New Musical, David, Brings the Biblical King to Off-Broadway
By Two Sues on the Aisle, Susie Rosenbluth and Sue Weston
Too many recent works for the theater seem written with the aim of offending anyone who might want to see them. This is not the case with the new musical, David (yes, that one), now showing at the Off-Broadway AMT Theater on West 45th Street.
Written by Martha Rosenblatt, Gary Glickstein, and Albert Tapper (Mr. Tapper is also the composer), this is that very rare theatrical bird that while designed for adults is also suitable for children and teenagers, especially those who know something about the Biblical King David.
The piece—fully staged with very suitable choreography by Kyle Pleasant—takes for its theme the importance of friendship and the many forms this relationship can assume.
Friendship over Politics
Without underplaying the role of destiny directed by G-d, David examines the bond between David (played as a young man by the dynamic—and very good looking—Ethan Zaph) and the ultimately doomed Jonathan (somber, almost brooding Jacob Louchheim), refuting outright that this relationship bears any similarity to sexual intimacy. Under the most difficult of circumstances—Jonathan’s father, King Saul (Danny Arnold), makes clear that David is his enemy—these two young men decide friendship overrides politics. In their case, friendship also outlasts death itself.
David’s marriage to Jonathan’s sister, Michal (beautiful Olivia Vadnais whose full-throated voice and charm makes the paeon to the devotion shared by a father and daughter, “I am Loved by the King,” a song that may well become a wedding-day anthem) is, as they say, another story. For David and Michal, marriage is friendship even when it doesn’t last.
Friends Tell the Truth
The relationship that frames the musical is the one between the elderly King David (Timothy Warren) and the Prophet Nathan (Kenny Morris, who plays the Biblical sage as something more akin to an irascible congregational rabbi). For these two men, who have grown old together and seen each other at their best and worst, friendship can best be identified as the bond between people sworn to tell one another the truth, no matter the pain or the price.
Nathan’s unwillingness to bear false witness lies at the base of the aged David’s insistence that the prophet agrees to deliver the eulogy at what the king is sure will be his upcoming funeral. For in this musical, David, who is the first to agree he has had his shortcomings, is worried about how he will be remembered. Will it be for his Psalms? Or for his deeds—and misdeeds—as Israel’s second ruler?
He fears his life will be encapsulated to mean nothing more than that he was once “the kid with the slingshot,” which would mean all his other challenges would be consigned to the dustbin of history. But not if the great Nathan will agree to give the eulogy.
Jewish Beacon of Hope
And that is why, with humor and poignancy, accompanied by some very catchy music, they work to recount the dramatic events that led to David’s rise from obscure shepherd to warrior, lover, and eventually, king. They peel away the layers of myth to reveal the man, who is capable of jealousy, heroism, passion, leadership, and love.
The writers make no attempt to tell the Biblical story in every detail, and in this, David is more like the late-Joseph Heller’s novel, God Knows, than David Wolpe’s David: The Divided Heart or Geraldine Brooks’ The Secret Chord. But while Heller’s tragicomedy revels in its skepticism, wavering between hilarity and blasphemy, David the Musical shows us a flawed man who tried very hard to do what was right, often failed, and, in the end, still stands as the symbol of a beacon of hope’s triumph over despair.
David will play through July 14. Buy tickets online.
Trying to Engage Young People
Mr. Tapper, a principal of AMT Theater, says one of his goals is to get young people involved in theater at an early age. If David is an example of what he hopes to accomplish, he’s off to a brilliant start. Tapper says he wrote David (along with Rosenblatt and Glickstein) because the ancient King of Israel is his favorite character in the Bible.
“He’s a man of yesterday and today,” Mr. Tapper says. “His story will still be told 3,000 years from now.”
He is, of course, exactly right.
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Two Sues on the Aisle bases its ratings on how many challahs (1-5) it pays to buy (rather than make) to see the play, show, film, book, or exhibit being reviewed.
David received 5 Challahs
Five Challah Rating
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