Freedom Riders: The Civil Rights Musical
I was born in 1961, the year civil rights activists called Freedom Riders rode interstate buses to the southern United States in order to challenge the non-enforcement of a Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional. The southern states ignored the ruling and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The Freedom Rides put a national spotlight on this issue. This was violent, risky stuff. In Birmingham, Alabama, for example, police cooperated with the Ku Klux Klan and allowed mobs to attack the riders. In Montgomery, ambulances refused to take the injured to hospitals. Riders were jailed and, when some of them would not stop singing freedom songs while incarcerated, prison officials took away their mattresses, sheets and toothbrushes. How big was this movement? President Kennedy, his brother Robert, then Attorney General, and Martin Luther King, Jr. are all figures in this history. Rich material for a struggle that is unfortunately not over.
So why did I not completely embrace this show? Three reasons: the book, the lyrics and the presentation style. There are 26 scenes in a two hour musical. In order to move this story along, there is a surface level component at work, with so many characters drawn in two dimensional sketches, at best. Like another NYMF entry about oppression, A Wall Apart, lyrics are repeated over and over again, but even more so in Freedom Riders. There are some fine songs throughout although not necessarily grounded in this particular history. Relentless anthems continually sung directly at the audience gives the entire piece a civics lesson feel. Furthermore, the cast (including the ensemble)performs far too often as if it were auditioning for The Voice. One can admire the talent but I felt disconnected to the people and the deep, troubling story being brought to life.
Georama: An American Panorama Told On Three Miles of Canvas
Opening with the song, “Nobody Knows,” Georama tells the now obscure story of John Banvard, a 19th century painter known for his giant panoramas of the Mississippi River. He sketched the river while on a boat, eventually painting a canvas that grew to twelve feet high and one half mile long, although it was advertised as a “three mile canvas.” In 1848, the magazine Scientific America published a piece under “New Inventions” describing and illustrating Banvard’s mechanism for displaying a moving panorama. Georama uses its own screen projected panorama as the backdrop for this story, moving us from the river to larger towns and cities.
As luck would have it, Georama was my last musical from this festival and clearly one of my favorites. What’s to love? 24 songs in 90 minutes which add layers to the strong book and help develop its characters, performed by two musicians who only play piano, cello, violin and guitar. The music feels authentic to the period and yet contains a fine example where inserting a whimsical musical comedy number out of nowhere completely works. The four person cast, led by P.J. Griffith and Jillian Louis, is simply excellent. One of Georama’s big themes revolves around art and the truth, or whether the line between truth and lies has become increasingly blurred, reflected in “Art is a Lie.” This musical is even timely. What’s not to love?
Theater Reviews From My Seat – BEST of FEST
At the closing celebration, awards will be presented to the best of the festival. Now that I’ve started this blog, I am looking forward to how the reviews from my seat will stack up against the panel of judges. Should be fun. My full production favorites are listed below. For the record, I did not see Errol and Fidel, My Dear Watson or The Time Machine. Let’s hope they have a future life so I will have the opportunity to check them out.
My votes for Best of Fest, in alphabetical order:
Backbeard
Georama: An American Panorama Told On Three Miles of Canvas
Matthew McConaughey vs the Devil
The Goree All Girl String Band
The breath of material in this year’s NYMF was outstanding. 1961 Berlin Wall. 1940s Las Vegas. 1961 the segregated southern U.S. 1800s Mississippi River. 1969 New Orleans. 897 Rome. 1940s Texas women’s prison. 16th century Puerto Rico. 1961 B-movie. Contemporary offerings including mommies, kids and the answer to the question on everyone’s mind: how did Matthew McConaughey win an Oscar? And very hairy, very smelly pirates. All at $27.50 per show. Alright, alright, alright.