Review: JOSHUA'S BOOTS at Opera Theatre Of St. Louis & COCA

It’s 1878.  Young Joshua, growing up in a rural black family in Tennessee, probably relished those “Western” dime novels that were the rage back then.  But fate forced him into living that story himself.

The opera Joshua’s Boots opened last night, and it’s fresh, and lively, and a real joy to see.  This is a joint production between Opera Theatre of St. Louis and COCA (the Center of Creative Arts).  It’s aimed at young audiences—and features mostly rather young singers.  It runs just over an hour, and it’s an ideal introduction to the art form for audiences of all ages. 

Joshua’s Boots, with music by Adolphus Hailstork and libretto by Susan Kander, was commissioned in 1999 by Opera Theatre of St. Louis and The Lyric Opera of Kansas City.  It was part of their Opera for Young People program.  In 2011 OTSL produced it again as part of their Gerdine Young Artists program.  Only a few other productions have appeared over the years.  This OTSL/COCA revival shows that Joshua’s Boots deserves much wider attention. 

Joshua’s father makes harness—and he makes it better and cheaper than his white competitors.   As the lights come up we meet Joshua’s family in a moment of great crisis.  Joshua has just witnessed his father’s lynching.  In a very touching scene his mother urges him to flee for his life to Kansas—at that time the Promised Land of opportunity for former slaves. 

Joshua makes that trek barefoot.  With Natty his travelling buddy, carrying those iconic hobo bindles on sticks, they arrive in Dodge City, where they are welcomed into the saloon run by Sally Fingers.  (We’ve seen this saloon in about a thousand old Western movies.)

Captain Pershing strides in.  He’s recruiting for the Buffalo Soldiers, an all-black cavalry regiment, famous from the Apache wars.  Natty can’t resist the proffered $13 a month.   Joshua is not that keen on shooting people;  he’d rather take a job as a wrangler in a cattle drive.  He knows harness, and his father taught him everything there is to know about horses.

But the trail boss, Frederick, becomes his nemesis.  Frederick, an unregenerate Confederate, is bitter about that lost cause.  His own father lost a leg in that war, and he is not about to hire any black wrangler!  Joshua is given the chance to show his skills with horses, but Frederick gives him a hellish untamable maverick to  ride.  And?  You’d never guess!  (Or would you?)  Joshua is the one man who can turn that devil horse into tranquility itself. 

In the end Joshua’s stellar performance as a wrangler (and his saving Frederick’s life in a stampede) lead to a very happy ending.  Frederick casts off his bias, and Joshua can look forward to starting his own herd under his own brand and in his own name.

St. Louis is a wonderful city for aspiring opera singers.  For high-schoolers interested in opera we have the Bayer (formerly Monsanto) Artists in Training program which has given wonderful opportunities to students for some twenty-six years. 

Then there is the Gerdine Young Artists Program at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where young singers study and perform with top professionals in world-class productions.

The cast of Joshua’s Boots includes four current AIT students and four alumni.  Other singers are from area universities, high-schools and middle-schools.  But their performance far outshines what one would normally expect from a “school production”.

There are a number of quite splendid voices, and the production values (set, lights, costumes, etc.) are sterling. 

Michael Breaux leads the cast as Joshua.  With a lovely clear, strong voice he fills the role with both innocence and confidence—and an unflagging brave determination. 

Angel Love captures our hearts as Mama, the bedrock of her family.  One could say of her what Preacher Casy says of Ma Joad in Grapes of Wrath:  “There’s a woman so great with love she scares you.”  What’s more, Ms. Love also sings the role of Sallie Fingers, the feisty and forceful owner of the saloon.  She gives fine performances in both of these strikingly different roles.  To my ear Ms. Love has the most remarkably fine voice in the show—true and strong and pure. 

James Stevens is a busy fellow.  In the last five years I’ve seen him do fine work in five major roles at Union Avenue Opera plus three roles in OTSL’s New Works Collective.  In Joshua’s Boots he sings four roles—Captain Pershing, “a geezer”, the chuck-wagon cook and a cowboy.  He does delightful work in all!  (Mr. Stevens, by the way, was in OTSL’s 2011 production of Joshua’s Boots.)

Anna Edwards sparkles as the strong-minded Lucinda, who “really runs the ranch”.  She sings beautifully, vivaciously, and she’s quite fetching in those classic cow-girl duds.

Emma Wittenauer sings Miss Pearl, the dance-hall girl.  She’s smart and lively, and she sashays so gracefully in that beautiful dress.  In her song about “just a lonely girl”  her lovely voice makes a vocalise passage a divine musical moment.

Frederick, the trail boss, wears all black—so we know he’s the bad guy.  Sam Hawkins gives this role more than the two-dimensions it might have had.  Hawkins’ powerful voice lets him be a real threat.  He makes both Frederick’s initial hostility toward Joshua—and his eventual acceptance of him well-founded and believable.

Top-notch singing and acting extends through the supporting roles:  Nadia Curtiss as Joshua’s sister, Jaron Bentley as his kid brother, Ricco Martin as Natty, Andrew Johnson and Kayden Brooks as cowboys Charlie and Henry, and a dozen other fine singers as cowboys and chorus.

Composer Adolphus Hailstork gives us a score that is rich and varied.  It blends lovely new music with traditional songs.  There are touches of spirituals like “All God’s Chillun Got Shoes”;  there are cowboy songs like “Goodbye Ol’ Paint” (which was written by Charley Willis, a real black cowboy).  We sense that “Westbound Train”.  There’s a thrilling evocation of a thunderstorm and stampede.  There are gorgeous overlayings and interweavings of one melody on another.  Such a passage, where Joshua writes to his family, is heartbreakingly beautiful.

The librettist, Susan Kander, is a composer in her own right.  Here she gives us a smart and wonderfully paced libretto.  There’s humor, there’s danger, there are real human characters, bright and colorful.  And there’s history: the “Exodusters”, the Buffalo Soldiers, the black cowboys are elements of our nation’s growth that are too often forgotten.   

The story arc is simple but satisfying.  We see Joshua triumph over vicissitudes.  The ending has overtones of It’s a Wonderful Life (where the angel Clarence gets his coveted wings);  here Joshua finally gets that proud symbol of his success—those shiny new cowboy boots!

Choreographer Giac Noelle gives us some joyous Western dancing;  Costume Designer Ange’lique Newbauer dresses this large cast quite perfectly;  Lighting Designer Jason Lawshee-Gress and Props Manager Daniel Henke II convince us that we are in a Tennessee farm home, a Dodge City saloon, a lightning storm, or a trail camp with campfire sparks drifting up to mingle with a thousand stars.  There is dramatic use of silhouette.  Scene changes are brilliantly swift and smooth.

Special praise must go to video designers Kylee Loera and David Sajewich.  Their projected work augments the few set pieces.  It’s lively and bright.  Their treatment of the ride on that devil horse is given in fragmented glimpses, but it’s immensely exciting.   

The orchestra is small—violin, flute, cello, clarinet, piano, percussion—but they do lovely work.  It’s under the baton of Conductor Stephen Mager (who, by the way, conducted that original production back in 1999).

Stage Director Adam Flores is the captain of this West-bound ship.  He deserves enormous praise for this piece of sheer delight.

Bravo all!