03/20/2022
This Friday we had another TheoryWorks Community Night, this time seeing THE LIFE with the lovely , and none other than TheoryWorks grad ✨SHINING✨ onstage.
I have read some takedowns of this show, and folks: they’re not it.
Bless , ‘linguist’ at , and his piece “Yes, Some Musicals Are Unwoke. That’s Not a Writ to Rewrite Them,” which is exactly as tone deaf as it sounds — literally, as it turns out, since his piece ran on February 15th, a full two weeks before THE LIFE even **started rehearsals**
In it he begs to stage it “according to the script that Broadway audiences saw 25 years ago,” directly after offering a separate example in which he opines “why not just revise the script a bit, if needed?”
So, that piece is an incoherent mess.
There’s also an equally garbage review on Facebook that’s deleting all dissenting comments (mine included).
So in the absence of any take that could see past its own stodgy indignation long enough to actually review it, some thoughts:
✨It’s a tragedy that Ledisi isn’t eligible for a TONY
✨I’d never seen act in a fully staged production before, and that’s a thing I want to see more of. (Tho I did sit in the booth while he recorded his solo portions for , which will nourish my soul forever. Hi, buddy. ♥️✋)
✨The ENSEMBLE and their REVOLUTIONARY VERVE all but grabbed audience members by the lapels and forced them to pay the f**k attention.
✨ And stunned as a Gabrielle Union-esque divine goddess that floated above it all.
Sometimes the musical transitions were sloppy. I questioned a white arranger on this piece, and still do — in Easy Money the singer and the band sounded like they were in two different shows.
So it was uneven. But, that’s what happens when you TRY SOMETHING NEW.
I left WALKING ON AIR for the first time since .
We need more pieces that talk to us, even AT us, to shake us awake and make us feel alive.
I will always prefer that to the homogenized perfection that passes these days as a Broadway experience.
Bravi, cast.
And thank you.