REVIEWS
John
Walker: the Musical
Reviewed by Matthew Trumbull
Any
show title that contains the name of a real person and ends in ‘The Musical”
makes me nervous. I worry that it names a concoction that removes the marrow from
a true story. The darkly funny, surprisingly thoughtful satire, John Walker: The
Musical, The Adventures of an American Taliban, does the opposite at this year’s
FringeNYC festival. Creators Jean Strong and John McCloskey embrace the details
of John Walker’s life, and declare them too bizarre to form anything but
a musical, with live rock &-roll supplied by the four-piece Taliband.
At
the opening, the eponymous Walker, sung with a passionate rasp by Brian Charles
Rooney, is being delivered to an extremely influential government fear-monger,
E.D. (Scoop Slone), after being captured by his own country’s army in Afghanistan.
E.D. plans to get as much political mileage as possible out the American Taliban,
and arranges for Walker’s sham escape to set the stage for a brilliant chase
and re-capture, further slaking America’s bloodthirst for justice. Walker
and E.D.’s escape plot accomplice, Don the reporter (L.J. Mitchell), have
different plans, meaning to get the accused to Jackie (Valerie Clift) at the Justice
Department, who possesses papers exonerating Walker. These fictional plot points
are juxtaposed with flashbacks to the actual life we read about in the papers:
the awkward teenage years in white-bread Northern California; the conversion to
Islam; the joining up with the Taliban and the capture thereafter.
I
was able to vividly comprehend Walker and the forces that stand against him thanks
to McCloskey and Strong’s bold, moving score, and its compelling interpretation
by Rooney and company. John Walker’s oblivious mother, played with gentleness
by Amy McKee, sings a pretty ballad of parental leniency called “I Support
You” that is sweetly insane. The dry Mitchell powerfully grieves for the
compromised debacle called the American media in the stark number “I’m
No Hemingway.”
Through
these deep explorations of what lies at the heart of the Walker saga, an interesting
table-turn is pulled on the present administration. Their driven efforts to prosecute
Walker in the court of public opinion, to cast him as a teenage maniac who went
native, are parried by this musical’s offering of dignity to a young man
who sought religious fulfillment, and found himself in the wrong place at the
wrong time. The satirical element of the show is where we find our cartoonish
villain with the Texas drawl, and Slone gleefully lets us know who he is really
playing when E.D. confesses his baseball failures to a dominatrix.
The
show requires Walker to confess none of his views on the practices of his beloved
Taliban, such as public execution, male-only schools, and beatings for Muslims
with beards that are too short. He may be the “good boy” his parents
call him, but his shy smile might be a little brighter for getting off easy on
these points in this musical.
Musings
on Murkier Aspects of Humans, War and Politics
Is
This Taliban Fighter Just Like You and Me?
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/theater/reviews/23frin.html?pagewanted=2
'John
Walker, the Musical'
Schimmel Center for the Arts
The
sensitive boy cum Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh is the subject of this rock
'n' roll musical, a loose reimagining of his life.
Currently
serving a 20-year prison sentence in California for his crimes, he could make
for fascinating theater. If only the co-creators Jean Strong and John McCloskey
with Laura Wagner had stuck to the facts, and not tried to superimpose a warmed-over
"Wag the Dog"-style political conspiracy over Mr. Lindh's already convincingly
surreal tale.
This
production's strong suit is not its dramatics, plot or character development.
Its moments of most genuine interest can be found in the spirited musical offerings
that lend this show its charisma. Led by a driving bunch of skilled musicians,
the cast best show off their talents in song: the gamely vocal stylings of Scoop
Slone, playing an evil Texan president, singing "If It Ain't in America"
(a land of "baby wipes and civil rights!'); the plaintive tone of Amy McKee
(as Mr. Lindh's mother) singing to her son a pledge of unconditional maternal
love, "I Support You"; the anarchistic punk energy of Valerie Clift
(as a Justice Department do-gooder) and Brian Charles Rooney (as Mr. Lindh), extolling
the virtues of the "Whistleblower"; and the all-cast finale (and shows
biggest hit) "Ballad of John Walker," with its moving spiritual-quality
that got the audience clapping along, and waving small American flags distributed
during the show.
If
you're 20 or just hungry for some ersatz agitprop in this pre-election season,
then this could be a show for you. There's still plenty of room for rumination
on the young man from California, "who's just like you and me" as the
song goes. As part of American lore, Mr. Lindh's story has only just begun. CAMILLE
SWEENEY
TALIBAN
ON THE FRINGE
THE "American Taliban" is coming to New York. A new
musical about John Walker, the so-called "American Taliban" who was
captured by the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, will play the New York International
Fringe Festival starting Aug. 15...
Playbill
News: "American Taliban" Goes on a New Adventure in NYC Fringe Show,
John Walker: The Musical, Aug. 15-29
A new musical about John Walker, the
so-called...
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/87756.html
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