Mary Testa in A.R.T.’s world-premiere production of “Night Side Songs”

Even in 2025, terminal illness is still a somewhat taboo subject. There have been a few attempts at a Broadway-style musical about the big C, but none have hit wild success. “Night Side Songs,” a communal music and theater experience commissioned by the American Repertory Theater and created by Richard Rodgers Award recipients Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour, takes a different approach to a near universal experience.

The intimately staged performance tells the narrative stories of doctors, patients, researchers and caregivers within the terminal illness world. But as the audience watches their stories unfold, they participate by optionally joining in during the songs. It functions like a singalong but with the intention of release and community.

“In American culture we have so few opportunities to sing together,” says Daniel Lazour in an Instagram video. “And there’s something that happens chemically when we sing together…it’s bringing about catharsis.”

The unified voices have almost a spiritual quality that Director Taibi Magar describes as a “secular mass” providing community, support and an emotional outlet without the context of religion.

The narrative vignettes for “Night Side Songs,” came from the Lazours own experience but also from many interviews with folks involved in terminal illness in one facet or another. Magar was drawn to the authenticity of the emotions in the production. Her own father passed away from cancer when she was 25.

“It was a journey to really understanding how to make a piece that satisfied our intellectual curiosity about cancer and the search for cure,” Magar said. “But also, that provided a more immediate and intimate conversation about what it is to go through the experience.”

The show began its journey at the American Repertory Theater in Harvard Square, but the Lazours and Magar felt it was important to bring the production into other Boston area communities as well. The piece was performed at the Cambridge Masonic Temple Mach 27 to April 2 and will run at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury April 9 to 20.

These spaces are physically smaller, which creates more of the intimate effect intended for the production, but it also allows other communities to experience the production. Nearly everyone has some connection to a challenging health care journey.

“As we strive to break down the fourth wall, being in a room that you don’t normally associate with theater felt like the right way to shake up how an audience can enter the piece and have a little bit more ease,” says Magar.

During the show, audiences are positioned more or less in a circle around the performers. Actors Jordan Dobson, Robi Hager, Brooke Ishibashi, Jonathan Raviv and Mary Testa create the narratives of people involved in long-term health journeys and the audience, with music in hand, sings along with them.

“Night Side Songs,” is named for a Susan Sontag quote that reads “illness is the night side of life.”

Although the subject matter is heavy, Magar says the tone is very humorous in many places. When going through something challenging, humor is an essential tool to push forward.

“It’s a piece that makes you want to call your sister and just hang on tight,” Magar said. “It really fully brings you into the present in terms of appreciating all that life has to offer, which is a real balm in this current political climate and in dayto-day life. It’s really special.”

On the web

Learn more at americanrepertorytheater.org