AndDavid Byrne, the enigmatic musician and Talking Heads frontman, is taking full advantage withAmerican Utopia.
The show, which is inspired by Byrnes 2018 album of the same, marks his Broadway performing debut.
He thought maybe I could do something with them, turn them into songs or something.
Matthew Murphy ©️ 2019
They were very percussive, very energetic-sounding.
I imagined what that would be like to reproduce that live.
I wondered if like a marching band or a drum line, if the drummers could all be mobile.
Matthew Murphy ©️ 2019
And then I started wondering if everything could be mobile.
With everybody being mobile, being untethered, that meant we could do other things.
We could scrub the stage of everything except ourselves.
We could choreograph the entire show, everybody is in motion, and the show could be more democratic.
Different bands parts of the band could come to the forefront at different times.
There wasnt a fixed structure of, say, me in the front and the band in the back.
Sometimes the band comes to the front and Im in the back.
I didnt have ambitions to go to Broadway.
This is different than a regular pop concert.
So I reached out to some producers, and well, here we are.
Thats a good sign; that means what Im hoping to do might be possible.
It might be accepted.
It might not get pushed away with Oh, thats not the kind of thing we do here.
People are becoming more open-minded about what we do here.
I thought that was really good.
Broadways audience is not going to do that.
They may dance at the end, and they do, but they want something else.
Some friends of mine told me they perceived a narrative arc within the concert.
I agreed, and I thought, Lets bring that out a little bit more.
Alex saw that too.
It was not just his directorial skills, but his dramaturgical skills.
For those who are Broadway fans, what assumptions should they put aside coming into the show?
And then, what assumptions should your fans put aside coming in?Ill start with the fans.
So I think theyll be happily surprised and not feel like theyve been assaulted by something completely unfamiliar.
That would be really exciting.
Theres a joy in that.
This person is coming out of themselves a little bit.
Its not narrative in a conventional sense; its more a narrative of ideas and emotions.
Your show is very movement-driven, and youve made it so every musician can move freely.
What intrigued you about that possibility?Ive done shows before where musicians can move around.
All the gear and the players, they were kind of locked in place.
And that is going to help tell the story.
So I had us all be barefoot.
That is a counterbalance to the formality of the suits.
Not just in this country, but in other countries too.
How did you hit on what older songs to include?
Was it purely narratively driven, or some desire to get in greatest hits?It was a mixture.
But also, the catalog is deep enough that I could cherry-pick songs that help advance the narrative.
In a show like this one, Psycho Killer is not going to be appropriate.
It just doesnt help the story at all.
But luckily theres plenty of other things.
Youve already toured the show, but do you have plans for it after this?
Turning it into a filmed event, perhaps?Yeah, were looking into it.
Its too early to say whats going to happen.
Youre halfway to anEGOT, with an Oscar and Grammy.
Any hope this could be your way into the T?Ive heard that technically thats not very likely.
Im not sure what the rules are, but someone told us this doesnt fit in the categories.
