![]() In “David Byrne’s American Utopia” - an expansive, dazzlingly staged concert - he emerges as an avuncular, off-center shepherd to flocks of fans still groping to find their way. But Byrne has now passed middle age (he’s 67), as have those who first saw him flailing like a dervish at the Manhattan punk palace CBGB. Vitus dancer.įor the generation that came of age listening to Talking Heads, the band that Byrne fronted, he was a cool emblem of alienation, a sexy geek who always seemed to be dancing with himself. He just happens to infuse his teaching with a beat that turns everyone into a spasmodic St. So, I would argue, is the David Byrne of today. Rogers was a benevolent, ditty-dispensing educator in civic virtue and human tolerance, who hymned the miracles of beautiful days and kindly friends, while acknowledging the fallibility of us all. But as I watched “American Utopia,” the comparison felt especially apt. I’m not the first person to note similarities between Fred Rogers - the cardigan-wearing children’s television host (and the subject of a new Tom Hanks movie) - and Byrne, the New Wave musician who writhed into the spotlight performing “Psycho Killer” in the 1970s. Yet when the silvery, gray-suited pop star poses another musical question - “Will you breathe with me?” - you may find yourself thinking of the theme song of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” As Byrne seems to say, we owe ourselves that much.From left, Chris Giarmo, David Byrne and Tendayi Kuumba in “American Utopia.”CreditCreditSara Krulwich/The New York Timesĭavid Byrne doesn’t actually make that request in “American Utopia,” his cloud-sweeping upper of a touring show, which opened on Broadway at the Hudson Theater on Sunday. Connect with each other, and with yourself. Hugo Ball and Dadaist ethics, police brutality, the Sony Triniton television that Byrne bought with his first recording contract - they’re all related, and even if they weren’t, it’s his job to make the connections. His monologues never amount to the monotonous good feelings more suited for Ted Talks and Apple product launches. ![]() But he’s also trying, however gently, to push us. It goes without saying that Byrne, a consummate entertainer, also plays a few hits: “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),” “Burning Down the House,” “Once in a Lifetime” - he knows what we want to hear. But even that can’t match the power of the group covering Janelle Monae’s “Hell You Talmbout,” a powerful protest anthem which, in this updated rendition, climaxes with the entire group shouting Freddie Gray’s name. Seeing the entire crew kneel onstage, backdropped by a photo of Colin Kaepernick, is effecting. It’s a point more interestingly made by the pure spectacle of it all, which wears its influences as comfortably as Byrne’s music ever did. And in one of the many comfortably talkative monologues he delivers between songs, he says, in that assured but invitingly casual warble of his: “Most of us are immigrants.” The musicians onstage, in keeping with the theme, are from around the world: France, Brazil, Canada. The proceedings here are far less interested in Byrne alone than in the former Talking Heads singer as the emcee of a party to which all of us are invited. But despite being unaffiliated with a band, he’s never come off as a “solo artist” in the literal sense. All of it lends a sense of alive-ness to this live performance. And, of course, there’s the thrill of seeing people standing up in their seats, clapping along, silhouetted against Byrne’s bright, inviting presence onstage. ![]() There are close-ups on Byrne’s face, his eyes, even his feet dynamic roving views from onstage and off a keen awareness of the audience. Like the late Jonathan Demme, director of Stop Making Sense, Lee is here not just to document but to heighten. There’s also director Spike Lee, who, as he did adapting the rock-musical Passing Strange into a movie in 2009, is more than just wingman-ing here. A filmed version of the hit Broadway show that ran from October 2019 to February 2020 (and begins streaming on HBO Max October 17th), it’s a time capsule with a timely end-date for a project that finds unity where many of us might only see difference and disruption. He points to another region on the brain: “Here is a connection with the opposite side.”Ĭonnection - and not only between opposites, but in the manner of a neural network or, to make the obvious but still valuable analogy, a world community - is the guiding element, maybe even artistic theology, of American Utopia. American Utopia begins where David Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name ended: with the song “Here.” “Here is an area of great confusion,” the former Talking Heads singer declares from a steel-gray, uncluttered stage, a model brain aloft in his hand.
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