From the Variety review
"The songs by Howland, often taking off from a base of a Stephen Foster original, are filled with rich harmonies and elegant crescendos, and the lyrics from Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare are a bit less rich but generally functional. The problem is that the songs don’t tend to propel the action, even if they do attempt to let us into the character’s inner lives.
In fact, the leads tend to be primarily reactive throughout. Instead, two other characters catalyze the action. First, there’s Frederic Tiggens (John Dossett), the most purely symbolic character of the bunch, a walking-and-talking villain dressed by designer Toni Leslie-Jones to look like a Monopoly figure. He’s both an evil capitalist (and therefore anti-abolition) and a corrupt politician, and one can only wonder why he wasn’t also made the owner of a newspaper. He’s a tornado of terrible-ness, and pretty much everything is his fault. He uses his power to fine Nelly huge sums, so much that she arranges a dance competition — a feish in Gaelic, pronounced “fesh” — to raise the money.
The other catalyst is Lucky Mike (Kevin Dennis), who comes back injured from the war and can’t find work. Tiggens whispers in his ear that he should blame African-Americans for taking his job, and the resentment begins to boil. When the draft is announced, and Blacks can’t serve because they aren’t citizens and the wealthy can buy their way out, Lucky Mike recruits the likable but terrified Owen to activism.
White resentment channeled to conspiracy, violence and ultimately targeted against minorities with even less political power — Sound familiar? It’s a fair connection, reminding us that as a country we’ve been repeating ourselves for centuries. But “Paradise Square” does carefully leave out more seething racism as a driving force, which leaves a big gap in explaining exactly why the riots turn away from the wealthy. It’s a gargantuan narrative hole that strips the ending of force, making it feel abstract."
Was the "owner of a newspaper" part a reference to Newsies? I do think that show manages to use individuals to make a systemic argument which seems like the opposite of what's happening here with the two villain structure. I hope they can somehow fix the "songs don’t tend to propel the action" problem.
, the morning news anchor of the ABC station ("blown away"
.jpg?format=auto&width=365)
