Amazing Grace is a new original musical based on the awe-inspiring true story behind the world's most beloved song. A captivating tale of romance, rebellion and redemption, this radiant production follows one man whose incredible journey ignited a historic wave of change.
John Newton (Tony Award nominee Josh Young), a willful and musically talented young Englishman, faces a future as uncertain as the turning tide. Coming of age as Britain sits atop an international empire of slavery, he finds himself torn between following in the footsteps of his father-a slave trader-or embracing the more compassionate views of his childhood sweetheart (Erin Mackey). Accompanied by his slave, Thomas (Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper), John embarks on a perilous voyage on the high seas. When that journey finds John in his darkest hour, a transformative moment of self-reckoning inspires a blazing anthem of hope that will finally guide him home.
Under Gabriel Barre's direction, 'Amazing Grace' feels like a long adult-ed lecture or a night at 'Parsifal'...Smith ends his musical with a stirring rendition of 'Amazing Grace,' but the rest of the score utterly lacks Newton's simplicity and instead treads heavily in the current Broadway vogue for bombastic anthems coupled with a strong percussive element that's meant to send audiences to their feet applauding...In their final exchange, Mary asks Newton why 'it took you so long' to give up his slave-trader ways. Theatergoers will be asking that question much earlier.
More to the point, 'Amazing Grace' focuses on Newton as a bratty young man in the 1740s, when he was truly the self-proclaimed 'wretch' of that hymn's first stanza. The spiritual -- recently sung by the president at a eulogy for the Charleston shooting victims -- isn't heard until the musical's final moments. Writer Smith (sharing book credit with Arthur Giron) piles on a lot to explain why John is a rebellious man: His mother died when he was young ... His love interest, Mary (the appealing Erin Mackey, of 'Chaplin'), comes from a broken family that wants to marry her off to a pompous British major (Chris Hoch)...Because most of the relationships are musical theater tropes, they tend to drag on the pacing. The tone of scenes in the first act oscillates wildly, from striking and severe -- particularly the difficult images of chained slaves being branded -- to overly smug and smirky (Hoch is fun, though he seems to be channeling King George from 'Hamilton'). The songs are confident, if not quite memorable -- the best being 'Truly Alive,' early on.
2014 | Chicago |
World Premiere Production Chicago |
2015 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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