Theatre in Review: Amazing Grace (Nederlander Theatre)

	Josh Young. Photo: Joan Marcus

The action of Amazing Grace includes slave auctions, abductions, espionage, whippings, murders, various betrayals, an ocean-going battle, an underwater rescue, and a storm at sea. The question is: How can all of it be so dull?

The answer, I think, is that, despite being the stuff of rousing action -- really, it's the closest thing to a barn-burning melodrama since David Belasco put away his clerical collar -- Amazing Grace is suffocated by its own sincerity. It's the musical biography of John Newton, who, in 18th-century England, prospered in the slave trade, then experienced an evangelical conversion, took holy orders, and ultimately denounced the business of trafficking in human beings; he also wrote the hymn of the title. (Amazing Grace, the musical, is not to be confused with the film of the same name, about William Wilberforce, a disciple of Newton's, who was instrumental in getting Parliament to abolish slavery.) As presented here, Newton is a trouble magnet, haunted by the early death of his mother and resentful of the father whom he can never please. Abandoning his gift for music and dropping out of college, he takes to the slave trade with a vengeance, eventually running an unsavory operation in Sierra Leone under the supervision of the wicked Princess Peyai, an African who profits from selling her own people. Meanwhile, back in England, Mary, John's true love, becomes a secret abolitionist, putting herself in peril by spying on Major Gray, a naval officer who wants to marry her.

A conversion story such as this would seem to require a probing study of Newton's character and, at the very least, an attempt at examining the mysterious process by which someone is profoundly struck by the love of God. But everyone in Amazing Grace is a cardboard figure in a toy theatre designed to provide easy uplift for the already convinced. The book, by Christopher Smith and Arthur Giron, presents Newton as a misunderstood youth whose acting out gets him in trouble both with his father and with God; his change of heart is never in doubt, robbing the story of any suspense. The authors also leave the Big Moment until so late that we have little reason to care about this unpleasant, often vicious, blowhard. Nor does his conversion make him any more interesting: One minute, he is dull and wicked; the next, he is dull and virtuous.

The rest of the cast is trapped in the confines of their two-dimensional roles, leaving them with little to do but strut and pose and strike attitudes of virtue or vice. Erin Mackey's Mary is a vessel of goodness, singing prettily and looking distressed; even when committing illegal acts or fending off the lustful, she is woefully lacking in spirit. Tom Hewitt, perhaps doing penance for his dissipated Komarovsky in the ill-fated Doctor Zhivago, is the very picture of outraged rectitude, forever harrumphing that Newton will never grow up. Chris Hoch shamelessly camps it up as Major Gray, who dines out endlessly on his distant familial connection to the Prince of Wales, and who sees in Mary the perfect helpmate for his social-climbing ways.

At least the black cast members have roles with a little life in them. Chuck Cooper pulls off a remarkable transition as Thomas, Newton's servant, an elegant, well-spoken house slave who is physically and spiritually shattered by his master's betrayal. Harriett D. Foy's Princess Peyai is a razor-sharp study in ruthlessness, cutting through the script's sentimentality without a backward glance. Laiona Michelle conveys real terror as Mary's servant, who wants to keep her out of the hands of the abolitionists; she also features in a preposterous subplot about her long-lost daughter (Rachael Ferrara).

Strangely, Giron and Smith have written a musical in which, most of the time, the music feels utterly unnecessary. After a decent opening number, "Truly Alive," which establishes Newton's craving for adventure, the show struggles to find logical places for its songs. Two of them, "The Auction" and "Yema's Song," are really dialogue scenes with underscoring. Aside from a pale, half-finished duet for her and Newton, Mary entertains at a soirée with one of Newton's songs and a rendition of "Rule Britannia." Thus, it is nearly halfway through the first act before music is given the opportunity to play a vital role in the story. Then again, for almost every occasion Smith and Giron supply slow, reverent ballads with painfully banal lyrics. ("I was a lost and restless soul/Trying to find a life I could control;" "I still believe that the child that once I knew/Is still alive inside you.") Oddly, the Newton seen in Amazing Grace hasn't the faintest connection to music; we learn that he wrote the title song decades later. And when the company offers a gorgeous vocal arrangement of it at the finale, it puts the rest of the score to shame.

Gabriel Barre's staging has some impressive moments, including the sea battle, the storm, and an inventively staged sequence in which Newton, drowning underwater, is rescued by Thomas, but he can do little with the many lumbering book scenes and dialogue that is top-heavy with exposition. The choreographer, Christopher Gattelli, provides a party sequence with an elegant gavotte that, with each snap of a fan, clarifies the characters' motivations. The show looks terrific, with Eugene Lee and Edward Pierce's set framing the action with ships' masts, and a Union Jack curtain opening to reveal a series of locations realized using the elements of marine rigging, each of them lit in seamless style by Ken Billington and Paul Miller. Toni-Leslie James' costumes combine gorgeously detailed pannier dresses and neatly cut naval uniforms with appalling rags for the slaves. (One odd exception is the minor character of Monsieur Clow, a member of Princess Peyai's corrupt entourage; with his boldly stripped suit and granny glasses, he looks like an 18th-century Elton John.) Robert-Charles Vallance's period wigs complete the effect of James' designs. Jon Weston's sound design is one of best, achieving a nearly perfect level of transparency.

In real life, one imagines Newton's conscience must have undergone a terrible workout as he traveled a long and wandering path to Christian belief, a process that Amazing Grace never loses any opportunity to trivialize. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, he continued to work in the slave trade long after his conversion, not speaking out on the subject until 34 years after he retired from the dirty business. Now that's the premise for an interesting play. -- David Barbour