The Dylan Musical: Quite Possibly Not As Good As “Starlight Express”
From this week’s New Yorker review of the Twyla Tharp-directed The Times They Are A Changin’:
In her show, the owner and ringmaster of the circus is Captain Ahrab (Thom Sesma), an evil tyrant who abuses his innocent son, Coyote (Michael Arden); his kind, worse-for-the-wear girlfriend, Cleo (Lisa Brescia); and everyone else in his vicinity–namely, six Pierrot-like clowns and Cleo’s dog, whom he eventually garrotes. Then the times, they change. Coyote pairs off with Cleo, and the clowns kill Ahrab. (Or I think he died–it was hard to tell, because the scene was lit only by flashlights, but he didn’t reappear after that.) Coyote takes over the circus, which now becomes a democratic organization: everyone gets ringmaster wear. They all sing “Forever Young,” and the curtain comes down.
There’s also a finale in which Eugene Levy comes out and sings “Hurricane” in a giant plush Rubin Carter costume, but at that point, most of the audience is already out the door.
It Ain’t Him, Babe [New Yorker]
