The Harder They Come
The Public Theater, New York City ★★★★
Like the iconic but humble 1972 movie it’s based on, the new stage adaptation of The Harder They Come is “yanked apart by irreconcilable aims,” said Jesse Green in The New York Times. The “infectiously danceable” songs on the film’s classic reggae soundtrack never did mesh with the screenplay’s “deeply unsunny” story of an aspiring singer corrupted by contact with life in Jamaica’s largest city. But in trying to scale up, the great playwright Suzan-Lori Parks only makes the mismatch worse. Natey Jones has enough natural star power to step into Jimmy Cliff’s role as Ivan, the Kingston newcomer dreaming of making it big. But this Ivan has been “radically softened” and pitted against antagonists who are purely evil. The aim is to underscore that colonialism, racism, and capitalism are the true villains of the tale. But coming from Parks, “the heavy-handedness is quite a surprise.”
The Pulitzer-winning creator of Topdog/ Underdog isn’t the first to attempt to adapt
The Harder They Come, said Jackson McHenry in NYMag.com. The team behind a 2008 British version took a more lighthearted approach, even labeling the intermission a “ganja break.” Parks and her sober-minded collaborators, by contrast, “struggle to stuff in everything they want to comment on,” and their approach “starts to squeeze out the most appealing part of all: the music.” Director Tony Taccone and his co-director nod to the film’s documentary feel by staging lively crowd scenes, and when the crowd is dancing, “the enthusiasm overflows from the too-small stage.” But with 23 songs crammed into its first act alone, the show unfolds in a “montagelike” rush. You wish it would relax a little, “pause, and maybe take a toke.”