Iambic pentameter lines set to folk, bluegrass and gospel echo off the walls of the Geffen Playhouse, as the Civil War musical “Atlanta” rehearses for its world premiere, which begins previews tonight.
The show brings together the disparate elements of Shakespearean verse and “roots music” to portray the story of a Union soldier caught between love, war and racism.
Marcus Hummon and Adrian Pasdar, the show’s writers, came up with the idea six years ago while washing dishes in Austin, Texas, one night.
“I really wanted to do something in the Civil War but I didn’t want to just ape the Ken Burns thing,” said Hummon, a music composer and producer best known for his Grammy award-winning work for bands such as the Dixie Chicks and Rascal Flatts. “(Pasdar) had the idea of a Yankee that gets caught behind enemy lines and puts on a jacket of a rebel to save his life.”
This jacket contains a packet of love letters, and as the soldier, Paul, starts to read these letters, he begins to fall in love with a woman he knows nothing about.
Pasdar, best known for his role as Nathan Petrelli on NBC’s Heroes, originally envisioned the idea as a film project, but Hummon was so enthralled with the concept that he began to work on it as a musical.
At the time, Hummon had been working on an original opera for the Nashville Opera company with all of the music set in Shakespearean soliloquy.
“I was just swimming in Shakespeare,” Hummon said. “I just sort of hatched this idea of this mythical regiment and this mad Colonel Medraut and slaves that do Shakespeare.”
The colonel’s slaves take Paul in as a part of their company, and Hummon aimed to make the slaves similar to the troop of players in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” allowing the literary influence to seep beyond the music and story.
“When I looked at the costumes that were made, it looked like the costumer had designed costumes for “˜Midsummer Night’s Dream,'” Hummon said. “It was very powerful and I think that even in the way the set was done, it looks a little bit like the Globe (Theatre).”
Three years ago Hummon and Pasdar brought the show to the artistic director at the Geffen, Randall Arney, who is now the codirector of “Atlanta” with Pasdar. However, the Geffen was in the middle of renovations at the time. Hummon and Pasdar had to wait longer than two years just to get a shot with their script.
They got their chance last May with a five-day rehearsal process and a reading for producers at the Geffen. Hummon and Pasdar’s enthusiasm for the show became infectious.
“I came in and I didn’t know what it was about,” said JoNell Kennedy, who plays the title role in “Atlanta.” “I didn’t know what the journey was, but once I saw Adrian and Marcus’ passion, I just knew this was something that I wanted to do.”
Though the show is called a musical, Arney describes it as more of a play with music.
Only six actors at most are on stage at a time as opposed to large-scale choruses, and many lyrics are quoted Shakespeare rather than original rhymes.
“It’s very unorthodox,” he said. “The songs and the movement seem to be more organic to the storytelling than maybe in a normal musical. Scenes are longer so we’re able to get further into the scenes and the characters.”
Even Hummon, as the show’s composer, agrees with this classification, yet he still attributes significance to the songs.
“I think that at the end of the day, if people don’t find the music and what’s going on musically compelling, we won’t succeed,” he said.
Despite the ways in which the musical strives to be untraditional, Hummon said he believes the show’s themes of war and acceptance make it relevant to a larger audience.
“This is a play (about) war at a time when America is at war,” Hummon said. “It is (also) a play to a certain extent about racism at a time when America is still systemically racist.”
Ken Barnett, who plays the main role of the Northern soldier Paul, describes his character’s development as central to the themes of the play.
“I don’t think he’s been exposed to anything very different from himself,” Barnett said of his character. “There’s a deeper-rooted ideology going on, and, by the end, he really has to look racism in the face and decide that for love and happiness, that there’s not space for it in his life.”
Just as Shakespeare wrote, “If music be the food of love, play on,” Hummon hopes that his music will feed the audience members and open their eyes to the world around them.
“I’ve always thought no matter what story I’m telling, I would like the aftertaste to be love,” Hummon said. “I would like people to walk away knowing they have witnessed a testimony to love and to the human condition and that their hearts are enlarged a bit.”