Freedom Rocks the Boat

In the mid-80s, I directed a high-school production of Fiddler on the Roof, a show I know some of you have recently experienced for yourselves. Fiddler is a strictly staged and scripted show, and there isn't really too much room for individual creativity in its direction, but once in a while you find a moment or two of inspiration.  I had cast the role of Fruma-Sarah (the scary ghost of the butcher's dead wife) with an African-American girl, who had an absolutely incredible voice.  When she reached the point in the dream sequence where she utters her final curse, I had her start riffing Whitney Houston-like all over the map, powering out a huge note of threat at the end, a startling departure from the way this show is typically sung.  A nice Jewish play, with a touch of Aretha Franklin.

Neither Whitney nor Aretha learned their vocal craft in a Motown studio, but rather in a church, singing powerful gospel songs with their local choirs.  And ever since strong gospel singers have been available, they have had a strong influence on Broadway.  Entire books have been written about the history of gospel music in musical theatre, so I won't try to retread that ground here.  But a couple of highlights are worth noting.

Langston Hughes, known as the "Poet Laureate of Harlem," played an important role in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s.  Hughes wanted to capture the common experiences of Black America in his writing.  In 1961, Hughes wrote the gospel song-play Black Nativity, a retelling of the classic Nativity story, using an entirely black cast, Christmas carols sung in the gospel style, and some original poetry.  Black Nativity opened in December 1961 off-Broadway, and was one of the first plays written by an African American to be staged there.  Ever since the mid-90s, Black Nativity has been staged annually in a Seattle theatre, and has become a strong cultural tradition.  Black Nativity went on to influence both of the rock gospel shows, Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell.


Many gospel shows were to follow:  Trumpets of the Lord (1964);  But Never Jam Today, an all-black re-telling of Alice and Wonderland (1969);  Purlie (1970), whose signature song Walk Him Up I used to perform with my high school show choir (though we were mostly white, and I got to sing the black lead);  The Wiz (1975);  Your Arms Too Short to Box With God (1976);  Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976);  and finally, The Gospel at Colonus (1983), a re-telling of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, a nearly perfect example of the form.

I include a promotional clip for The Gospel at Colonus below - it's a long clip, so you can just sample it, but get the flavor. Yes, that's Morgan Freeman.

 

These were all shows with entirely black casts, black production teams, and for the most part, appealed primarily to black audiences.  But gospel music had for a long time been seeping into the mainstream of Broadway, most often in the form of a big production number, typically found in Act II of a big musical.  Examples of a gospel-style song in a mainstream Broadway show are so numerous it's almost silly to try, but see how many you recognize from my very abbreviated list below:

"Get Happy" from The Nine-Fifteen Revue (1930)
"Blow, Gabriel, Blow" from Anything Goes (1934)
"Great Come and Get It Day" from Finian's Rainbow (1947)
"I'm On My Way" from Paint Your Wagon (1951)
"The Brotherhood of Man" from How to Succeed... (1961)
"We Beseech Thee" from Godspell (1970)
"Brand New Day" from The Wiz (1975)
"Black & White" from Barnum (1980)
"Holier Than Thou" from Nunsense (1985)
"'Til We Reach That Day" from Ragtime (1998)
"A Joyful Noise" from Bat Boy (2001)
"I Know Where I've Been" from Hairspray (2002)
"Prayer of the Comfort Counselor" from Spelling Bee (2005)
"Freak Flag" from Shrek the Musical (2008)
"Raise Your Voice" from Sister Act (2011)

Each one of the above is a huge gospel-style number, almost always situated in Act II, which tends to top everything preceding it.  Gospel numbers just seem to be natural show-stealers.

Sooner or later, you know I'm going to try to tie all this back to Urinetown somehow, and here's where it happens.  The third production number in Act II of Urinetown is "Run, Freedom, Run", a tent-revivalist, gospel-style song, complete with testifying and faith-healing.  It's gospel roots are unquestionable, and it openly acknowledges the debt it owes to all of the gospel production numbers that have preceded it.  In my mind, though, the particular style of "Run, Freedom, Run", as sung by Bobby Strong, pays particular homage to two specific Broadway standards.

The first of these comes from Big River, in it's Act II blockbuster "Waitin' for the Light to Shine". This number is sung by the young Huck Finn, another rascal; both young rabble-rousers are preaching about the healing power of optimism (although it doesn't ultimately pan out so well for Bobby Strong).  Listen to a bit of "Waitin' for the Light" below:




Run, Freedom, Run even mimics Waitin for the Light's a cappella choral break in the middle of the song.  An easy forerunner found here.

But the most obvious acknowledgement that Run, Freedom, Run makes is to the Act II show-stopper found in Guys and Dolls.  In the 1950 Broadway classic (since revived five times), a group of crusty gangsters find themselves at a prayer meeting due to a lost bet.  One of their number, Nicely-Nicely, stands up and begins to testify.  Have fun!