Not just watching, but experiencing it, because it affects everything that I’m doing. I like watching how David constructs things. I’ve worked with him for so long that I can literally get in his body. It’s got a minimalist aesthetic but it’s somehow very warm. We both felt that everyone had to have bare feet, too, because of the dancing. They wear gray suits, everyone being untethered, and we’re in a white box with a white floor. But with this show, the ideas David first presented me with have not changed. Often when I work with directors, or when I’m directing myself, what you think at the beginning often changes. It was an amazing creation for this piece. How specific was David about the choreography he wanted? That first time hearing something is where I get most of my ideas. If you hear it so much, sometimes you can shut down to what you’re hearing. Hearing the material fresh and experiencing it for the first time is really important. He would send me songs and I would work wherever I was - hotels, my bedroom, wherever I was. That’s an example of a song where the idea came right away of what I wanted to do. I had this idea that maybe we could stop in the middle of the song. I thought the flatness of the statement coupled with the overuse of drum machines was hilarious. The first song I heard was “Dance Like This.” I thought it was so genius and witty. I was in London for work and he sent me some demos from the album in anticipation of the tour. How did that lead you to American Utopia? I choreographed two songs for that show, and then he asked me to make a few more. You know how it is! But when he did his Brian Eno tour a few years ago, he asked me and a few other choreographers to do work for him. I later properly met him through this friend, and we didn’t see each other again for ten years. We had a mutual friend who brought him to see my work in a church basement in the East Village. It was a really long time ago, I think in the ’90s. Productions of “American Utopia” typically take place on Wednesday through Friday nights, in addition to two shows on Saturdays and an afternoon matinee on Sundays.What was your first meeting with David like? Last year, “American Utopia” received a Special Tony Award as a way of recognizing the production after it wasn’t included in any of the show’s competitive categories. The show received considerable buzz upon its Broadway debut, and was turned into a concert movie by Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee that premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. “American Utopia” made its Broadway return last September after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered New York’s famed theater district for more than a year. Among the songs featured are Talking Heads hits “Road to Nowhere” and “Burning Down the House.” James Theatre on 44th St., includes songs spanning different parts of Byrne’s career, which he performs with original members of his band. The extension prolongs the show, which had been scheduled to end on March 6, by about a month.īyrne, 69, released “American Utopia” as a solo studio album in March 2018, before debuting the Broadway production in 2019. The musical production headlined by the Talking Heads frontman Byrne announced its final extension on Monday and will now end its Broadway run on April 3. “David Byrne’s American Utopia” isn’t ready for its swan song just yet.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |