If there’s a slight downside to the wondrous American Utopia, the precision and mood of a stage production sometimes take priority over the spontaneity and energy of a concert. Free-floating dancers worked better in opposition to taut percussion and Byrne’s forceful vocals in the Afro-funk “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” - one of nine Talking Heads songs in the 21-song show - than when Byrne and three bandmates briefly made physical connections with their hands in an oddly stiff couple pairing. Other times, the movement was more abstract, but the contrasts in c horeography were welcome. The best choreography often seemed the simplest and most natural to the band and audience alike: lines weaving forward, backward, and sideways in formations similar to a marching band. That’s where American Utopia production consultant Alex Timbers (director of Moulin Rouge!) and choreographer Annie-B Parson make a difference, because watching a dozen musicians move at random wouldn’t work as well as the show’s tightly rehearsed groupings and patterns. Because, he says, we most enjoy watching people. It was like his 11-piece band – which slowly joins Byrne, two to a few musicians at a time, barefoot in gray suits like their leader - stripped only to instruments that connect to the body. As we become older, Byrne explains, our brains keep those connections we find useful and prunes others. The move to an intimate sound stage like the Emerson, however, brings fresh focus and detail to a staging that recalls the perfection of Stop Making Sense, itself filmed at a small LA theater.Īs on Talking Heads’ 1983 tour, American Utopia still opens with Byrne alone onstage - but he’s examining a model of the human brain to muse about each region’s connections in “Here,” an idea that spreads to our connections to others as a thematic seed for the 105-minute show. Granted, it’s essentially the same show as Byrne’s 2018 concert tour, just scaled back for theatrical clarity and laced with more narration that doesn’t overly distract from the songs. And you can’t lose with a show that echoes both of those previous high-water marks in different ways. Such superlatives preceded Byrne as he brought American Utopia to the Emerson Colonial Theatre for 18 performances in a pre-Broadway run that ends Saturday. Britain’s New Musical Express gushed that it “may just be the best live show of all time.” And Byrne, who left Talking Heads three decades ago, staged another conceptual landmark with last year’s American Utopia tour, where the singer/guitarist and his musicians romped untethered to wires or stations on a wide-open stage. David Byrne and others in “American Utopia.” Photo: Matthew Murphy.ĭavid Byrne anchored what is inarguably one of the greatest concert films of all time in Stop Making Sense, where director Jonathan Demme captured the artful piece-by-piece buildup of a riveting 1983 performance by the Byrne-led Talking Heads.
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