Alexandria, VA – You might say the country was as polarized during the 1960s as it is today and you wouldn’t be far off. When Nixon became president, a powerful youth-driven counterculture emerged. Heavily armed police squads were combating student protests and shutting down university campuses. MLK, JFK, and RFK had been assassinated leading to fear and malaise. For a nation battered by the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s and the never-ending Vietnam War, there was no clear direction of where the country was headed.
Enter journalist Hunter S. Thompson whose passion for drugs, booze, and poking the bear fueled his creative juices. In “The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical”, we meet the man, the myth, and the iconoclast. Eighteen years in the making, this show has all the relevance of today’s headlines.
Apart from the juicy lifestyle gems Thompson’s world provides, Joe Iconis, (Book Writer, Lyricist, and Composer) and Gregory S. Moss (Book) had to wrangle that material into a musical with characters as disparate as Hunter’s long-suffering wife, Sandy; his nemesis, President Richard Nixon, leader of the Silent Majority, “I’m gonna use my writing to take down a president,” Thompson crows and his barbed writing succeeds; a gaggle of flower children fans and freaks; assorted Hell’s Angels compatriots; editors from his work at Time Magazine, Scanlon’s and the Rolling Stone; Oscar, his cohort and human rights attorney; his neglected son, Juan; and his feisty enabling mother, Virginia.
Virginia’s job as a librarian included stealing books for Hunter. These classic novels sparked his imagination. “You can change the world. You can write it,” she tells her wayward teen. He fell hard for Scott Fitzgerald and spent a year typing out “The Great Gatsby” to get a feel for his style of writing, using the novel as his inspiration for seeking ‘the green light’ as a metaphor for finding love and truth. Throughout his drug-addled and booze-fueled career, he chased his dream, creating the ground-breaking style of writing later dubbed Gonzo journalism in which the writer is at the center of the story. The musical echoes that journey with some of the wackiest, most wonderful scenes and songs concocted for stage.
From the A-list actors to the production design, this musical is a stunner with a fuse-blowing wow factor beginning with the arcana-rich set design of Hunter’s oddities and collectibles to the poignant finale. A wealth of standout songs captures Thompson’s wild ride from fame to failure, all supported by candy-colored, tangerine-flake, electric Kool-Aid acid characters. Okay, I cribbed those last descriptors from Tom Wolfe, another ground-breaking writer of the period.
The musical is in nine parts, including a prologue, an epilogue, and two interludes. Standout moments for this reviewer, were Richard Nixon in the entr’acte, played in hilarious over-the-top Vaudeville style by George Abud with the song-and-dance tune, “Richard Nixon’s Big Number” in Another (Stolen) Moment with Richard Nixon (The Swine); “Jann Wenner” and “Song of the Brown Buffalo” in The Fertile Ground of San Francisco; Sandy’s song of her dreams; and Juan’s heart-breaking ballad, “Hey, Dad.”
Throughout this wild and beautiful musical, there is poignancy, love, fear and loathing, hope and hilarity. See it, feel it, love it!!!
Highly recommended! Five stars, if I gave them out, which I do not.
The fantastic cast stars Eric William Morris as Hunter S. Thompson; Lorinda Lisitza as Virginia; George Abud as Richard Nixon; Tatiana Wechsler as Sandy; George Salazar as Oscar/Dance Captain; Ryan Vona as Juan; Jason SweetTooth Williams as Steadman/Fight Captain; Meghan McLeod as Flower Child; Darlesia as Jann; Giovanny Diaz de Leon as The Kid; Josiah Rey Cajudoas Puppeteer.
Brilliantly directed by Christopher Ashley with breathtaking Scenic Design by Wilson Chin; Music Supervised by Rick Edinger; Costume Design by Toni-Leslie James; Lighting Design by Amanda Zieve; Sound Design by Justin Stasiw; Choreography & Musical Staging by John Rua; Hair & Wig Design by Matthew Armentrout; Puppet Design by Animal Cracker Conspiracy; Orchestrations by Charlie Rosen; Vocal Arrangements by Rick Edinger; Sensitivity Specialist, Anne James.
Through July 13th at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Avenue in Shirlington Village, Arlington, VA. For tickets and information contact the box office at 703.820.9771 or visit www.SigTheatre.org.
