Distant Thunder @ A.R.T./NYC

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The Play: Distant Thunder; a young mixed-race attorney whose white mother raised him away from his tribal reservation—and his father who remained there—returns with a plan that he believes will help its residents but finds that he must first reckon with his Native identity 

Book by: Lynne Taylor-Corbett and Shaun Taylor-Corbett     

Music and Lyrics by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett and Chris Wiseman

Directed by: Lynne Taylor-Corbett

One good thing: The obvious delight of the actors—nearly all of them Native American—at being part of a musical that tells a story about their contemporary culture is infectious

One not-so-great thing: The book crams in too many of the familiar tropes about Native American life—the love of Frybread, the greed of companies trying to steal Native land, the sad legacy of the forced removal that lead to the Trail of Tears, the lingering despair over the failure of the Wounded Knee Occupation—and the score only soars when a couple of songs evoke Native rhythms, otherwise it’s just standard issue pop

 

 


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