Review: JUSTICE Gets It Done Where Decisions are Made

There's a lavish public appetite for musicals these days. Chalk it up, perhaps, to creative vengeance after a stifling pandemic. In any case, it's great news to theater artists with a bent for collaboration. And when a musical takes on the urgency of the moment, the creator's inspiration becomes a genuine point of interest.

A vast segment of the canon is derivative work and a trendy restyling of some magnum opus (I write this as HADESTOWN completes a sold-out run in Tucson). That said, a wave of subtler innovations is sweeping the regional community, Arizona being a frontrunner in the effort to nurture seminal works and breed a new generation of audiences.

Conventional workhorses will always be a draw, but the future is bright with regard to a diversified theater landscape. One thing is certain: If the plan is to commission Lauren Gunderson to spearhead a project of national consequence, we've learned to expect a product with a strong feminist thesis.

For an entire year, this quaint little pueblo has heralded the world premiere of JUSTICE, a brand new musical off the press at Arizona Theatre Company. Pardon my early skepticism, but up till now I was averse to any suggestion of women in robes riffing on the tedium of legal matters.

My better judgment prompted an open mind, chiefly due to Gunderson's close alliance with Tucson's artistic community (it's her second show of the season). Like numerous cities across the country, we've grown spoiled by her prolific outreach. This time around, local audiences are discovering the playwright's flair for collaboration as we find her shrewd book nimbly integrated with Bree Lowdermilk's music and Kait Kerrigan's lyrics.

What's brewing at ATC is nothing short of providential. JUSTICE feels profoundly earnest in its development, and even as the piece is rendered concert-style we're left with a fierce sensation that Arizona's regional theater company has struck gold, albeit mining is still in progress.

If Broadway is in the cards, don't be surprised and remember where it all started.

The seed was planted as a casual pitch to the playwright, pre-pandemic, by artistic director Sean Daniels, who had mused about a play centered around Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female justice of the US Supreme Court from Arizona. Not one to defer a good challenge, Gunderson took the offer with one clear stipulation: Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to be in it.

What do you know - a perfect liberal foil to a Reagan conservative. A playwright worth her salt ought to be able to craft a vigorous discourse from both sides of the ideological prism.

Indeed she does - and more. By creating a third character in Vera Douglas, an African-American Supreme Court nominee, Gunderson gives an urgent voice to a marginalized archetype and provides the necessary conduit between perceived opposites.

Like I said, some insights are too uncanny to be mere coincidence: Gunderson was prescient in crafting a significant third character, and JUSTICE is a prophetic declaration of Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation, the first black woman to earn the court's highest seat.

It's a 90-minute ritual of sorts, a respectful homage to justices who've gone before, both Red and Blue, to go along with quick-witted banter between ideological foes who become close friends.

All this is sustained with a blend of ardor and finesse by the formidable trio of Nancy Opel (Sandra Day O'Connor), Joan Ryan (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), and Chanel Bragg (Vera Douglas). All three are identified by their unique individual contribution and defined by their primal bond of sisterhood. Ms. Opel is a dignified and tender O'Connor, matched in wit by Ms. Ryan's lovably irreverent RBG (she sings an appropriately titled song, "Notorious"). Ms. Bragg is a force of nature, a dynamic talent we should all be so grateful to have in-house (she doubles as ATC's associate artistic director).

The compelling synergy forged by Bree Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan makes JUSTICE a bona fide addition to the best small musicals this decade has seen. Lowdermilk paints a distinctive color for each woman's solo as though she's channeling the timbre of the original voices. The group numbers reveal a sophisticated, polyphonic variety. These are finely constructed songs, each one made exclusively more poignant by Kerrigan's deft storytelling. If you aren't moved by the time you reach the song, "The Mind Goes," Nancy Opel makes sure no eyes are dry as Justice O'Connor laments her progressive mental decline due to Alzheimer's disease.

No doubt the creative team of JUSTICE isn't finished tweaking the material. It's what gives it currency; it's relevant, it's fresh, and it's going places. You'd be wise to see it before it leaves Arizona and ticket prices go up.

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