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.
Sneer if you must, but it could be argued that in 2015, on Broadway, it's more irreverent to promote such beliefs than it is to satirize their practice. The much-celebrated Hand to God uses a demonic sock puppet to send up rigid distinctions between good and evil in a Christian community. And at last check, The Book of Mormon wasn't having any trouble selling tickets. If Grace has the courage of its convictions, it shows less daring, and little invention, as a creative work. With its mostly generic, sometimes bombastic score and stilted dialogue, this account of the pre-American Revolution U.K. can recall some of the more hot-air-filled musicals that invaded us from abroad (and some homegrown ones) in the '80s and '90s.
Sadly, a complete showbiz neophyte decided to turn it into a Les Miz-style melodrama, and the crude result has been buffed to a high sheen by a talented cast and crew with $16 million at their disposal. If only some of that filthy lucre had gone to script doctors and ghostwriters instead...As Newton, Josh Young has a sterling, ringing tenor, but his character is annoyingly passive and shrill. The majestic Chuck Cooper brings every ounce of humor and dignity to bear on his invented role, the servant Thomas, steering it a hairsbreadth away from Magical Negro territory. Amazing Grace may be based on historical persons and events, but but in this case, truth is more compelling than fiction...Personally, I expect poetic license in the theater, but I expect it to serve a strong artistic or political vision. Amazing Grace has neither.
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