October Sky - A Review

On Friday, September 30th, Ben and I went and saw the new musical "October Sky" at the Old Globe. This show is an adaptation of the 1999 film starring Laura Dern, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

I have to admit I was excited for this show when it was announced. We had a gift certificate to the Globe that was burning a hole in my pocket and I picked this show as the front runner in my head.

The Good:

The stand out of this show for me was absolutely the set. The set was just phenomenal. I read that, since this was based on the film, they wanted to keep a cinematic quality and have the scenery move seamlessly, and they succeeded. The set moved swiftly and the pieces were gorgeous. The highlight was the large wooden structures.  They also had a great giant scrim that projected sweeping west Virginian skies it extremely effective. On several occasions, both of us were pointing at the beautiful things that were taking place.

The Bad:

About 2 weeks before we saw it, I started realizing that this might be the whitest show ever. I was right

The story takes place in a small mining town, Coalwood, West Virginia and is based on a true story. Families lived in the town, that was owned by the mining company and they worked in the mine. The company also owned the houses they lived in, and the schools the children attended.

The bulk (95%) of the actors were white. There was one black family, and the father’s skin color played into the script very minimally, literally in one scene it was quasi-mentioned. There was one other black actor, Bathtub Amos (Destan Owens) who sings a pretty amazing song. That is it. The ensemble was very large, and also very male. I would say that white men took up more than 50% of this cast.

The Ugly:

This show was seriously lacking any sort of female narrative at all. There were maybe 8 women total in this cast, and only 4 or 5 were named, and only 3 had a strong storyline. The 3 “main” females in this cast existed only for the men.

Ironically one of the major plot points was the female teacher, Miss Riley (Sandra DeNise), getting the point across that not everything in the world is designed to pick up or knock down the male main character, Homer Hickam (Kyle Selig), except in this storyline, it is.

I was reading the liner notes about the show, and the guy who wrote the music and lyrics  for the show, Michael  Mahler, had a strong perspective on why each of the 3 women mentioned had such a strong presence in the show. The female director and choreographer Rachel Rockwell lumped all women in these small towns together as one being. That really bothered me. It felt like she thought of the women as a sole entity that lived to worry about and care for their fellas. I think that is totally unfair.I know historically that this is how these women have been portrayed, and that isn't accurate at all. Even this show proves that they were women who had autonomy, who found a lot of strength where there wasn't much being given, had dreams and hopes for themselves, and their children, outside of their seemingly small lives.

I wanted to hear more about their stories. I don't think it would have been too tough to have these women speak with each other about something other than the male miners that happen to be dictating their lives. (FYI did not pass the Bechdel test)

Bottom Line:

I will say that I did enjoy a large portion of the music. I love bluegrass and folk, and this was clearly an inspiration to the composer. I did find myself distracted by a lot of the music sounding familiar. I picked up music from David Yazbeck’s the Full Monty, Kitt & Yorkey’s Next to Normal, and Joe DiPietro’s I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change.  

The cast really seemed to shine when singing together as well, which is a bummer that the show was so solo heavy. There was a female trio that was gorgeous, the miner’s chorus was amazing, and the whole ensemble together gave me goosebumps

The cast was talented overall. Some of the cast was weaker than others as far as believability in their roles, which was a surprised considering how far along they are in the run. The most impressive singer that stood out, in my opinion, was a black man who sang a glorious song about moonshine. By far the best vocals and the best stage presence.

I guess I came back to the question, Why was the show written? It's not that this was a bad story to tell, but my QUESTION is why are these stories still being told. The white male narrative is so tired. This could have easily been a multiracial cast. There wasn't a lot of dialogue about race, or even class, honestly. Yes, historically speaking, you would not have seen a heavily integrated mining town in the late 50s, but I feel like Hamilton has really paved the road to ignore that.The film paid a great tribute to Homer Hickam, and was did pretty well, and really help launch Gyllenhaal's career. I don't regret seeing this show, but I do not see a ton of marketability in this.