By Sascha Brodsky
In Wanted, two sisters discover that the American dream is easier to rob than to inherit.
Mary and Martha Clarke live in Texas in 1893. They are Black women who can pass for white, which gives them a kind of freedom that can disappear with one wrong move. Their mother, Tallulah, has worked for a family inheritance that remains out of reach. Before long, the twins have turned to robbery. Their adventures make for an exuberant Broadway musical, with a superb cast, spectacular scenery and more singing talent than the James Earl Jones Theatre seems reasonably entitled to contain.
Angelica Chéri, who wrote the book and lyrics, is a descendant of the sisters, and the show draws on a family story passed down through generations. Ross Baum wrote the music. It is a terrific premise for a musical: two young women trying to reclaim something of their own in a country where even their identities are dangerous. At its best, Wanted has the restless energy of a story being told by somebody who knows the characters personally and is determined that we should know them, too.
Solea Pfeiffer and Liisi LaFontaine play Mary and Martha, respectively, and they are marvelous together. Pfeiffer gives Mary a thoughtful, almost wary quality. LaFontaine’s Martha is quicker to act, quicker to bristle. Their singing is extraordinary, particularly when the two voices come together. There is pleasure simply in watching them share a stage. They sound like sisters even when they disagree.
Ledisi, as Tallulah, nearly steals the show. Her voice is immense, but she can also bring an astonishing amount of feeling to a quiet phrase. The temptation with a singer this good must be to give her as many opportunities as possible to stop the show. Nobody would complain much if that were the case. Tallulah’s disappointment and determination are written across Ledisi’s performance before she needs to explain either of them.
Wanted has something of Hamilton‘s appetite for American history, especially the parts that have rarely been granted a Broadway spotlight. Both shows are happy to let contemporary musical styles loose on the past. But Wanted sounds quite different. Baum’s score draws on gospel, soul, R&B and country, with a generous helping of Broadway bravado. Some numbers are more memorable than others; a few might profit from shortening. The voices, however, are consistently a pleasure.
I hadn’t expected to laugh quite so much. Aurelia Williams and Awa Sal Secka, as the hotel maids Sissy and Flo, are wonderfully funny. They have the comic timing of people who know exactly what everybody in the room is up to and are too polite, or too sensible, to say so outright. A look passes between them, somebody pauses a beat too long, and the audience catches on. Their appearances are among the highlights of the evening. A show dealing with slavery’s legacy, passing and dispossession needs no apology for being entertaining, and these two understand the assignment better than most.
The director, Stevie Walker-Webb, keeps a great many things in motion. A chorus of ancestors, known as the Kinfolk, accompanies the sisters on their travels, with choreography by Chelsey Arce. The device gives the story an appealingly crowded feeling, as though the whole family has come along to watch its own history unfold. Luke James and Bradley Jaden, as Elijah and Jesse, bring romance into the picture. There is enough incident here for several musicals, and at times you can feel the strain. I occasionally wanted the production to stay with Mary and Martha rather than hurry off to the next development.
Still, what a pleasure the sets are. Beowulf Boritt’s scenic design gives the production a convincing, richly detailed Western landscape, one that keeps changing as the story moves forward. Stefania Bulbarella’s projections and Adam Honoré’s lighting make the world feel much larger than the stage. Emilio Sosa’s costumes are handsome, too. There are moments when the scenery seems almost extravagant for a musical that already has so much happening, but I wouldn’t surrender any of it. The show is worth seeing for the look of it alone.
The great strength of Wanted is its company. Even when the narrative becomes busy or a song lasts a little too long, somebody comes along with a performance that makes the evening seem fresh again. Its questions about race and family property have real weight, and there is plenty of anger beneath the pleasure. Yet what I carried away from the November 6 preview was the sound of the cast, and the sight of a splendid, full-scale Broadway production taking delight in its own theatrical possibilities.
Wanted opened November 8 at the James Earl Jones Theatre, 138 West 48th Street. This review is based on a November 6 preview performance. Tickets and information.
