1/23/2024 0 Comments American utopia on broadwayThe choreography and musical staging are by Annie-B Parson. Perhaps they "somehow get kind of reestablished, only now instead of being in our heads," he says, "they're between us and other people."īyrne's essential onstage connections are 11 other ace performers who handle vocals, drums, strings, keyboard and movement so polished, tight and precise it could make a marching band or a rhythmic gymnastics squad each swoon. Where do those connections go? He eventually reveals his theory, if not his hope. Early on Byrne strikes a Hamlet-y pose, holding a prop brain and pondering why babies "have hundreds of millions more neural connections than we do as adults." Grey matter figures into the show's loose narrative, too. Countless grey-silver dangling chains create walls on three sides of the stage. The stage is naked, just like the feet of the shoeless cast uniformly dressed in grey suits. The fact that the show is visually thrilling is all the more remarkable considering its stripped-back, monochromatic production design. You can feel the insistent throbbing drumbeats in a way that only emanates from a live performance. Of course, you expect a concert staging to be an earful. The soundscape is gorgeous, lyrics landing with bell-like clarity - even "I Zimbra"'s "bim blassa galassasa zimbrabim," drawn from a nonsense poem. Listen up for "Every Day Is a Miracle," "Slippery People," "Once in a Lifetime," and "Burning Down the House." A rendition of Janelle Monae's protest song "Hell You Talmbout," along with brief allusions to local elections, lends a bit of political heft. Unspooling over 100 unbroken minutes the set list covers new and old songs and fan favorites and lesser-known music from Byrne's career. "We don't have any cable or wires attached to us in these shows, attaching to gear or equipment or any of those kinds of things," Byrne says. Unrestricted movement, or the opposite of lockdown, underpins this theatrical experience. After all, masked theatergoers leaving home still grapple with an ongoing global health crisis that plunged them into lockdown. The bit got giggles before, and still sparks laughs, but for different reasons. Thank you for leaving your homes," he says. Byrne acknowledges that the script, though the same as before, may land a bit differently now than in the pre-pandemic "old world." Case in point: his exuberant welcome to the audience in the opening moments. American Utopia, based on the former Talking Head frontman's 2018 album and tour of the same name, remains essentially unchanged.īut, as it's said, it's all in the timing. Two years down the road, the world has changed in dramatic ways. There's also a filmed live-capture performance directed by Spike Lee, who was in the audience (doing research, perhaps?) when I sat rapt at the production for the first time in October 2019. The show returns with triumphant signs of its success, including a shiny special Tony Award for its four-month sold-out run that wrapped in February 2020. This show is Byrne’s second appearance on Broadway.Pricking up your ears - and your peepers - in a state of streaming delight goes with the territory at American Utopia, David Byrne's dazzling concert production back on Broadway for an encore joy jolt. Talking Heads is also named on Rolling Stone’s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". David Byrne and the Talking Headsĭavid Byrne, is a Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe winner, and is best known for being the lead singer of Talking Heads and Byrne headlines this theatrical Broadway experience once again.īyrne led the famous “new-wave” American Rock n’ Roll band Talking Heads from 1975 to 1991, where he helped create the four albums which appear on Rolling Stone’s list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. The Ambassador Theatre Group appears to have a different approach to shows than other Broadway landlords EG The Shubert Organization. This business move was somewhat unprecedented on the Great White Way, where they are more often focused on what's next. The show ultimately moved to the St James Theatre, due to contractual obligations, but the positive press if the show endeared it the new landlord at the Jujamcyn owned St. When the theatre’s landlord, the Ambassador Theatre Group, realized how impactful the show really was to Byrne’s fans and how successful the show and box office could be in the future, they asked Byrne and the rest of his team to come back to perform it again in 2021. The first production of American Utopia in 2019 became the #1 grossing show for the Hudson Theatre by a huge margin. That show beat all the Broadway analyst’s ticket sales expectations by over 40%. The 2021 production is the second time around for the show that originally came to Broadway in mid-2019. American Utopia is “Rock and Roll Hall of Famer” David Byrne’s 2018 album and show of the same name.
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