Paradise Square

At Nederlander Theatre November 13, 2021

This was a brief month long pre-Broadway run in Chicago. It has now made it to NYC, but is postponing it's open date a bit, due to the new Covid variant. It's a show that I saw twice, & I predict it will win some Tony Awards.

This show is all about the Five Points neighborhood in NYC (sadly no longer). It was a mixed community of Irish immigrants & African Americans (both citizens & runaways). & it's a wonderful display of both cultures.

Paradise Square is the name of a bar run by an African American woman, married to an Irish officer who is off fighting in the Civil War. Her sister-in-law is an Irish immigrant married to an African American protestant preacher. The two women live & run the bar together. (& I love good strong female leads.)

The music is a delightful mix of new songs, ballads, & some reworked classic folk songs. While I agree with most all of the songs, I must admit that at the end of the show, there's 3 distinct closing numbers, back to back to back. Not necessary, & I hope they fix that.

Now the main feature of this show is the dancing. The dancing is gonna win a Tony Award, absolutely. This show had 3 choreographers, I believe. One specialized in various African cultures as well as modern, & the others specialize in Irish dancing & modern. And this show reflects all of that. (Now I am a former Irish dancer, & I can speak to that dancing. The other I'm going to attempt to describe, but it's not my forte, so bear with me.)

The lead two dancers (& overall supporting leads) are an Irish immigrant (nephew to the Irish leading lady) & a runaway slave. They are hired by the bar to be their entertainment (accompanied by a pianist who isn't who we think he is). The dancing is spectacular. The nephew does a bit of soft shoe Irish dancing, but mostly hard shoe, & has some ballet mixed in. (Think Riverdance & ballet). The runaway has more rhythmic movements, stepping, & uses his whole body to dance & make music. As his dancing evolves, we see some classic tap dancing moves too.

And when those two cultures fill the bar, we see the best of the best. One side is Irish dancing reels as well as individual jigs. The other side is grounded in their African spiritual dances, as well as stepping & clear influences from slavery. It's awe-inspiring to watch.

I did hear from someone else who saw the show, & we had a discussion on the dancing. He brought up a valid point, that even though these two communities are mixed, the dancing doesn't ever mix together. It's always separated. Not something I initially noticed, but I do hope they make a change to include everyone in some dancing.

The neighborhood feels so powerful & connected; & because of that, some sleazy politicians decide to do whatever they can to disrupt the harmony & peace. They start planting ideas of racial divides, specifically drawing influences from the ongoing Civil War (all eligible males, immigrants, & citizens, must serve the Union, however they will not allow any Africans to serve).

This slowly weighs on everyone in the neighborhood, until a breaking point is reached. Some of the men drafted decide to set a fire to the draft papers, & that flame encompasses everything the Five Points was & stood for. Those who always supported Paradise Square were safe, but the bar was not.

At the end, our African American heroine, steps forward, & gives a powerful speech directly to the audience. She mentions that area is a moment in history, where for a brief time, the community lived in the future. A future that has yet to be recognized. A very powerful & poignant sentiment.

This show is right for this time in history. It does need reworking, but it's message outshines any of it's current flaws. I hope this show does get polished up a bit more before the Tony's, however it's just as worthy, if not more so, than any current Broadway shows. I highly recommend seeing the Broadway version if you get the opportunity. Hell, if I'm able to, I might try to see the Broadway version. And if that happens, look out for another review!