Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Theodore in the Valley - A New Musical (that everyone should see!)



Just having boarded the A train at the northern tip of Manhattan on a work night, I don't at all resent the journey down across the island and home to Brooklyn, for I've just been serenaded and tucked in for the night with a grand and wholesome tale of a real American dreamer and shaper. 

Having bid goodnight to the almost-full moon peeking through the looming arboreal silhouettes of Fort Tryon Park, impressions shimmer and shift in my mind from the past hour of riveting storytelling and folk music both heartbreaking and healing.

Sheltered and shaded by the sturdy frame of a broad oak tree, composer and writer Ted Bushman and his unpretentious yet marvelously skilled team of musicians and actors looked us straight in the eye -- we their friendly audience of young adults, families, and dogs, spread across a small grassy hill on blankets and folding chairs -- and told us the life story of Theodore Roosevelt in the new musical, “Theodore in the Valley”.

To portray so great and complex a historical figure from childhood to presidency in just an hour may seem ambitious or necessarily simplistic. But the brilliantly crafted succession of scenes conveyed exactly what the poster advertised – “the heart, the hurt, and the healing” of a man whose legacy has protected millions of acres of American wilderness more pristine and breathtaking even than the floral haven of Fort Tryon Park, where we sat regaled before a backdrop of Elysian clouds and setting sun over the Hudson River. 


From the moment the performers ushered us into young Teddy's afflicted childhood, I knew I was in for an earnest, unadulterated testament of human life. Aside from Bushman himself, who embodied a vibrant, honest, and eloquently musical Theodore Roosevelt, each member of the tiny cast shifted in and out of multiple characters with ease, simplicity, and never any confusion. This was aided by the carefully constructed script, which seemed to exude a tender concern for the clear understanding and enjoyment of the audience (slightly soft amplification notwithstanding!). Most remarkable of the multi-role actors was Leslie Hobson, the beautifully and humbly soulful singer who portrayed Teddy’s mother as well as his first and second wives with stirringly natural humanity and easy distinctness from one character to the next.

Beginning with his solicitous high-society mother and a father stubbornly determined to see his son grow physically strong and able, "Show me the world you see," sang young Teddy, longing from his constrained quarters to see the vast world, in one of the first in a whole set of unwaveringly refined and pithy songs Bushman composed. 


Every line and chorus captured a different essential dimension of Roosevelt's journey and spirit, and stirred a different corner of the listener's heart. I'm sure I wasn't the only audience member experiencing repeated bodily chills as moment after moment I was overwhelmed by a confluence of the timbre of a gently plucked guitar, uncanny bird calls issuing from a violin, an elegantly unassuming ostinato with just enough dissonance to keep us earthbound, a soulfully sung phrase evoking some eternal truth, or the inspired whim of a real-live local dove who soared across the scene before contenting itself to roost on a branch just above the action.

There were no costume- or significant set-changes, and sparingly few props – everything was sufficient and in service of the story. My rapt imagination had no qualms about playing a slightly more active role than usual, and my inner child was delighted to be invited to story time by a tree. When Roosevelt and his pioneering friends wandered toward the edges of our natural hilly theater house, or reposed on stools at center stage, I was simultaneously transported to Western wildernesses and ranches, and made to cherish gratefully and more deeply the splendor of the nature around us, so easily accessible by a Manhattan train.

Evoking the faithful spirit of its protagonist, looking ever upward and outward, the show never failed to balance its elements and keep our hearts and minds engaged by the essence of its message. The singers and instrumentalists partnered in delivering their exquisite tones and lines, yet never with virtuosic ego. And as breathtaking as was every musical moment, none ever made a spectacle of itself, but simply conveyed and enhanced the poetry that drove it. Even the environmentalist climax, which celebrated John Muir and Roosevelt's presidential action to protect our wilderness, did not cast a shadow greater than the shadow of the majestic oak before which we all were humbled, nor did the oak’s shadow dare compete with the gentle night that descended upon all of us with the turning of a planet whose motion carries each bird, tree, and human, no matter the size of their deeds and dreams. 



Theodore in the Valley - A New Musical (that everyone should see!)

Just having boarded the A train at the northern tip of Manhattan on a work night, I don't at all resent the journey dow...