1/14/2024 0 Comments American utopia rush tickets![]() ![]() ![]() “We have to do better.” That’s why, he explains, he asked an organization called Headcount to set up a voter registration desk in the lobby. When Byrne and the ensemble chant the names of murder victims, some more familiar than others– Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Emmett Till – Lee has inserted their pictures, labeled with their birth and death dates we see Amadou Diallo’s mother holding up his picture and then, when the song is over, a bitter update: three photographs and dates of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, followed by a screen filled with other names.Īs a kind of an adjunct to this concern with social justice, Byrne expresses dismay that only a little more than half of those eligible to vote do so, and only 20 percent in local elections – and then directs a spotlight on 20 percent of the audience, to illustrate how much of the audience is left in the dark. There is also an unmistakable Spike Lee touch in several of the political moments of the show, especially in the Janelle Monae song “Hell You Talmbout.” Lee’s vigorous camerawork and editing - overhead shots, shots from upstage, close-ups of faces, of guitars and of bare dancing feet, occasionally shots of the audience in shadow – serves to enhance the excitement engendered by Annie-B Parson’s choreography and the moodiness of Rob Sinclair’s lighting. The show itself is a web of collaborative connections, reflecting his versatility as an artist: Based on his 2018 album of the same name, American Utopia has generated a Broadway cast album, a picture book based on the illustrations on the curtain by his long-time collaborator Maira Kalman, and now this film. His early Talking Heads hits, some of which (like “Burning Down The House”) are included in American Utopia, can be seen as struggles to make connections with other people. This idea feels like a guiding principle not just for this show but for Byrne’s career, and his life. Only now instead of being in our heads, they’re in our connections with other people.” Before the final song of the show, he’ll comment: “Maybe those millions of connections in our brains that got pruned and diminished when we were babies get reestablished. He learned recently, he tells us after that first song, that babies have far more neural connections than adults. Over the next 100 minutes, he’ll continue to riff on connections, both in the songs and in his patter in-between. He points to different spots on the brain and sings in his deadpan voice about their various functions – “Here is a region of abundant details/Here is a region that is seldom used” …until he gets to: “ Here is a connection with the opposite side.” And then he’s joined on stage by Chris Giarmo and Tendayi Kuumba, the first two of the 11-member barefoot ensemble of musicians, dancers and singers – all dressed, as he is, in a uniform of grey suit with no tie and no shoes. In the meantime, what we have is a film of an energetic live concert during a period when its main theme - a celebration of the need and the pleasures of connecting – feels both resonant and wistful.īyrne, the 68-year-old former lead singer and guitarist for the Talking Heads band, expresses that need for connection from the very first of his 20 songs in the show, “Here,” when he sits at a table in a stark light by himself (viewed first from high above) in an otherwise empty stage, and holds up an oversized plastic model of a human brain. Tickets are already on sale, which at this point feels…optimistic. Taking evident advantage of the publicity surrounding the HBO film, the producers have just announced the rescheduling of a four-month return engagement of the show on Broadway starting on Sept. Spike Lee filmed David Byrne’s American Utopia on the stage of Broadway’s Hudson Theater earlier this year it is arriving on HBO on October 17, in a completely different era. ![]()
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