The Cast Photo by Anthony Robert La Penna

What, you say? You thought mistreating immigrants was a modern thing? Nope: for a country whose iconic Statue of Liberty features Emma Lazarus's immortal "The New Colossus,"–its famous words, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to live free," are quoted in the play–we have not exactly rolled out the welcome mat for most of the peoples who have come here from overseas.

The Irish were a prime example of this, and the play doesn't pull its punches about that, showing us a projected collage of "No Irish Need Apply" job ads (created by lighting and media designer G. "Max" Maxin IV) that proliferated wherever the Irish immigrants moved in. When I tell you that this play also contains an extended section about the horror that was the Potato Famine, in which the failure of that specific crop, the staple of the Irish working class–along with the fact that the English continued to take everything else–killed a full quarter of the island's population, you might think that this is indeed a history lesson, and a dark and ugly one at that. You'd be wrong.

The Irish is a celebration, not a dirge, though the Irish do traditionally blend the two a lot: there is a scene here satirizing Irish wakes and many examples of folk songs derived from some sad event or another. Sung and danced by a very talented quartet of actors (Michael Mahler, Leah Morrow, Emily Goldberg, and Luke Nowakowski) backed by Elleon Dobias on violin and music director David Fiorello–who also sings a lovely and plaintive "Danny Boy"on piano, the music here is a mixture of the vibrant and convivial with the melancholy and doleful: in other words, Irish music. For every fun and silly "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder," there's a heartrending "The Fields of Athenry," about a young man forced to leave the country and his sweetheart on a prison ship.

Of course, there was also the great Irish showman George M. Cohan, who gets a well-deserved four-song salute here with his celebratory and often patriotic pieces like "Give My Regards to Broadway" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy." And the penultimate moment in the play is a tribute to all of the (many) U.S. Presidents of Irish descent, especially John F. Kennedy. The 19th century anti-war song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" is used here with another visual collage (this time images of JFK and his family) as a memorial. U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" closes the show, a "song that celebrates wanting," as Bono once described it, its lyrics of continued searching even though the singer has not yet found his aim highlighting the Irish tenacity, faith, and hopefulness that is as much a part of their national character as the drinking and fighting that the show also does nothing to downplay.

Girolmo had plenty of excellent help here. Tianxuan Chen's sparse set, backdropped by sails that indicate the immigrants' journey and act as a screen for projections, allows for multiple varied performance levels as well as an open central space for dancing. Maxin's lighting perfectly complements every scene, and Matthew R. Chase's sound design is crisp and clear. The costumes, too, are excellent: Alexis J. Roston clearly had some fun with them.

With the outrages of Minneapolis still going on, it's good to spend an entertaining evening reflecting on the fact that this country was founded by immigrants as well as those who were already established here, and the vast majority of us trace our lineages back to those intrepid men and women who, not knowing what awaited them on the other side, left their native shores and sailed to America. McCourt's show is about one of these groups, but it's also a reflection of all of them.

The Irish... and How They Got That Way runs through March 15, 2026, at Porchlight Music Theatre, The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N Dearborn, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit porchlightmusictheatre.org