Bless this mess
‘Amazing Grace’ means well
Midway through “Amazing Grace,” there’s a theatrical illusion that’s a real doozy. Shipwrecked in the middle of a roiling ocean in the 1740s, Englishman John Newton, who’s known for writing lyrics to the hymn that gives the musical its title, goes overboard.
The audience is underwater with this young upstart and slave trader. Snared in heavy ropes and sinking fast, Newton (Josh Young, a burly singer with boyish good looks) is a goner. But his trusted friend, Thomas, a family slave (a poignant Chuck Cooper), intervenes. The men break the surface.
It’s a remarkable moment — the only one, alas — in a fact-fudged telling of a historical figure’s life. Otherwise, this earnest but plodding musical by Broadway newcomers needs lifelines of its own.
Christopher Smith’s songs are serviceable but lack significance and surprise. You can hear the boilerplate lyrics coming a mile away. Even the potential power ballads don’t have the structure to make an impact.
The jumbled book, a joint effort by Smith and playwright Arthur Giron, is another issue. The creators have good instincts about a story worth telling. But their reach exceeds their grasp.
That Newton, a human trafficker, later wrote a ubiquitous hymn to God’s soulsaving grace offers fertile material. Sin and salvation, inhumanity and humanity, all in a single person.
Director Gabriel Barre includes scenes of shackled slaves, branded and marketed like cattle, showing the barbarity of slavery and reinforcing the show’s sincere intent. But the production self-sabotages with mood shifts. Mary Catlett (a fine Erin Mackey), who Newton loves, is an abolitionist who romances powerful Major Gray (Chris Hoch) to help the movement. Gray is so cartoonish that he can’t be taken seriously. The same is true of Peyai, a fashionforward West African princess and slave trader (Harriett D. Foy), who holds Newton captive after he washes up on her shores. These scenes have a “Gilligan’s Island” vibe.
And the show could do a better job of connecting the dots between Newton’s experiences and the writing of the title hymn, which famously notes, “I once was lost, but now I’m found.”
“Amazing Grace” has come to Broadway. But it hasn’t found its way.
jdziemianowicz@nydailynews.com