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Old 12-13-2016, 11:14 PM   #1
Elspode
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Allegiance

Please don't read the first paragraph and stop...I'm making a point.

"Allegiance"...is not a great Musical. You are not likely to leave the theater with a Broadway earworm buzzing in your head. You will probably not break out in song tomorrow at work having seen it this evening. As a Musical, in the traditional sense of American Musical Theater, it is a C or perhaps C+ at best.

What "Allegiance" *is* is a profoundly moving, powerful, unquestionably important example of Musical Theater *Art*. "Art", because it is multifaceted, deeply layered, thought provoking and emotionally draining. "Art", because it is so much more than the sum of its parts, something which the viewer will turn over and over in their mind for days to come. Anyone can put on a song and dance production; it takes people with a Purpose to create something as resonant and timely as "Allegiance". As Musical Art, "Allegiance" is an A+.

Based on the childhood recollections of George Takei during his family's confinement in a WWII Japanese-American internment camp, "Allegiance" tells the tale of a family who, like thousands of other Japanese American families, were dispossessed of their homes, their businesses, their possessions and their finances, and bused to what were essentially prison camps in our nation's interior, away from our sensitive coastal defenses. The privations and dismal treatment they received at the hands of their guards is, if anything, soft peddled compared to what Reality was for these American citizens who were unconstitutionally confined because they happened to look like the enemy.

I could wax eloquent for some time about the stellar performances by a primarily Asian cast (not something you see every day on Broadway, or anywhere else outside of Kung Fu films). The singing, the acting, the direction were superb. The production itself (we saw a filmed version of one of the 148 performances in the four months it ran on Broadway) was absolutely first rate...you don't put a show on Broadway unless you can deliver the goods. The scene depicting the bombing of Hiroshima was incredibly powerful, free of judgment, and riveting as mushroom clouds are projected on the dark forms of the queued cast, an eerie Oriental style chant/sound tableaux playing throughout, a projected nuclear blast wave approaching from behind it all. Sets are spare, as they should be, contrasting the uncluttered look and feel of traditional Japanese homes with the spartan accommodations of their concentration camp buildings.

"Allegiance" is the culmination of over a decade of conceptualizing, preproduction and staging of the message that George Takei has made one of his primary missions in life..."Never Again". Both before the show begins via Mr. Takei's verbal introduction, and again at the end of a short piece illuminating some of the more interesting aspects of the production, the point is gently, but firmly made. Many of us believe that we are very close to becoming this sort of nation once again...the sort that allows fear to triumph over reason, the sort that allows politics to subvert humanity.

I think "Allegiance" is exactly the right artistic statement at exactly the right time. Those of us who are concerned that our nation is going the wrong way need to see this show. Those of us who are helping to push our nation in that direction should be herded into concentration camps and forced to watch it...then hugged, and set free. Unfortunately, it is not at all clear when the next opportunity for viewing might occur, but I have to think that this show is a slam dunk for PBS in the near future.
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Old 12-13-2016, 11:33 PM   #2
elSicomoro
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I wish I would have been able to see it tonight...forgot all about it.
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Old 12-14-2016, 06:34 AM   #3
Griff
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I'm putting that on my to do list. Thanks Spode.
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