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.
As with the nearby 'Rocky,' the best thing about 'Holler' is the new seating configuration, which is startlingly effective in giving us a predatory hawk's eye view of the bleak street scene below. Otherwise, this show keeps falling prey to almost every cliché that has made the jukebox musical such a maligned genre in the theater. It's not just that Todd Kreidler's book can't match the power of Shakur's stark and bracing poetry. Kreidler keeps subverting those lyrics with a storyline that makes a contradictory mess of its principal characters. 'Holler' is not a travesty like the super-successful 'Mamma Mia!,' where only the first line of every Abba song refers to the action at hand and the rest of the lyrics go on their merry, aimless way. But all too often, Shakur's lyrics only comment on the emotional content of the characters' lives. As with most jukebox musicals, the lyrics rarely further the action. Which leaves Kreidler's book with way too much explaining to do.
2014 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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