PARADISE SQUARE
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Barrymore Theatre
Opened on Broadway: April 3, 2022 Director: Moisés Kaufman Choreographer: Bill T. Jones Book: Christina Anderson, Craig Lucas and Larry Kirwan Music: Jason Howland Lyrics: Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare Runtime: 2hr. 35min. (1 Intermission) Opening Night/Current Cast: Joaquina Kalukango as Nelly O'Brien Chilina Kennedy as Annie Lewis John Dossett as Frederic Tiggens Nathaniel Stampley as Rev. Samuel Jacob Lewis Matt Bogart as Willie O'Brien A.J. Shively as Owen Duignan Sidney DuPont as Washington Henry Kevin Dennis as "Lucky" Mike Quinlan Jacob Fishel as Milton Moore Gabrielle McClinton as Angelina Baker Understudies: For Nelly: Aisha Jackson & Kayla Pecchioni For Annie: Kennedy Caughell, Erica Spayers, Lael Van Keuren For Frederic: Josh Davis & Ben Michael For Rev. Lewis: Dwayne Clark & Alan Wiggins For Willie: Eric Craig & Josh Davis For Owen: Eric Craig & Sam Edgerly For Washington: Jay McKenzie & Alan Wiggins For Lucky: Eric Craig & Colin Cunliffe For Milton: Josh David & Ben Michael For Angelina: Camille Eanga-Selenge & Hailee Kaleem Wright |
Synopsis:
New York, 1863. As the Civil War rages on, free Black Americans and Irish immigrants live and love together in the unlikeliest of neighborhoods – the dangerous streets and crumbling tenement houses of Lower Manhattan’s notorious Five Points slum. The amalgamation between the communities took its most exuberant form with raucous dance contests on the floors of the neighborhood bars and dance halls. It is here in the Five Points where tap dancing was born. But this racial equilibrium would come to a sharp and brutal end when President Lincoln’s need to institute the first Federal Draft to support the Union Army would incite the deadly NY Draft Riots of July 1863.
Within this galvanizing story of racial harmony undone by a country at war with itself, we meet the denizens of a local saloon called Paradise Square. These characters include the indomitable Black woman who owns it; her Irish-Catholic sister-in-law and her Black minister husband; a conflicted newly arrived Irish immigrant; a fearless freedom seeker; an anti-abolitionist political boss; and a penniless songwriter trying to capture it all. They have conflicting notions of what it means to be an American while living through one of the most tumultuous eras in our country’s history.
With visceral and nuanced staging and choreography that captures the pulsating energy when Black and Irish cultures meet and set to a contemporary score that reimagines early American song, Paradise Square depicts an overlooked true-life moment when hope and possibility shone bright.
New York, 1863. As the Civil War rages on, free Black Americans and Irish immigrants live and love together in the unlikeliest of neighborhoods – the dangerous streets and crumbling tenement houses of Lower Manhattan’s notorious Five Points slum. The amalgamation between the communities took its most exuberant form with raucous dance contests on the floors of the neighborhood bars and dance halls. It is here in the Five Points where tap dancing was born. But this racial equilibrium would come to a sharp and brutal end when President Lincoln’s need to institute the first Federal Draft to support the Union Army would incite the deadly NY Draft Riots of July 1863.
Within this galvanizing story of racial harmony undone by a country at war with itself, we meet the denizens of a local saloon called Paradise Square. These characters include the indomitable Black woman who owns it; her Irish-Catholic sister-in-law and her Black minister husband; a conflicted newly arrived Irish immigrant; a fearless freedom seeker; an anti-abolitionist political boss; and a penniless songwriter trying to capture it all. They have conflicting notions of what it means to be an American while living through one of the most tumultuous eras in our country’s history.
With visceral and nuanced staging and choreography that captures the pulsating energy when Black and Irish cultures meet and set to a contemporary score that reimagines early American song, Paradise Square depicts an overlooked true-life moment when hope and possibility shone bright.