Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s final production of the 2024-25 season (May 23-June 15) is a world premiere musical, Mrs. Dalloway, based on the novel of the same name by Virginia Woolf. The story has inspired film and book adaptations, including the 1998 novel The Hours by Michael Cunningham, also adapted into a film.
“There is a misconception that this is a really sad book because of Woolf’s unfortunate fate [death by suicide]; it’s not,” said Lindsey Augusta Mercer, writer of the script, music and lyrics of the new musical, in an interview with CityBeat. “It’s a celebration of the beauty of life. There is a lot of comedy in it as well as joy and irreverence. The book is about how the tiny moments of a single day are a lifetime of emotions.”
Creating a new musical is a massive undertaking, and Mercer’s journey with Mrs. Dalloway began in 2020 as part of Cincy Shakes’ New Play Development program to commission, develop and produce new works that provide a contemporary interpretation of classical material.
“They wanted to commission a musical, initially to adapt a Shakespeare play,” said Mercer. “I spent some time with the material and could see it as a musical, but not why I should write it or what my point of view was. I was encouraged to look at anything from the classical canon. I wanted to tell a queer story and for the music to be absolutely essential, not fluff songs or a jukebox musical. My mind immediately went to Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway was one of hers I hadn’t read. I picked it up and knew immediately this was the one.”
Mercer is a multi-hyphenate actor, musician, singer and director, but creating a musical offered a new challenge. “This called on every experience I’ve had in the theater,” said Mercer. “I wrote a 10-minute play in college and have written some music for stage productions, and my own music as a singer-songwriter. I’ve been able to play in orchestra pits, so I know what the drummer needs their chart to look like. I know what would be exciting for me as an actor, so I could give them that challenge.”
With the 100th anniversary of the publication of Mrs. Dalloway approaching in May 2025, Mercer set to work. Cincy Shakes hosted two workshops to develop the production, providing critical feedback from actors and audiences as Mercer worked on the script and score. A mainstage production of the musical was scheduled with Sara Clark on board to direct.
“Overwhelmingly, the plot of the musical is loyal to the book,” said Mercer. “It leans into the themes of Sally and Clarissa’s love story as a central point of action. The novel demands so much focus because of how stylized it is. Music is a universal language and instant inlet to the tidal wave of the story.”
The experimental novel takes place over a single day with dialogue interspersed with a stream-of-consciousness narrative that jumps between characters. “That distinction becomes pretty obvious if you think of music as the expression of inner life and dialogue as the outward expression of us,” said Mercer. “At first, I thought it would be an operetta entirely sung through. But it was essential to see what they were saying versus what was unexpressed in their interactions and dialogue.”
Cincy Shakes describes the musical as having a “neo-golden age score.” “I made that up; it’s not a category that exists,” said Mercer. “The golden age musicals of the 1940s — Rodgers and Hammerstein, Oklahoma!, Carousel — was a massive shift in the art form, where, suddenly, the music and songs were plot-driven. It used to be that the musical numbers were for show value, song and dance or reprieve. For Rodgers and Hammerstein, everything is a storytelling mechanism — the set and score as much as the dialogue. They created the classic formula of the musical: big orchestras, big ensembles, sweeping scores, a central love plot and an aspect of the world we’re living in. That’s what I’m trying to create with this show. It has a modern sensibility and that level of gravitas and romance. At its core, it’s a sweeping romantic musical theater score, but there’s jazz, indie-rock and pop, depending on the emotional needs of the moment.”
Bringing Mrs. Dalloway to life are an orchestra of nine and a cast of 16, including New York-based actors Christiana Cole (Clarissa Dalloway), Bex Odorisio (Sally Seton) and Byron St. Cyr (Richard Dalloway), as well as actors familiar to Cincinnati audiences, including Kelly Mengelkoch and Patrick Earl Phillips.
Although the story is a century old, the themes resonate today in surprising ways. “One of the biggest things that connected me reading this in 2020 is that this book takes place right after the Spanish flu,” said Mercer. “It’s not just World War I they’re recovering from, but also a global pandemic. It’s really about a world that just underwent a major collective trauma and how they’re struggling to live with it and move on, people needing connection and to be out in the world. A human story.”
The musical doesn’t require familiarity with the original novel. “There will be Easter eggs and nuance for people who know and love the material, but it doesn’t demand you know anything before you come in,” said Mercer. For those who want to explore the source material before seeing the show, Cincy Shakes and The Mercantile Library are partnering on Mrs. Dalloway Day, reading the entirety of the novel aloud at the library on June 11. The Mercantile’s In-Pieces book club is also discussing the novel over two sessions on June 5 and 12.
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will stage Mrs. Dalloway from May 23-June 15. More info: cincyshakes.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s May 28 print edition.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 10, 2025.