‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ Set For Boston, Broadway
By Sam Berenson
Following a critically acclaimed year-long tour, David Byrne’s American Utopia will makes its way to Broadway for a run of performances at New York City’s Hudson Theatre, set for October 4th through January 19th, 2020. Prior to the Broadway run, David Byrne’s American Utopia will play 18 performances at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre from September 11th through September 28th.
Alongside David Byrne, David Byrne’s American Utopia features Jacquelene Acevedo, Gustavo Di Dalva, Daniel Freedman, Chris Giarmo, Tim Keiper, Tendayi Kuumba, Karl Mansfield, Mauro Refosco, Stephane San Juan, Angie Swan, and Bobby Wooten III.
David Byrne shared his thoughts on the Broadway production. He explained,
As I was recording the songs for my ‘American Utopia’ album it occurred to me that they would be exciting to play live- and I realized that a lot of my older material would fit right in….I imagined a live show….I pictured a lot of drummers, a kind of drum line/samba school/second line- that would create the rhythms.
Because of how theatrical the show is, others started telling me ‘this needs to go to Broadway.’ Why not? But what did that mean? Parked in a beautiful Broadway theater we can perfect the sound, the lights, the movement. I thought to myself that this new context might be good- it might bring out the narrative arc a little bit more, to make it just a little more explicit. I asked Alex Timbers, whom I’d worked with twice before on musicals, to help. He brought some original and insightful ideas to the room, ideas I was too close to imagine, and we used those to build on what we had.
Read a full statement from David Byrne on the upcoming Broadway production here.
Tickets for the upcoming Boston performances are on sale here, with tickets for the New York City performances available here.
