Amazing Grace is a new original musical based on the awe-inspiring true story behind the world's most beloved song. A captivating tale of romance, rebellion and redemption, this radiant production follows one man whose incredible journey ignited a historic wave of change.
John Newton (Tony Award nominee Josh Young), a willful and musically talented young Englishman, faces a future as uncertain as the turning tide. Coming of age as Britain sits atop an international empire of slavery, he finds himself torn between following in the footsteps of his father-a slave trader-or embracing the more compassionate views of his childhood sweetheart (Erin Mackey). Accompanied by his slave, Thomas (Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper), John embarks on a perilous voyage on the high seas. When that journey finds John in his darkest hour, a transformative moment of self-reckoning inspires a blazing anthem of hope that will finally guide him home.
With a feel-good ending, you might call 'Amazing Grace' a triumphalist view on advancement in persons and politics. Culture is a bolt that ratchets in only one direction in the play: toward greater freedom and compassion. But the musical is not just soothing and includes clear depictions of the horrors of slavery. The show opens with the audience immediately implicated as eager auctioneers at a brutal slave auction. There are several on-stage whippings of black characters by white characters. And the destruction slavery caused to black families is highlighted multiple times.
On the heels of President Barack Obama breaking into 'Amazing Grace' during a eulogy, a well-meant but embarrassingly uninteresting musical depicting the life saga of the hymn' writer has opened. Watching it, you keep thinking, 'How in the world did this get to Broadway?'...Resembling an old-fashioned adventure novel, 'Amazing Grace' is packed with changes of fortune, sentimentality and one-dimensional characters. Smith's mushy, forgettable songs sound like the work of someone who loves 'Les Miz' but has little talent of his own...Too bad they couldn't just sing 'Amazing Grace' at the start and save everyone 2 1/2 hours.
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