It's not often that an epic musical arrives on Broadway, especially these days when production costs are higher than they've ever been.
But Paradise Square is exactly that -- epic! With a cast of 40, an orchestra almost as big, huge production numbers and a story that takes in a breathtaking sweep of history, this show is very ambitious. And, well it should be as it's brought to Broadway by Garth Drabinsky, the same man who gave us Ragtime. There are 24 musical numbers in Paradise Square set amidst a sprawling set that provides plenty of room for some of the most dazzling choreography (by Bill T. Jones) ever seen on Broadway, including lots of Irish step dancing. And the music by Jason Howard (with additional music by Larry Kirwan) is inspired in part by the great American songwriter Stephen Foster who happens to be a character in the show.
Paradise Square is set downtown in New York in the era leading up to and including the Civil War. The action takes place around an intersection know as Five Points and much of it is through the eyes of the story's protagonist, played by Joaquina Kalukango. It purports to tell the story of racial harmony gone caput under the weight of war, strife, social pressures and outright hatred. At the core of the story are two interracial love affairs.
In Paradise Square, as described by the producers themselves, "we meet the denizens of a local saloon: the indomitable Black woman who owns it; her Irish-Catholic sister-in-law and her Black minister husband; a conflicted newly arrived Irish immigrant; a fearless freedom seeker; an anti-abolitionist political boss, and a penniless songwriter trying to capture it all." These people have conflicting notions of what it means to be an American while living through one of the most tumultuous eras in our country’s history.
So much happens in this show that it becomes hard to explain it all and, invariably, hard to keep track of it all. Characters seem to come and go, slip in and out of the story and you almost need a sore card to stay abreast of it. But the voices are all excellent, the acting is compelling (even when it's a bit over the top), the music is often soaring and the stage (even though often dimly or darkly lit) seems to throb with an intensity that befits the subject matter.
Holding it all together is Kalukango who certainly has the most powerful and commanding voice on Broadway today. When she sings Let It Burn (the ultimate 11 o'clock number) it quite literally brings the house down. This is Tony Award stuff! And there's also wonderful choral singing in the show which has moments that are nothing short of thrilling. There's an amalgamation of music and dance forms as cultures are thrown together in what is termed "an accidental society".
This show has been around in one form or another for quite some time. It premiered at the Berkeley Repertoire Theater in 2019 but the musical is based on Hard Times, originally conceived by Kirwan, which was originally presented at the intimate Off-Broadway theatre, Nancy Manocherian’s the cell, in 2012. There's been plenty of time to rework it and tighten it but it would take someone like George Abbott or Michael Bennet or Hal Prince to do that sort of tedious pruning. And none of them are around anymore.
And how do you gain control of a "square" with five points? So, just like this turbulent time in our history that it depicts, Paradise Square is a bit messy. But it's also provocative, captivating, melodic, vibrant, thought-provoking and riveting. And in an era when so many Broadway shows are tiny, tinny and seemingly deaf to melody, this is unquestionably worth seeing!
Let's hope it finds an enthusiastic audience to spread its message far and wide.
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