Now, those same drawings are the illustrations in what is largely a picture book, similar to the children’s picture book on which Byrne and Kalman collaborated back in 1987, Stay up Late, which is about friends and family entertaining a new baby on his first night at home. The curtain, which spanned the full length and height of the stage while the house was filling with the audience, then rose as the performance began. The show featured Byrne and 11 other musicians performing songs from Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name, along with previous songs, including those from his days as singer, guitarist and songwriter for Talking Heads. “You can help me sing the song.” But would they really help? And that song? It’s Road to Nowhere.The curtain of “American Utopia” the musicalĭavid Byrne commissioned illustrator Maira Kalman to create these drawings for the curtain at Broadway’s Hudson Theater, for the four-month run, ending this past February, of “David Byrne’s American Utopia” the musical. But can that place find purchase in the larger world? Maybe not in this lifetime.īyrne quotes James Baldwin: “I still believe we can do with this country something that has not been done before.” And in the jubilant encore song, Byrne sings, as the musicians march around the stage, about the city in his mind. Onstage it incarnates a very good place, welcoming, communal, in harmony. American Utopia somehow embraces both etymologies. The word utopia can mean “good place” or it can mean “no place”. But during the next song, a cover of Janelle Monae’s protest anthem Hell You Talmabout, a call-and-response was initiated, with spectators asked to repeat the names of black Americans killed by the police or in acts of racial violence – Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Atatiana Jefferson. At a preview, when the musicians began noodling the Burning Down the House intro, nearly every foot was leapt to. With his gentlemanly remove, it’s not always clear what Byrne wants from the audience (attention, common cause) or what the audience wants from him, besides the hits.Ī little more than halfway through the evening, Byrne reminds everyone that they have permission to dance as long as the aisles remain clear. Connection doesn’t come naturally to Byrne, who has discussed his autism. There’s no arc to the show, no narrative, though any of the monologues center on the idea of connection. The monologues explore Byrne’s slight alienation from these things – “Me, I just observe and pay attention and watch,” he says – moving gradually into more political concerns. The songs are fascinated by the furniture of adult life – a job, a girlfriend, a house, a car – while standing slightly apart from it. The lighting, by Rob Sinclair, moves from white to red to blue. He and the band perform Annie-B Parson’s angular, energetic choreography, some of it adapted from Byrne’s concert moves. His presence has become more avuncular, less alien, like the ringmaster of an extremely well-behaved circus. There is no director but Alex Timbers, who collaborated with Byrne on the thrilling Here Lies Love and the mortifying Joan of Arc: Into the Fire, is listed as a production consultant.īyrne’s voice has never been particularly flexible, but it remains forceful. Sometimes Byrne speaks between songs, sometimes he doesn’t, sometimes he takes up a guitar, sometimes he simply sings. Mounds of metal rise and become a shimmering curtain while the lyrics explore neural connection: “Here is an area of great confusion/ Here is a section that’s extremely precise/ And here is an area that needs attention/ Here is a connection with the opposite side.” The noise is very joyful. As he sings Here, the final track on his recent solo album, also called American Utopia, a back-up singer (Chris Giarmo) enters, then another (Tendayi Kuumba), a bassist (Bobby Wooten III, a pocket sun) follows, a guitarist (Angie Swan, sharkskin cool), percussionists and soon the stage is thronged with bodies, all in gray suits, all barefoot. When it disappears, the stage is bare except for Byrne, seated at a table and holding a brain. The show curtain is designed by Maira Kalman.
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