Director Greg Greene Talks About Blackbird Theater's Upcoming PACIFIC OVERTURES

Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures is perhaps the most controversial of the master's works for musical theater-with equally vocal champions and detractors weighing in on the musical's attributes and its place in the canon of Sondheim's scores. As a result, it's seen by some as a rarely produced gem (it does include "Somewhere in a Tree," which purportedly is Sondheim's personal favorite among all the songs he's ever written, which his awe-inspiring in and of itself), while others shake their heads in wonder as companies mount new productions.

Nashville audiences-and chattering, anticipatory theater critics-will be given the opportunity to weigh in with their own impressions of Pacific Overtures, thanks to an ambitious production from Blackbird Theater, the acclaimed company now in its sophomore season at David Lipscomb University's Shamblin Theatre.

Directed by Greg Greene, with musical direction by Ben Van Diepen (who leads a 13-member orchestra for the show's run) and choreography by Kari Smith, Pacific Overtures features an impressive roster of local actors, including Travis Brazil, Michael Slayton, Tyson Laemmel, Chris Boen, JoAnn Coleman, Nancy Allen, Jama Bowen, Patrick Kramer, Mike Baum, Scott Rice, Will Sevier, Brad Oxnam, Katherine Sandoval Taylor, Evelyn O'Neal Brush, Cori Laemmel, Larry Brown, Brad Forrister, James Rudolph, Andy Kanies, Jeremy Maxwell, Tyler Ashley, Sydni Hayes, Maia Cole, Addison McFarlin, Anna Beth Lasley and Tyler Bond.

Pacific Overtures tells the story of Commodore Matthew Perry's 1853 mission to open trade relations with isolationist Japan through gunboat diplomacy. This show-which features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, and which won two of the 10 Tony Awards for which the debut production on Broadway was nominated-blends expected musical theater idioms with elements from Japanese Kabuki theater, to present the origin of relations between America and Japan through the eyes of the Japanese.

The show's score, considered by most critics one of Sondheim's most sophisticated and ambitious, includes the haunting "Pretty Lady," perhaps the best-known show from the score, and "The Bowler Hat," the Act Two number that is considered an artistic triumph by most aficionados of the work.

Taking time out from rehearsals (which are being heralded on social media as challenging and exciting by members of the production's cast and crew), director Greene gives some insight into the upcoming production of Pacific Overtures, which opens Thursday, February 2 at the Shamblin Theatre.Blackbird Theater's Pacific Overtures is presented just prior to Nashville's Cherry Blossom Festival, and Greene feels the story is "a fitting tribute to the strength and the resilient spirit of the Japanese people," particularly coming within a year of the tsunami that devastated the nation in 2011.

How are rehearsals progressing? Have you encountered any surprises in the process?

We're only a few days away from opening the show and it's pretty solid. It's a complex musical, so we have plenty to work on and to tweak. We especially need to be on our toes when we add the orchestra to our rehearsals during tech week. I shouldn't be surprised, but I will admit to a certain degree of astonishment at how quickly actors like Mike Baum, Will Sevier, and Tyler Ashley can learn music as complicated as "Pretty Lady", or Patrick Kramer and Maia Cole on "Someone in a Tree." That kind of musical talent is beyond me.

What is your personal connection to the piece? What is it that speaks most directly and/or most viscerally to you as an artist?

I've loved Japanese culture before I knew it was Japanese- in particular, the English-dubbed anime I watched as a kid. Japanese storytelling is a bit more intent and contemplative than its American counterpart. Japanese art tends to be less a broad swath of emotion and expression and more a focused, crafted, intense study of an aspect of human experience. When I first started listening to the score of Pacific Overtures –years before I saw a staged production-I was enthralled by its haunting and somewhat alien beauty. In particular, there are soaring moments, glorious and sorrowful, when song bursts from otherwise stoic characters and we see what's really inside them- the passion and the horror that their codified society won't allow them to reveal. That stuff makes me melt.

If you could, describe the musical, for the uninitiated, via a short, succinct, economical paragraph...

Here's my elevator speech: In 19th century Japan, an unlikely friendship is forged between the samurai Kayama and the AmericanizEd Fisherman Manjiro in the wake of a U.S. naval mission to secure trade with the reclusive nation. When the shogun reluctantly agrees to America's demands, Kayama and Manjiro- and all of Japanese society-must face the wave of Westernization that follows.

What is the significance of Blackbird Theater's production?

First, this is the Nashville premiere of an important Sondheim work. It's rarely produced-so far, Nashville has the only production of Pacific Overtures anywhere in the world this year. And the fact that people are coming from as far away as New York City to see it is one small sign of Nashville's potential to become a theater destination like NYC and Chicago.

The story also serves as a chance to spotlight the vital relationship between Tennesseans and the Japanese-they are by far the largest foreign business investors in Tennessee. 

How does it relate to our lives in the 21st Century? What makes it relevant to contemporary audiences?

To answer that, I'll turn to Dr. Jim Lovensheimer, associate professor at the Blair School of Music:

Pacific Overtures, which is perhaps the most adventurous of Stephen Sondheim's scores, combines influences from traditional Japanese music and theater with those of the American musical theater to create a unique and fascinating look at a key moment in world history: the introduction of American culture (and commerce) to Japan, a formerly isolated island-nation. The observations Sondheim and librettist John Weidman make about American power and empire building are as pertinent today as they were in 1976, when the show opened on Broadway, or, indeed, as they were in 1853, when Commodore Perry first arrived in Japan with four warships. Blackbird Theater's production of the show, the first in middle Tennessee, offers not only an opportunity to see a rarely-performed masterpiece; it also suggests a reflection on the important cultural exchanges that are a current and ongoing experience in Nashville and all over the United States.

- Pacific Overtures runs Feb 2-18 in Shamblin Theater on the Lipscomb University campus. Performance dates are February 2-4, 9-11, and 16-18. Dates, times, and ticket prices are: Thursday, February 2 – 7:30pm – $20; Friday, February 3 – 7:30pm – $25; Saturday, February 4 – 7:30pm – $25; Thursday, February 9 – 7:30pm – $20; Friday, February 10 – 7:30pm – $25; Saturday, February 11 – 7:30pm – $25; Thursday, February 16 – 7:30pm – sold out for Japan Night at Pacific Overtures; Friday, February 17 – 7:30pm – $25; and Saturday, February 18 – 7:30pm – $25. For details, visit the company website at www.blackbirdnashville.com.

pictured: Wes Driver and Greg Greene, co-founders of Nashville's Blackbird Theater