HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME, the world inside Tupac Shakur's music and lyrics, blazes to life in a non-biographical story about friendship, family, revenge, change and hope. Inner city lives struggle for peace against the daily challenges they face in this entertaining and original musical. Through the poetry of one of the 20th century's most influential and culturally prominent voices, we are given a window into realities of the streets still relevant today.
HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME, written by Todd Kreidler, directed by Kenny Leon, will begin performances on June 2nd, 2014 (1564 Broadway at 47th Street).
The high-energy, deeply felt but ultimately overwrought production opened Thursday in a blaze of N-words at the Palace Theatre, proving both that rap deserves its moment to shine on a Broadway stage and that some 20 Shakur songs can somehow survive the transformation -- barely...Unlike other jukebox musicals, the songs in 'Holler If Ya Hear Me' are rarely ever delivered in the style of the original artist. Instead, the show's creators test their elasticity by turning them into duets or group songs -- and one even gets a folky acoustic guitar treatment. The danger is that the urgent, free verse style of Shakur's very personal songs gets diffused, lightened and flattened...Either way, rap is firmly on Broadway, and that's something to celebrate.
It's fitting that the ambitions behind 'Holler If Ya Hear Me' are as outsized as the artist who inspired it -- rapper, poet and actor Tupac Shakur...And it's to Leon's credit that 'Holler,' a simple story of how the people on a current-day block of an unnamed Midwestern industrial town deal with a tragedy, turns out as well as it does...However, the story often feels like it's jumping through hoops to move from one stellar performance from the cast to the next. It becomes a roller coaster of emotions for those on the stage, but they're moving so fast that the audience doesn't really get a chance to connect to them. In the end, 'Holler' leaves you feeling more exhausted than inspired.
| 2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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