By Jeanne Lieberman

 

In a year when so much drama is happening on the national stage in an election race which would leave most playwrights in the dust (how many of us ran to the dictionary to look up our new national word “xenophobia”?)

the line between fact and fiction is perilously thin.

 

And as we approach Independence Day so many of our Tony nominated productions are entrenched in our national history that the line blurs even further.

 

This year’s nominations are bookended by two significantly historical plays;

the musical Hamilton, the first big show of the season, and Shuffle Along…, the last, have some similarities and contrasts. Both had to do with history and race.

Shuffle Along… traces the origins and contributions of black artists to the American musical, overcoming extremes of rigid segregation laws. (They had to perform just north of “Broadway” but eventually Flo Ziegfeld had to hire their chorus girls to show his how to shimmy and shake.)

While Hamilton went further back into our history, it's brazen color blind casting of some of our revered founding fathers addressed the ideals of inclusion of immigrants into our history, and hip hop score brought in the Millennials.

 

This is echoed in On Your Feet! when Emilio Estefan, an immigrant himself, says to record producer refusing to represent Latin music “Remember my face. This is the face of America.”(a line which brought unexpected ap0lause each night).

Similarly, though it didn’t survive to the awards season, Allegiance directly addressed this country’s shameful internment of Japanese Americans to camps during WW II.

 

The final scene in the touching revival of Fiddler on the Roof, when the whole village of Anatevka is forced to leave their homes, poignantly brings to life the similar plight of religiously persecuted refugees in Middle East and Europe.

 

The Plays also echoed the issues:

And the well received  The Humans could be lifted from a Bernie Sanders campaign speech addressing the issues of middle-class family  intense pressures,  income inequality, the expense of care of the elderly, stifling  student debt  the insecurity of jobs even for people who have held them for years, wage stagnation.

The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s searing indictment of political persecution cannot help but illustrate the bigotry and suspicion of anyone different fanned by one of our “presumptive's” acquiring newly haunting resonance

 

Additionally, Miller’s View from the Bridge is driven by the fear of illegal immigrants desperate for a better life.

 

 It is also coincidentally interesting that foreign born Directors have simultaneously “reimagined” our home grown theater gems, employing stripped down versions of the originals, designed to draw more attention to the essence of their productions than the original fleshed out versions.

Belgian born Ivo van Hove had a banner year with Miller’s View from the Bridge, and The Crucible (and the less favorably reviewed Lazarus).

 Brit John Doyle did the same for another totally American themed The Color Purple both winning Drama Desk Awards for their efforts, and American Director Bartlet Sher had the moxie of importing an Israeli choreographer to tamper with Jerome Robbins formerly sacrosanct choreography for Fiddler

 

The bottom line is that the ARTS once again fulfill their mission to lead the way of attracting attention to our nation’s ills.