Brooklyn: The Musical

Brooklyn: The Musical 


My first Broadway show seems to critical reviewers a waste of time. There are those bashing the script and lyrics, saying it is too cliche, sweet, banal, and showy on the vocal side--nothing to take with you when you leave. This is a mistake.

Brooklyn begins with a challenge to the audience. The cast, playing homeless streetsingers putting on a streetshow, begin their show singing,


There's a heart behind these hands
There's a soul beneath these clothes
There's a story behind these empty eyes
That no one wants to know


And as these characters tell the story of a Paris born girl named Brooklyn who is searching for the Brooklyn born father she's never met, we see unfolding before us the story of one of the streetsingers. Woven into the story is a constant struggle between cynicism and hope, as well as the importance of love. The costumes, vocal projection, stage presence, and emotionality of the cast are wonderful. As the Broadway.com article linked above says,

Two Broadway newcomers have written the show: Barri McPherson and Mark Schoenfeld. The duo first met in the '80s and were reunited a decade later when McPherson found Schoenfeld singing for his supper as a homeless street performer in, yes, Brooklyn.

If you have a chance to see this musical, please do. Then, whenever you see the homeless on the street or in the subway, even if they aren't performers, remember the opening song--there's a heart, soul, and story in each of them, that perhaps you might want to know.