Review: Songs for a New World at the Black Box Theatre

Wow! What a weekend of theatre I had, Part 3: I finished this trifecta of entertainment on Saturday at the Black Box Theatre’s uplifting production of Songs for a new world with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and co-directed by Shelley Cooper And Kelsey Wall Jasper.

The cast includes some of the most talented artists the Quad Cities has to offer: Evan Gagliardo, Katie Griswold, Noah Hill, Noel Jean Huntley, Kaden Micklos, Jordyn Mitchell, Kira Rangel and Keenen Wilson.

This production is not a traditional musical, where there is a central plot and the songs reflect the progression of a story. Rather, it is a collection of songs, each a story in its own right, but pointing in the same direction – navigating through life.

Universal themes such as adventure, hope, love, loss, discovery and determination are expressed in songs such as “On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship,” “I’m Not Afraid of Anything” and “She Cries,” which convey a profound sense of the human condition.

What impressed me most was how these performers (quotes) “sold” each song as a story in itself. Standout numbers for me – and I stress “for me” because everyone can relate to these numbers based on their own life experience – were Huntley’s touching rendition of “Christmas Lullaby” and Gagliardo’s “King of the World” and Mitchell’s stunning “The Flagmaker, 1776”. The only downside was that during Huntley’s most intimate, thoughtful phrases, her volume dropped and the live band’s music drowned out her lyrics.

The BBT’s staging for this show is appropriately minimalist, with a platform cleverly recycled from the last production and a white fabric draped over it, which allowed the mood for each number to be set with one of Mike Turczynski.

Your soul will soar when you attend this show, so don’t miss this lyrical, inspiring journey into the new world.

Songs for a new world Continuation at the Black Box Theatre, 1623 5^th Avenue in Moline, Thursday and Friday, July 18 and 19, 7:30 p.m.

I’m Chris Hicks…break a leg.