By Michele Markarian
“American Utopia”, by David Byrne. Choreography and Musical Staging by Annie-B Parsons. Karl Mansfield and Mauro Rerosco, Music Director. Presented by Ambassador Theatre Group, Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston Street, Boston through September 28.
As the lights go up on the stage, a barefoot David Byrne is seated at a table, wearing a light gray suit with contrasting gray shirt, and holding a replica of the human brain. In pleasant but measured tones he explains that babies’ brains have hundreds more neural connections than we do as adults. Adults, he tells us, keep only the connections that are useful to us. The ones that are left define who we are as people. From this premise springs the rest of this amazing, undefinable event of music, movement, and speech. Over the course of 100 minutes, Byrne shares with us the connections that are important to him, while sharing the stage with eleven other similarly barefoot and clad multicultural musicians, singers and dancers. To say the piece has a narrative arc would be an overstatement, but we are treated to songs from Byrne’s oeuvre, including his first album since 2004, “American Utopia” (which is Byrne’s first album to make Billboard’s top ten), and snippets of stories from Byrne’s history. It’s a combination of cerebral and primitive. In between the often sensual choreography, Byrne reflects on a number of things, including Kurt Schwitters, Hugo Ball, immigration and the need for political agency.
None of this is presented in a way that’s confrontational or angry, yet it is nonetheless effective. To illustrate Byrne’s point, for example, that only 20% of people show up to vote in local elections, a spotlight shines on 20% of the audience, giving us a visual of just how small a percentage that actually is. A former student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Byrne uses visual imagery to drive some of what he’s saying home. He mentions that we’re all immigrants, yet nothing says it more clearly than the hardworking men and women he’s sharing the stage with. I say hardworking, because they are constantly in motion, yet they appear to be relaxed, happy, and chill, emotions which are effectively transmuted to the audience. The seemingly tireless Chris Giarmo and Tendayi Kuumba, both beautiful dancers and vocalists, personify this ease of what you know must be tremendous effort. Bass player Bobby Wooten III never loses his charm, and guitarist Angie Swan personifies cool.
David Byrne has always personified cool, from Talking Heads to Tom Tom Club to solo work. “American Utopia” proves that he’s still the coolest of the cool kids. In addition to songs from the new album, Byrne treats us to favorites like “Slippery People” and “Road to Nowhere”, even inviting us to dance right before an explosive “Burning Down the House” (we did). He tells a story about his song “Everybody’s Coming to My House”, where he feels anxious about people in his house, wanting them to go home. A recent cover by the Detroit School of Arts Vocal Jazz Ensemble made him see it differently – the young people infused it with a feeling of happiness and inclusion. Maybe, he concludes, our connections that we shed get reestablished as the connections between all of us.
“He’s a true artist,” said my husband after the show, who hadn’t been all that familiar with his work and absolutely loved it.
“I kind of love him”, I said to my friend.
“I always have,” she replied wistfully. And so will you.
(“American Utopia”, by David Byrne opens on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre on October 4.)
