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Musical Fugitives
The Wall Street Journal|January 14, 2025
'Eat the Document' follows two 1970s radicals who go underground
- HEIDI WALESON
Musical Fugitives

According to its cofounder and co-artistic director Beth Morrison, the Prototype Festival is a place for music theater pieces that defy categorization. "Eat the Document," which opened this year's festival on Thursday at HERE, is a case in point. John Glover's score, which takes many of its cues from pop and rock music of the 1970s and 1990s, is like a concept album, shaped into a compelling narrative by Kelley Rourke's smart, well-distilled libretto.

Based on Dana Spiotta's 2006 novel, "Eat the Document" is the tale of Mary and Bobby, two radicals who go underground separately when their Vietnam War protest bombing goes awry.

The action toggles between the early 1970s, following Mary as she changes her name to Caroline and tries to figure out her future, and the late 1990s, when she is living as Louise, with Jason, her 15-year-old son. Also in the 1990s, Bobby has become Nash, who runs an alternative bookstore and meeting place for a new generation of activist youths.

Different singers play the two protagonists as their younger and older selves, and the production's eight performers embody multiple roles, reinforcing emotional resonances between the eras. Most notably, soprano Danielle Buonaiuto is both Mary/Caroline and Miranda, a principled young woman with a crush on Nash, while tenor Tim Russell is both young Bobby and the questing teenager Jason, who is obsessed with the outtakes and bootlegs of the music of his mother's youth.

Esta historia es de la edición January 14, 2025 de The Wall Street Journal.

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Esta historia es de la edición January 14, 2025 de The Wall Street Journal.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

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