Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Ravishing country music infiltrates musical theater: J.T. Harding’s MUSIC CITY and the Avett Brothers’ SWEPT AWAY

• By drediman
• November 25, 2024
• No Comments

This fall, a pair of new serious-minded musicals — one under the bright lights of the Great White Way, the other secretively tucked away Off-Broadway in the upstairs performance space of a church on the Upper West Side — beguiled me with the distinctive country-rock-bluegrass sound they’ve brought to the musical theater form. As always, you can read on below for my further thoughts.

MUSIC CITY
Bedlam
Through December 8

One of the most pleasantly surprising theater outings for me thus far this fall has to be Bedlam’s Off-Broadway production of Music City (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which is currently running at the West End Theater in the Upper West Side. The company is best known for adventurously excavating the classics (e.g., Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw), not necessarily mounting original musicals — let alone jukebox musicals — like this one. In short, the show tells the story of young musicians trying to make it big in Nashville’s competitive music scene while dealing with their own aching matters of the heart, using J.T. Harding’s terrifically varied country-rock songbook to flesh out the drama. Thanks to Peter Zinn’s emotionally astute book, these songs arise organically from the the characters’ often raw circumstances. Eric Tucker’s intimate and cozy environmental staging — which is largely set in a dive-y honky tonk bar (the production calls to mind MCC Theater’s production of The Lonely Few, which is similarly set) — feels just right. He also elicits some honest and heartfelt performances from his hardworking cast. Standouts include Stephen Michael Spencer and Casey Shuler, who are convincing as the show’s young romantic leads, as well as the multi-tasking pair of Leenya Rideout and Andrew Rothenberg, both of whom all but disappear into their multiple roles. Then there’s the matter of Hardings’ blood-pumping songs, which invariably cut to the heart of the human drama they’re fleshing out. Unlikely as it may be, Music City is a prime example of how to execute a jukebox musical.

SWEPT AWAY
Longacre Theatre
Open run

Just as unlikely is the arrival of Swept Away (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), the new Broadway musical that recently opened at the Longacre Theatre. In essence, the one-act musical tells the harrowing shipwreck story of four seamen who, in order to survive, must face gut-wrenching moral choices (no spoilers here!). Suffice to say, the subject matter is quite dark and decidedly unconventional material for commercial musical theater — but if Sweeney Todd can navigate this predicament, why can’t Swept Away? That being said, the accomplished and often ravishing country-bluegrass score by the Avett Brothers — which draws from their 2004 concept album Mignonette, which was itself inspired by the true story of the 1844 shipwreck of that name — seethes with life and vitality, even as the songs stare death and the bleak realities of life straight on. The unadorned book by John Logan transitions from the boisterous, testosterone-driven early scenes to the austerely existential later scenes with efficiency and simplicity. Each of the principals are giving courageous performances; even in the face of horrific acts, they make sure that their characters’ intrinsic humanity shines through. In particular, John Gallagher, Jr. (a Tony-winner for his performance in Spring Awakeng) as the Mate delivers a striking performance that thoroughly embraces the character’s knotted complexity. Michael Mayer’s staging is sensitive and heightened, and in my opinion among his most inspired work in years. Like Maybe Happy Ending, Swept Away represents Broadway at its most adventurous, and I pray that audiences recognize their value and flock to them. Only time will tell.