Review: American Utopia

AMERICAN UTOPIA

David Byrne has never been your standard-issue rock star, going back to Talking Heads and the iconic oversized suit of the “Once in a Lifetime” video.  There have been multimedia projects, like the 1981 Twyla Tharp collaboration, The Catherine Wheel, to the 2010 Public Theater production, Here Lies Love, based on Imelda Marcos, with music by Byrne and Fatboy Slim. Perhaps drawing on his experience at the Rhode Island School of Design, he’s made his solo concerts into visual statements, from the all-white costumes at Radio City Music Hall in 2009 to the brass band backing up him and St. Vincent on the Love This Giant tour in 2012-2013.

The Broadway production, American Utopia, draws on that sensibility and more. Like the Stop Making Sense movie, it opens with Byrne alone onstage, though sitting at a desk instead of playing a guitar. Then, after contemplating a skull with the line, “Here is the truth or is it merely a description,” he is joined by a man and a woman who double as dancers and background singers.  More musicians emerge from a beaded curtain at the back of the stage until there are 12 altogether, dressed not in white this time, but in gray suits.

Fully a half dozen of the musicians are percussionists, creating a steady pulse, abetted by guitar, bass, and keyboard, and Byrne himself frequently on guitar, forming a surprisingly rich – and impeccably engineered – sound.  Byrne’s signature herky-jerky dance moves are complemented by the other musicians in seamless marching band precision – perhaps inspired by the 2015 “Contemporary Color” documentary he co-produced about marching bands? The songs include selections from the 2018 studio album, American Utopia and 2008’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, along with Talking Heads favorites like “Once in a Lifetime,” “This Must be the Place,” “Slippery People,” and “Burning Down the House,” which does in fact bring down the house.

Looking like a rock & roll Jimmy Stewart, Byrne addresses the sold-out audience with that somewhat tentative, dry sense of humor he’s known for. He’s confessed that he probably has borderline Asperger’s syndrome, which may be why he calls himself “an anthropologist from Mars,’ trying to figure the world out. But American Utopia, present conditions notwithstanding, expresses hope in humanity (though making an explicit pitch to register to vote). By bringing together a supremely talented, multicultural group of musicians he makes a joyful statement about the power of music.

Over 40 years, I’ve never been disappointed by a David Byrne performance. American Utopia is as good as it gets.  Now extended until February 16 at the intimate Hudson Theatre, it’s not to be missed.