Ian Merrigan Photo

From: Photo Flash: First Look at THE UNFORTUNATES at American Conservatory Theater

American Conservatory Theater continues its 2015-16 season with The Unfortunates (February 3-April 10, 2016), a darkly comic musical that uses a unique mix of early 20th century American blues and gospel stylings fused with modern and syncopated rhythms to transport audiences to a world of memory and mythmaking. Inspired by the classic and mysterious blues song, "St. James Infirmary," made famous in the 1920s by Louis Armstrong, The Unfortunates tells the story of Big Joe, a stalwart, tough-talking soldier cursed with oversized hands, who journeys through a dream world in which he confronts a series of enemies and risks everything to save his armless love, Rae, from the plague that has decimated all but a handful of survivors. The search for salvation is marked by the characters' willingness to make music in the face of loss, and search for love in a time of desperation. Journeying from a prison camp to the underworld, The