 |
||||||
|
|
Reviews
"At first glance, one would think that there could hardly be more thoroughly opposed concepts: the open-ended, essentially anarchic musical philosophy of the Grateful Dead, and the highly stylized, tightly structured world of musical theater. There's a wide gap, it would seem, between Broadway and Shakedown Street. But if award-winning playwright Michael Norman Mann has any say in the matter, that gap may be ready to close: As the Almanac was going to press, the prestigious San Jose Stage Company was preparing for the World Premiere of Mann's first musical, Cumberland Blues, featuring some of the best-known songs of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter (with additional music by Phil Lesh and Greg Anton). The play will run in San Jose until July 5th, and will then move north to San Francisco. Theater companies in other cities are expressing interest, and hopes are high that the musical will make it all the way to, yes, Broadway."
“The playwright Michael Norman Mann listened hard to the songs, and like someone working out a narrative crossword puzzle, he connected characters’ names and recurring images of hard work, gambling, drinking, death and redemption. It’s ingenious and good-natured. If Cole Porter songs can be strung together for the stage, so can Hunter-Garcia songs.”
"Several in-jokes were scattered throughout the two and a half-hour play, keeping the mood light, which was a wise move for a play that built its climax around a card game (set to the song "Deal," of course). But hey, this is the Dead, not David Mamet, and in the nearly three years since Garcia's passing, much of the Dead-bashing has given way to an appreciation of the body of work the band created. Cumberland Blues, if nothing else, serves that purpose perfectly. At the play's finale, as the crowd rose to give a standing ovation, Robert Hunter was right there with them, beaming like a proud father who'd finally seen his children grow to be accepted in society."
“’Cumberland Blues’ thundered into San Francisco and quickly proved, among other things, you don’t need singing cats or swinging chandeliers to have a thoroughly satisfying musical. Michael Norman Mann has come up with a solid piece of musical theater. And while something-for-everybody usually nets nothing for anybody, ‘Blues’ works on so many different levels that it is just a delight from top to bottom. As it turns out the unlikely marriage of pop and footlights is really a marriage made in heaven. There may be a bit of theatrical history here, but at the very least, it’s a wonderful night of entertainment."
“Michael Norman Mann’s “Cumberland Blues” will undoubtedly surprise musical-theater purists. Wondrously clever.”
|
|||||
