Content area
Full Text
PROMETHEUS BOUND. Script and lyrics by Steven Sater, from the play by Aeschylus. Music by Serj Tankian. Directed by Diane Paulus. American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, MA. 15 March 2011.
When she arrived at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in 2009, Diane Paulus brought along her hit New York production of The Donkey Show, an effervescent musical adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream that turned the A.R.T.'s second performance space into Club Oberon every night. Audience members stood in the open space facing the stage, but soon found themselves immersed in the action as the dance floor became the main playing area and pop music blared from countless speakers surrounding the club's periphery. Paulus applied this same concert-like atmosphere and immersive staging to the latest inhabitant of Oberon, a rock musical version of Prometheus Bound. With book and lyrics by Steven Sater (the Tony Award- winning lyricist of Spring Awakening), music by Serj Tankian (lead singer of the rock band System of a Down), and direction by Paulus, the project seemed to be in the hands of a team ideally suited for adapting Aeschylus's play of mythic defiance to the twenty-first century. Given the pedigree of the creative team and a cast of actors with impressive Broadway credentials, it is unsurprising that the anticipation surrounding a new musical from the people who had rocked the theatre scene with their previous projects- Paulus with the revival of Hair and Sater with Spring Awakening-was substantial. In addition, the A.R.T.'s partnership with Amnesty International to promote social justice through performances of the show promised an evening of...