‘THE DEAD BOY’

Written by Joe Pintauro
Directed by Jack Heller

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CAST

Stephen Nichols as Father Sheridan
Derek Sitter as Will Draper
Cyril O’Reilly as Tony McGuire
Travis Michael Holder as The Cardinal
Lorry Goldman as Father Rosetti

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~Stephen Nichols, who has starred on General Hospital as Stefan Cassadine since 1996, plays Father Sheridan in The Dead Boy. I asked how he managed to work on General Hospital and rehearse at the same time. “Of course, when we started to rehearse the play, I was suddenly working four to five days a week on the show. And even though the work on the show lately has been thin, shall we say, even with that, this play and these rehearsals, and this whole process enriched my work on the show. I felt like an actor again. I think it’s of the utmost importance to do theatre in order to stay connected to who you are as an actor.” – Excerpt from LA STAGE – Theatre Spotlight, October 2001, by Karen Kondazian

~The subtle strength of the fine cast is exemplified by the way in which each actor holds the stage. The pyrotechnical dual role of the hustler Draper and The Young Priest, given its full due here by Derek Sitter, could easily overshadow the cast but that doesn’t happen here. Nichols anchors the play with the sensitive realism of his conflicted Sheridan. O’Reilly makes a piercing zealot of the journalist. Travis Michael Holder’s magisterial Cardinal has strength, warmth and a distinctive speech pattern. Lorry Goldman brings gentle humor to Father Rosetti, a supportive character in several senses of the word. It’s unusual to find a play with five such strong roles and to find actors who inhabit them so well. – Excerpt by Lauren Hitchcock of ‘A Curtain Up – LA Review’ http://www.curtainup.com/deadboy.html

~The performances ring with honesty and understanding. As the tragic and eventually beaten Father Sheridan, Stephen Nichols toboggans easily between the loving priest who has helped many youngsters rise out of ghetto shame and adolescent despair, and a man with a sad secret he was foolish enough to share with the wrong person. – Excerpt from Backstage.com as reviewed by T.H. McCulloh

~What works are the performances of this excellent five-member ensemble. Both Nichols and O’Reilly exude the personas of idealistic, worthy men who have allowed their emotional wounds to hinder their ability to deal with their current lives. – Excerpt from LA Daily News: Fine ensemble elevates cluttered church drama – by Julio Martinez, August 17, 2001

Few institutions are as stately and imposing as the Catholic Church, and when there is the slightest ruffle of impropriety, the reverberations are worse than a dinosaur sneezing on an ant hill. Based on one of these afflictions, The Dead Boy recounts a true tale of a young hustler who accused a priest of having sexual relations with him while he was at the Covenant House, a home for wayward youths.

Father Sheridan, played by TV soap star Stephen Nichols, is a dynamic, charismatic benefactor who believes in his cause and has raised millions for the organization. He vehemently denies the allegations and insists that his accusers should consider the source, a deranged, habitual, liar and petty lawbreaker.

The Cardinal’s assistant and Sheridan’s close friend, Father Angelo Rosetti, remarkably played by Lorri Goldman, is supportive and sympathetic, offering Sheridan unequivocal moral support. The Cardinal is an imposing force, powerfully played by Travis Michael Holder, and in spite of his pompous and pontifical bearing, wants to believe the priest and help him overcome his travail. Tony McGuire, a former seminarian turned journalist, has been approached by the youth with the story, and is uncertain about its veracity or accuracy. He was a close friend with Sheridan at the seminary, and hopes to use the former bond to authenticate the facts. Cyril O’Reilly does an excellent job as the journalist.

The youth, Will Draper, changes stories when convenient, discovering that each time he tells a good tale, people give him money. He tells about a history of abuse and homosexuality, calling himself a dead boy, and makes the most of his borderline psychosis to claw out a daily existence wherever he can. Derek Sitter was remarkable, filling every scene with bristling tension. He also doubled as a young Father Sheridan surfacing as an apparition to remind the priest of how his dreams have strayed.

As the story develops, the characters evolve from preaching forgiveness to seeking self preservation. Ultimately, Rosetti is fed up with the Cardinal, and leaves the church. The youth reaffirms his story for the journalist, and Father Sheridan is treacherously betrayed by McGuire whose promise of silence and forgiveness becomes a hollow lie. The Cardinal who had desperately wanted to exonerate his priest is shattered when he learns that the journalist betrayed a long friendship, but in true secularist concern, worries about the millions the suit will cost. One gets the feeling that the dead boy was not the wronged youth, but the priest who fell from grace in what he called a moment of weakness.

The Dead Boy is a serious thought provoking piece, with imaginative staging and creative direction. The many clever touches add ambiance, like the Gregorian chant background and the paraphrasing of the liturgy at the end, where Father Rosetti announces the play has ended. – Edited from ReviewPlays.com