US shows are resonating very differently after Trump’s election win

Having cast my vote for Kamala Harris, the dismay I felt in the wake of the election no doubt cast a shadow over the rest of my theatregoing last week. I imagine the same was felt by many others in New York, even if the city had leaned not quite as Democratic as usual in its choices.

Attending the Encores! concert staging of the musical Ragtime at New York City Center the previous Saturday afternoon, it was impossible not to draw parallels to the times we are now living in. The show is not a political piece with a capital p, as actual politicians are only briefly seen, but its intertwined fictional stories – of a prosperous white family in New Rochelle, the relationship between a talented Black musician and a woman who struggle against prevailing racism, and a Jewish father and daughter rising up from poverty – remain pertinent to conversations about what this country could be, since it remains inevitably imperfect. Perhaps we can watch Ragtime thinking about how far we’ve progressed in just over a century, but it’s also a reminder of how far we still have to go.

Even though I’ve seen Ragtime numerous times, I was newly shaken when a Black woman, trying to seek justice, is instead beaten to death by white policemen

It’s worth noting that changing sensibilities recast some of how we perceive Ragtime’s story – the novel is almost 50 years old – including its blind spots regarding race, with the Black characters on the harshest end of its narrative outcomes. Even though I’ve seen the musical numerous times, I was newly shaken when, late in Act I, a Black woman, trying to seek justice, is instead beaten to death by white policemen. I could not help but think of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and so many others killed in the US in recent years.

Had my schedule allowed me to attend Ragtime the night after the election, I imagine that aside from the audience’s enthusiasm for the production, I would have been able to discern a more vocal response in relation to the results of the election. But I can’t have been the only audience member on Saturday to have looked at the impressionistic backdrop representing the American flag on the City Center stage and wondered: is it incomplete because it’s meant merely to be suggestive and not overwhelm – just a design choice – or are the blank spaces between its stripes the result of it now being in tatters?

On Friday night, at A Wonderful World, the new bio-musical about jazz great Louis Armstrong, the show told us of the profanity-laced version of the US national anthem that he voiced in 1957, and the fallow years of his career that followed. It was a reminder of the renewed potential for dissent to be silenced now, given the stated intentions of the president-elect and his henchmen. While Armstrong’s words would no doubt be incendiary even today, we need only to look at the treatment of football player Colin Kaepernick, who only refused to stand for the anthem, to understand that such silencing continues.

Continues…

On Saturday evening, at the new musical Tammy Faye, set in the era of my teens and 20s, I struggled with its sometimes-humorous delineations of the televangelists of the day – ultimately revealed, in many cases, to be deeply hypocritical. In particular, it shows their collaboration with Ronald Reagan, chosen in the first election when I was old enough to vote. I cannot laugh at these figures, because I recall how they inserted themselves into the political process in a way that has always struck me as contrary to faith and to the separation of church and state that was essential to this country’s founding. I also cannot forget that this era was the start of the hyper-partisan roots that resulted in the evangelical movement aligning itself with our incoming president, a man who shows no evidence of having, or even understanding, faith.

Everything in our lives contributes to how we take in art – the politics of the day, our work lives, our personal lives, our health. All put us in states of mind that cannot possibly be cast aside when we see a play, read a book and so on. What gets produced in the coming years will have no choice but to be considered according to the state of our politics, of our government, of what ensues as a result of the new administration, and whether we decide to embrace and exploit it or stand against it.

Even from the seats of theatres, where I spend perhaps a third of my nights each year, I anticipate that my perspective and my appreciation will be aligned with resistance, looking for messages and entertainment that support moving us to a better future of freedom and justice for all.

This week in US theatre

The musical Elf returns for a holiday stand on Broadway, opening on November 17, a dozen years since it was last seen there, in a new production directed by Philip William McKinley. Grey Henson is Buddy and Sean Astin makes his Broadway debut; Astin follows in the stage footsteps of his parents, actors John Astin and Patty Duke.

The star-laden Shit. Meet. Fan. opens at Off-Broadway’s MCC Theater on November 18 after a delay of several weeks due to a cast change late in previews. Written and directed by Robert O’Hara and adapted from the Italian film Perfetti Sconosciuti, the cast includes Neil Patrick Harris, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing and Constance Wu.

The seafaring musical Swept Away, with a score by alt-folk band the Avett Brothers, opens on Broadway on November 19, following several regional theatre engagements. The book is by John Logan and the director is Michael Mayer.

With Arliss Howard and Marisa Tomei playing veteran music producers and Gracie McGraw as an A&R manager, Babe by Jessica Goldberg, opening November 20 at Off-Broadway’s the New Group, joins Stereophonic in a growing body of stage work looking at the recording industry. The director is Scott Elliott.

The 1992 cinematic body-comedy Death Becomes Her debuts on Broadway on November 21, with Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard taking on the roles played on screen by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn (amusingly, Hilty substituted Streep’s bio for her own in the programme). The book is by Marco Pennette, the music and lyrics by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, and Christopher Gattelli directs and choreographs.

The newest work from Katori Hall is The Blood Quilt, the story of four sisters creating a family quilt in the wake of their mother’s passing. It premieres at Lincoln Center Theater on November 21, under the direction of Lileana Blain-Cruz.

Mechanical people are in vogue following last week’s opening of Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway. On November 21, Theatre for a New Audience and Rattlestick Theatre open Ethan Lipton’s We Are Your Robots, describing it as “a wry new musical about what happens when a band of robots asks the audience what it really wants from its machines”. Leigh Silverman directs.