A True History of the Johnstown Flood Now at the Goodman Theatre

When Showboat first premiered on Broadway, the curtain fell to stunned silence.  When I went to see A True History of the Johnstown Flood, the same thing happened.  However, I doubt what I saw last night was the next Showboat.

Playwright Rebecca Gilman teams up with award-winning Director Robert Falls for the world premiere of A True History of the Johnstown Flood.  Set against the backdrop of the 1889 flood, which lead to the loss of 2,200 lives, a disaster which should be noted was far more devastating than Hurricane Katrina, Gillman questions whether it was nature or man-made greed that led to this catastrophe.  Talk about relevancy.

Of course, the production value of this show is going to be high and the acting is going to be great.  It's Tony Award-winning Robert Falls at the helm of the Goodman.  Highlights for me included Janet Ulrich Brooks who showed such incredible range, playing the gilded Mrs. Lippincott to the gritty Clara Barton.  Highlights also included Sarah Charipar, Colleen, who for me was the only actor on stage that was able to convey the grief of such an immense loss.

Any doubt about the play for me lead straight to the play itself.  I am excessively weary of depictions of historical events that take twice as long to complete as the historic event itself.  (I'm looking at you, James Cameron's Titanic.)  I also felt that by hitting this "play within the play" motif as much as it did and for as long as it did, it walked a fine line of being no different than Coney Island and The White City's capitalization on this disaster over a hundred years ago.  Also by doing so,   it denied the characters the ability to experience any sort of journey.  Finally, coming back to the stunned silence at the top of this review, because the characters were denied any sort of emotional journey, A True History of the Johnstown Flood didn't earn the right to give us the Odetsian ending it did.

A True History of the Johnstown Flood is running now at the Goodman Theatre.