From My Seat at the Table by Mari Lyn Henry
Mark Twain plus Roger Miller equals Big River, the Tony award-winning musical that ran for over 1,000 performances between 1985 and 1987. As part of 54 Below’s talk-of-the- town series celebrating the finest melodies ever written for the musical theatre, members of the original cast including the amazing Daniel Jenkins and Marin Mazzie (both making their Broadway debuts) Jennifer Leigh Warren, and Michael McElroy, who played Jim in the 2003 revival, wowed the crowd as they sang the scrumptious award-winning score and reminisced about their experience.
Jenkins, when he was sixteen, living in Commerce, Missouri, decided to build a raft and ride on it down the Mississippi performing an original musical 8 times a week. He felt a kinship with Huck Finn and when he sings “I, Huckleberry, Me” he still captures his childlike charm and innocence. When he got cast for the Broadway production, he said, “I was so green. I basically just had an amazingly good time. Surrounded by such talent and getting help to tell this important story with such great music, it was an enormous thrill.” When asked what it was like to revisit the music after 25 years he replied “I am deeply touched by all the connection I’ve had to the people along the way, and to the material itself. It is woven into who I am in a really lovely way.”
Michael McElroy, who got a Tony nomination in the 2003 revival when Deaf West came to Broadway, remarked that the show changed his life. He recalled that his audition was to sing one song from the score and then a coach taught him sign language so he could sign as he talked. “It taught me humanity, love, respect for each other.”
Jennifer Leigh Warren’s gorgeous and soulful rendering of “How Blessed We Are” shook the rafters. Composer Roger Miller wrote the song for her. Marin praised Jennifer for the sheer simplicity in her performance which inspired her. Equally inspirational are the poignant, deeply felt messages contained in such ballads as “You Oughta Be Here With Me” and “Leavin’s Not the Only Way to Go,” “World’s Apart,” “River in the Rain” and “Waitin’ For the Light to Shine;” the boisterous, bouncy, wicked duets of the con artists sung by Lennie Watts and Rob Maitner–“The Royal Nonesuch” and “When the Sun Goes Down in the South.” There are also the piquant plunk of the strings, the occasional riffs on the harmonica, the rhythmic toe tapping, hand clapping response to “Hand for the Hog” and “Arkansas,” the spiritual/gospel connections related to “The Crossing” sung with power and grace by Christina Sajous and the ensemble, and the stirring refrains of both “Muddy Waters” and “Free at Last”.
The intimate setting at 54 Below, according to Dan, is “a fantastic place to explore the richness of these beautiful songs. With Mark Twain as the inspiration for the piece, the agelessness of the story is palpable. The struggles are still very present in the world today, and, personally, my own point of view is still as filled with wonder as when I was younger. Perhaps even more so now. I appreciate the obstacles and wonder at how we all get past them. I am lucky to have a lens like this to look at these things through!”
Other cast members included: Jelani Alladin, Scott Coulter, Daryl Glenn, Tara Halpern, Karen Mack, Nicole Prothro, Lille Ricciardi, Michael Ruocco, Christina Sajous, Melanie Vaughan, Garrett Zuercher; Music Direction by Mark Hartman with the ‘Muddy Waters’ 5 piece band, the show directed by Phil Geoffrey Bond.
In the audience was producer Rocco Landesman.
The 54 Below Sings Series continues on October 12th with ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman.’
*Photos: Sandi Durell (click photo to enlarge)