Wowsers! What a theatre weekend I had, installment #3: I wrapped up this trifecta of entertainment on Saturday at The Black Box Theatre’s uplifting production of Songs for a New World with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and co-directed by Shelley Cooper and Kelsey Walljasper.
Cast members include some of the most talented performers the Quad Cities has to offer: Evan Gagliardo, Katie Griswold, Noah Hill, Noel Jean Huntley, Kaden Micklos, Jordyn Mitchell, Kira Rangel, and Keenen Wilson.
This production is not a conventional musical where there is a central plot with songs reflecting the progression of a story. Instead, it is a collection of songs each of which is a story unto itself yet pointing in the same direction – navigating through life.
Universal themes of adventure, hope, love, loss, discovery, and determination are expressed in such songs as “On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship,” “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” and “She Cries” which resonate deeply on the human condition.
What impressed me the most is how these performers (air quotes here) “sold” each song as an entire story unto itself. Stand out numbers to me – and I emphasize “to me” because everyone will relate to these numbers according to their own life experience – were Huntley’s touching rendition of “Christmas Lullaby” and Gagliardo’s “King of the World” and Mitchell’s breathtaking “The Flagmaker, 1776.” The one and only downside was that in Huntley’s most intimate reflective phrases her volume dropped and the music from the live band drowned out her lyrics.
The BBT’s staging of this show is appropriately minimal with simply a platform wisely recycled from it’s last production and white fabric draped above which allowed the mood to be set for each number with lighting designed by Mike Turczynski.
Your soul will soar when you attend this show so don’t miss this lyrical, inspiring journey to the new world.
Songs for a New World continues at The Black Box Theatre, 1623 5th Avenue in Moline, Thursday and Friday, July 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m.
I’m Chris Hicks…break a leg.