BWW Reviews: Premier Arts Opens World Premier of HARRIET THE MUSICAL

On February 27, 2015, the Premier Arts located in Elkhart, Indiana opened the musical, "Harriet The Musical" for the world to see for the very first time. This new musical, with an all-local creative team, impressed the audience with its original score, and original book. This musical presented a Historical Fiction take of the life of Harriet Tubman, a true American Hero who lived during the 1800's in the time of slavery. Premier Arts took on this giant task of writing an original musical, and succeeded in bringing it to life on stage this weekend in Elkhart.

"Harriet The Musical" is an original musical with a creative team all from Elkhart, Indiana. With a book and direction by Premier Arts executive director, Craig Gibson, and music and lyrics by Liesl Bell, this musical tells us the life and journey of Harriet Tubman. Starting as a child, we flashback to see the tribulations of her Mother, an African native who was captured by slave traders and brought to the United States. Harriet as a young child meets a Quaker family, The Overtons, who will come to play a big part in the savings of African Americans in the south through the Underground Railroad. Throughout this musical, transformations take place and we see Harriet Tubman as a young child, a teen, a middle-aged adult, and a fully grown women.

The original score by Liesl Bell was truly brilliant. I absolutely loved the mix of African-American spiritual, and a very conservative style of hymns. In Act 1, there is a song (no songs were listed in program) where both the White citizens and African-American citizens are singing but both styles of music mix with each other. I absolutely loved it. The songs written for characters to stand and deliver were also very powerful. The ballads were a very nice touch to the story. I also loved the African song written for the ensemble during the time when slave traders captured Harriet's Mom. I loved the choreography during the number as well. At some points I felt the songs were a little long in length, but they got the message through well, and I understood why they were in the story. I also loved the incorporation of classic spirituals and folk tunes such as, "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" and, "Go Down Moses". I thought this added a very nice touch to represent the time of the show. Vocals of the cast were always spot on, and the ensemble numbers were flawless vocally. Well done!

The book by Craig Gibson was sometimes confusing, but I thought it was a nice take on Harriet. Gibson writes in his director notes that he didn't want to make it a straight biography, but a historical fiction piece with characters that didn't exist to help the story move. I would of liked to seen more of the story of Harriet Tubman herself, and more action of her in the Underground Railroad. I felt the show started a little slow, picked up, and got slow again. In the directors notes, Gibson also says, "This production uses the familiar character and struggle of Harriet Tubman to tell a story of equality that is as relevant today as it was so many years ago." I lost this point a little bit throughout the story, and would like to see improvement. Overall, I thought the story was very interesting, and I definitely picked up on the goal of Gibson. I would just like to see more of Harriet's tribulations she faces to reach that goal.

I thought the blocking by director Craig Gibson was very good. The acting in this show was great by the leads and supporting roles. I especially loved the women who played the role of Harriet. Tsehai Bean (Little Harriet), Teondra Lawrence (Young Harriet), Leatra Scott (Adult Harriet), and Nekeisha Alayna Alexis (Older Harriet), all portrayed this iconic woman so well. From young to old, I felt the character was the same even though another person was playing the role, and for that I give much kudos to Gibson. I also loved the blocking of transformations between the Harriet's throughout the show. The vocals of these ladies were also dead on. I loved the moments when Harriet got to stand and deliver and put so many feelings on that stage, and I definitely was feeling the passion. I also loved the powerful choices made by the production team, many that put the show on a different level. Choreography of this show was also great. It reflected the time of the piece very well, and I absolutely loved the African style dance. It was very accurate, and well blocked.

Tech wise, I thought everything was great. I loved the minimalistic set that was covered with woven fabrics, and different level platforms. It never once distracted me from the action happening with the actors. The sound was good, I never had a problem hearing and there was always a good balance of piano and actors. One little moment in the show there was bleed through of a mic that was distracting, but overall it was great. Lighting reflected the time of the piece very well, and spots were used very well with the powerful ballads that were given by single actors in the duration of the show. During the flashback to Africa when Harriet's mom gets captured, there were multi-color spots of reds, yellows, and blues that flashed back and forth on stage, and I thought they were very distracting and were very inaccurate to the piece. Other than that, I thought the tech aspect of "Harriet The Musical" were great.

Overall, I thought the production of "Harriet The Musical" by Premier Arts was great. My absolute favorite part was feeling the passion from the actors and crew as they produced this show. I can't begin to imagine the countless amount of time Premier Arts has put into the original musical. As always, there is room to improve. I would love to see some changes to this musical to make it even better than it is now. But Premier Arts is off to a great start with this musical, and I look forward to see where it goes from here. I definitely recommend you going to support Premier Arts by seeing this production! The run will continue on Saturday February 28th, at 7:30pm, and Sunday March 1st at 3pm. For tickets, please visit Premier Arts website at www.premierarts.org

I really enjoyed this orignal musical produced by local people of our South Bend Region! As always, support the arts! Tweet me! @AP_95

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