The topical and emotional impact of The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin is not diminished in this splendid production.
A modern re-working of Chekhov’s play of the same name, perhaps comparable to Bernstein’s re-working of Romeo and Juliet in West Side Story.
The whole show was one in which technical wizardry was wholly at the service of delighting, provoking, or astonishing the audience.
Young, O’Neill, Ionis, and indeed every member of the orchestra understood how to let this music crack open the psyche, yet hold us there in ways that can transfigure our souls.
Steeped in meta-theatricality, A Mirror prompts us to reflect on the status of storytelling, of its place in creating a culture, its manipulation into myth, its power to prick and to prod.
No band. No spectacle. Two performers, a small collection of instruments, and a room prepared to listen.
It’s been almost 15 years since The Book of Mormon premiered on Broadway and even longer since Joseph Smith ‘discovered’ the golden plates that provided the inspiration for the show.