David West Read (writer) and Luke Sheppard (director) are the team behind the multi-award-winning 2019 musical & Juliet (a jukebox musical riff on Shakespeare’s tragedy of young love). For In Dreams, their latest collaboration, they have created a new story about love and death, shaped by the songs of Roy Orbison (including numbers he wrote with the band the Traveling Wilburys), and performed to terrific live offstage accompaniment under musical supervision from Catherine Jayes and direction from Patrick Hurley.
The crafting is neatly worked, in ways funny, touching and schmaltzy. Songs are delivered as if dialogue, moving the action forward; as monologues, revealing characters’ inner thoughts; are sung to one another by characters, as a way of exploring their relationships; or are delivered in performance by the actor-musicians.
