"Woody Guthrie's American Song" Review

Review of ATC’s Production of Woody Guthrie’s American Song

by Marc Hansen

If you’re the kind of person who loves traditional folk/country music, then I’m sure you would LOVE ATC’s production of Woody Guthrie’s American Song, as most of the production consists of pretty much just that. As someone who loves modern folk music, but isn’t particularly a fan of this style, I admire the play for its strengths, but overall it just isn’t the play for me.

Woody Guthrie’s American Song brings to mind last season’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, which coincidentally had the time slot as Woody Guthrie’s American Song this year. Like Ain’t Misbehavin’, Woody Guthrie takes a famous, defining musical artist in a given genre (Woody Guthrie of Depression-era folk, like Fats Waller of 1920s jazz) and performs a wide collection of their songs over the course of the play. The productions consists of mostly just that, though you also get a great atmosphere for the time period they’re trying to project.

The main difference with Woody Guthrie however, is that Ain’t Misbehavin’ was just Fats Waller songs, while Woody Guthrie actually tries to provide a plot within the play. That’s not exactly a bad thing, in theory; I was expecting the production to be a story about Woody Guthrie’s life, but as the play goes on, you become increasingly aware that it’s more about the music, with an underdeveloped story thrown in occasionally between songs. In addition, the story that’s there, maybe because it is so underdeveloped, isn’t captivating in the slightest. It’s dull and just plain confusing. I think you could certainly make at least a semi-interesting story about Woody Guthrie’s life, but this isn’t it. It’s especially brought down by the fact that the five actors in the cast constantly switch characters, which isn’t unusual for secondary characters, but even the main character of Woody Guthrie was juggled between the three male stars, all at various points in the play. This convoluted approach, I’m assuming trying to be unique or creative, just made me bewildered as to who was who and what was happening.

On the positive side, as I said earlier, the play really is more concerned with the music than the plot, and the music is great. Even for someone like me, whose particular taste doesn’t lean towards this style of music (I actually prefer the 1920s jazz of Ain’t Misbehavin’), I can’t deny that the music is great and is the production’s greatest strength. There is a reason Woody Guthrie was a defining artist of this genre, and by the time his magnum opus “This Land Is Your Land” closed the show, everyone in the audience was singing along. The three band members (Mark Baczynski, David P. Jackson, and David Miles Keenan) are all excellent multi-instrumentalists and I loved the opening number “Hard Travelin’” in which every cast member overlaps a monologue about their characters’ backstory.

The set was also fantastic, extravagantly large and vast, just like the Old West, (heightened by our balcony seating) and perfectly setting the tone and mood for the music that accompanies it. You truly have a sense of the time and place of Depression-era America. When it comes down to it, even with its pros and cons, how much you like Woody Guthrie’s American Song will be directly related to how much you like his music. If you despise it, you may not be able to appreciate the set’s beauty or the instrumentalists’ skill. And if you’re head over heels in love with old time country/folk music, you may be able to look past that horrendous attempt at a story. As for me, I found myself somewhere in the middle.

Overall Grade: B-