sontag was describing.

A new musical theater piece, “Night Side Songs,” written by Worcester natives and brothers Daniel and Patrick Lazour (“We Live in Cairo”), frames stories of illness, survival, love, and loss in a moving production commissioned and developed by the American Repertory Theater and produced in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company, being presented by the A.R.T. in a run that began at the Cambridge Masonic Temple and now continues at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury, through April 20.

Under the sensitive and knowing direction of Taibi Magar (“We Live in Cairo”), with a cast of Broadway performers that includes Jordan Hobson (“Hadestown,” “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical”), Robi Hagar (“Spring Awakening,” “Bye Bye Birdie”), Brooke Ishibashi (“Into the Woods”), Jonathan Raviv (“The Band’s Visit”), and Mary Testa (“Oklahoma!” “Wicked”), all in their A.R.T. debuts, the story’s central character is Yasmine (a very relatable Ishibashi), a cancer-stricken young woman undergoing chemotherapy.

When Yasmine’s cancer goes into remission, her life goes on as she deals with rapidly mounting medical bills, her caring but overbearing mother Desiree (Testa), shares love and marriage with Frank (a believable Raviv), and renews a longtime friendship with her first crush and now oncologist Dr. Henry Verlaine (a versatile Hager), demonstrating that the importance of finding meaning in life can continue even when physical pain becomes omnipresent.

The Lazours’ original words and music – plus a snippet of the 1980s Cyndi Lauper song “Time after Time,” sung wonderfully by Testa – weave through the 100-minute single act, which invites, but does not require, the audience to sing along, even providing song sheets. With the venue bathed in full light, however, it is clear that the audience participation is meant to add to the significance of the communal experience, and remind us of the power of music. Enhancing the performer and audience vocals are the music arrangements and first-rate piano work by Alex Bechtel.

Delving into the centuries-long history of cancer, the story flashes back 1,000 years to merry old England, where Prudence, a 12th century publican, is living a life of abandon until she finds a lump, and is made to pay the price of the time for her “sinful” ways. This echoes the first reactions to HIV and AIDS as a “gay disease.” There is also a compelling 1962-set vignette which has Dr. Emil Freireich, a chemotherapy pioneer, heatedly debating a disbelieving colleague about the very real merits of administering poison to treat cancer.

 With the audience seated closely and all around, however, the piece’s most stirring moments involve Yasmine, her family, and the medical professionals treating her. They portray experiences that will affect every one of us in some way in our lives. So whether you choose to raise your voice in song, or simply sit quietly, the meaningful “Night Side Songs” will likely stay with you long after the performance draws to a close. Indeed, on opening night, it was not surprising that more than a few departing theatergoers availed themselves of the tissues offered at the exits.

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