Deaf West Theatre’s revival of Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn opened last night on Broadway. Here’s the first paragraph of my review in this morning’s Wall Street Journal:
Why on earth–and how on earth–would a deaf theater company bring a musical to Broadway? Neither part of this question can be briefly answered, but in the case of Deaf West Theatre’s magical production of “Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” which opened last night at the American Airlines Theatre, the results need no explaining. This stage version of Mark Twain’s novel, first seen on Broadway in 1985, is now being revived by a mixed cast of deaf and hearing actors who not only speak and sing their lines out loud but simultaneously “say” them in American Sign Language. Laborious as the process may sound, Jeff Calhoun, the director and choreographer, has shaped it into a miraculously fluid theatrical spectacle….
To read the rest of the review, you’ll have to fork out a dollar for the Journal, whose “Weekend Journal” section is worth at least that much in gold.