James Joyce's The Dead, the 2000 Tony Award-winning musical, will extend in its first San Francisco engagement through Dec. 2 at American Conservatory Theatre's Geary Theatre. Performances were to have ended Nov. 25. Richard Nelson (Goodnight Children Everywhere, Madame Melville) directs in San Francisco as he did Off-Broadway and on Broadway.

Based on the best known short story from the collection "The Dubliners," The Dead is an inmate musical, concerned with the small lives of husband and wife Gabriel and Gretta, whose solid relationship is suddenly disturbed by her tender rememberances of a past lover at a family Christmas party. Although the young man is long buried, Gabriel finds himself unhappily contemplating life and love "as the snow falls on the living and the dead."

Nelson won a Tony Award for his book to the musical. Composer Shaun Davey and Nelson used Irish poetry, including pieces by Joyce himself, and the influence of tradiational Irish folk music to create the score.

Sean Cullen is Gabriel Conroy with Kate Kearney-Patch as his wife Gretta. Also in the cast are Alice Cannon, Patricia Kilgarriff, Paddy Croft, Paul Anthony McGrane and Shay Duffin.

For ticket information, call (415) 749-2250. American Conservatory Theatre is located at 415 Geary Street. American Conservatory Theatre is on the web at http://www.act-sfbay.org.