![]() ![]() The film includes choreographed, untethered performances of songs from Byrne’s 2018 Nonesuch album American Utopia, in addition to popular Talking Heads favorites such as “Once in a Lifetime” and “Burning Down the House.” Brief inter-song monologues allow Bryne to address various socio-political topics such as voter turnout, climate change, and immigration. The HBO special was the Opening Night Presentation for the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received tremendous critical acclaim. Featuring David Byrne (former Talking Heads frontman) and an ensemble of eleven musicians from around the globe, the show invites audiences into a joyous dreamworld where human connection, self-evolution, and social justice are paramount. American Utopia was filmed during its Broadway run at New York’s Hudson Theatre, where it received much critical fanfare and played to sold out houses during its late 2019 to early 2020 run. I realized now we have to make that a little more obvious.Directed by Academy Award ® and Emmy ®-winner Spike Lee, DAVID BYRNE’S AMERICAN UTOPIA is the filmed version of the critically acclaimed Broadway show. The piece sort of started to show itself. ![]() ![]() And then as we started working on the show, we realized, oh, and there's a kind of three-act thing going on here. Little by little, I discovered it was possible. I thought, let's see if that's possible, because it implies a certain amount of technology. So you have this possibility of making little groupings or staging it in a way where it's a little community who is all moving around, evolving and changing. Could you do a show where all the musicians are untethered, where there is nobody sitting in a drum kit or behind a keyboard. It took a lot of figuring out and Alex Timbers, the director, was really helpful putting that together.īut with this show there was an idea about staging that became almost first. I bring those worlds together-have that that kind of exuberant dance music and tell a story at the same time. And I thought, there's a fascinating story here and a musical world that is already part of this story. She loved going to discos in New York and Manila. But he has incredible faith that we can do better and that we can move forward.īrunner: David, can you talk about your creative process?ĭavid Byrne: Like with Here Lies Love there was an idea and subject, Imelda Marcos former first lady to Philippines. But he is somebody who is balanced and a little bit sad. ![]() Total freedom.īrunner: Can you put into words David’s perception of the world? When David brought me all these ideas, all I heard was total movement. So there is incredible virtuosity of musicianship and engineering. A lot is going on with the mixer to make everything happen that you are hearing. But off stage, somebody is doing the pedals for the lead guitar offstage. You don’t see a standing mic or anything coming out of the guitar. Parson: David had to create harnesses for the drummers so they could carry all their instruments. And I love that.īrunner: Can you talk about how everyone is untethered? But having said that, you also see regular bodies moving. It's not like anybody in the audience could come up and do what they're doing. Their training happens the first day that they start working with me. I can’t pretend it's not a huge amount of work for them to get to the point where we have something that we all feel great about and can stand behind. I feel that the audience relates to them. What was that like for you to choreograph for non dancers?Īnnie-B Parson: I love a non dancer. Jeryl Brunner: Many of the people, like the musicians on stage, dance so beautifully, but they are not dancers. ![]()
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