Review: ‘Woody Guthrie’s American Song’ Strikes a Timely Chord
Theater Alliance’s outdoor production celebrates the folk legend’s enduring music and message, even when the drama falls short.
On a blanket, beneath the stars on a sultry summer night is a great place to let the free-spirited folk music of Woody Guthrie’s American Song wash over you. Still, I chose a comfortable lawn chair (available for $5 rental) at Theater Alliance’s outdoor production of the musical biography, conceived and adapted by Peter Glazer from the songs and writings of trailblazing troubadour Woody Guthrie.
Director Tim Seib stages the show fluidly on a pop-up stage at the Wharf Waterfront Park, a moderately manicured patch of grass tucked between luxury condos and the Washington Channel. The hum of cicadas in the trees blends with the voices of the nine-person ensemble, most of whom also play guitar, fiddle, bass, mandolin, or keys, performing Jeff Waxman’s lively arrangements of the Guthrie songbook.
Those songs tell the story of a young man, born in small-town Oklahoma in 1912, who set out cross-country during the Dust Bowl ’30s looking for work. Wielding his guitar and an empathetic soul, he discovered a vibrant America struggling through tough times, and wrote and sang prodigiously about all he saw, becoming a bard of working people and an influential voice of political protest.
The cast — outfitted by costume designer Danielle Preston in various iterations of Dust Bowl chic — comes marching in as protesters, singing “All You Fascists (Bound to Lose).” The show emphatically embraces Guthrie’s calling as the nation’s first famous anti-fascist, proudly performing protest songs on a guitar bearing the sticker “This Machine Kills Fascists.”
Onstage, Guthrie’s antifa guitar gets passed around, as not just one actor portrays the part. Apparently, decades before Todd Haynes’ award-winning film I’m Not There depicted folk rocker Bob Dylan through the prism of six different actors, Glazer took that tack for Woody Guthrie’s American Song, which had its world premiere in 1988.
So, portraying different ages and aspects of Woody the Singer, Searcher, Writer, and Wanderer, we have Ethan J. Miller, who bears some resemblance to Guthrie, strumming that guitar with conviction, projecting the hale-voiced air of truth-teller. Ixchel delivers passion in the role, and Marvin Wayne, a wealth of warmth and sensitivity, along with some fine singing.
Each actor also plays other parts in scenes from Guthrie’s life. Jonathan Dahm Robertson’s striking set — like a front porch transformed into a concert stage, backed by barn walls painted to evoke a tattered American flag — serves as a ready canvas for depicting a railroad freight car, or a saloon on the Bowery.
The script and dialogue aren’t nearly as compelling, though, as Guthrie’s songs. Setting an inauspicious tone for the drama, the show opens with narration spoken in turn by each cast member, until their speeches overlap and they’re all talking in unison, and you can’t understand what anybody’s saying.
Glazer re-tailored the script for this “Trimmed Up, Skimmed Down” abridgment, which rolls along smoothly, but almost completely bypasses plot and dramatic conflict, save for a sequence involving migrant worker deportees.
The scenes register as an accumulation of sketches, with the performers offering only rough outlines of their respective characters. The stories are in the songs, like “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” and “Grand Coulee Dam.”
The cast, guided by music directors Emily Erickson and Emily Baltzer, takes some of the numbers to beautiful heights. The rambling rhythm and blues of “Bound for Glory” gathers the sweet uplift of a spiritual, and the wistful “Nine Hundred Miles” gives tender voice to the lonesomeness of a travelin’ life.
Interpretive dances choreographed by Siani Nicole don’t convey as much, and the performers don’t appear as assured in their dancing as they do while fiddling, plucking, strumming, and warbling.
As talented as these singer-musicians are, though, one wishes for a bit more grit and a little less “show” depicting the world of Woody Guthrie. The company seems really happy to be sharing this material, which is not always in keeping with the mood of the story they’re telling.
We can all joyfully sing along to “This Land Is Your Land,” but these times might call more for the fury of Guthrie’s uncannily prescient “Old Man Trump.” Though not a number in the show, the properly pissed-off tune Guthrie wrote in 1954 about his racist, segregation-supporting New York City landlord, Fred Trump, father of a president, truly speaks to the genius of the Oklahoma anti-fascist, a man far ahead of his time.
Woody Guthrie’s American Song (★★★☆☆) runs through August 29 at The Wharf Waterfront Park, 515 Water St. SW. Every ticket is Name Your Own Price. Whether you give $5 or $50, an additional online processing fee of $6 per ticket will be charged. Call 202-241-2539, or visit theateralliance.com.
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