Friends and Neighbors

My Ántonia, a new musical having its world premiere at Theatre Latte Da in Minneapolis, is a triumphant production filled with emotion, joy, and humanity. It’s a story that speaks effortlessly about immigrants, the obstacles women face in society, about masculinity, class divides, even art – and it’s all wrapped up in a love story told through gorgeous music and performed by a cast of some of the most talented performers in the Twin Cities.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Willa Cather (one I am personally unfamiliar with), the show tells of a pair of families in 19th-century Nebraska, told through the memories of Jim (Tom Reed), reminiscing about his past to his hard-drinking author friend Willa (Em Rosenberg). Most of his memories revolve around Ántonia, the daughter of a family of Czech (or “Bohemian”, as they’re referred to in the show) immigrants who live close to the farm where he lives with his grandparents. This sort of framing device – taken from the novel – is something that can often feel contrived on stage, but as written in Noah Brody’s book and directed by Jessie Austrian it works surprisingly well, mostly because the two of them aren’t just passive narrators. Jim and Willa don’t just tell the story, they also offer commentary as it goes along, with Willa being unafraid to ask Jim questions or confront him about his mistakes. This more dynamic form of narration also partially takes the curse off of a flaw so many stories like this have: that Jim as the POV character is significantly less interesting than Ántonia herself.

Both Jim and Ántonia are played by three different actors over the course of the show, all seamlessly working together to portray the full span of the lives of these two very different people who nonetheless have a deep and abiding connection. Maddox Tabalba and Lillian Hochman as the youngest versions of the characters give some of the best performances by young actors I’ve seen on stage in recent memory. Both of them get to showcase the whole range of emotions that come from childhood, from joy and silliness to strife and heartbreak. They’re so good that I would have liked to have seen the entire show be built around them. The way the show transitions between the young and adult Ántonia (Sara Masterson) is a remarkable feat of theatre that sweeps you up so completely in the emotion of the moment that you practically forget you’re seeing two different people. The accent work and mannerisms match uncannily well – you truly feel like Ántonia’s spirit has moved from one performer to the other.

Credit should also go to Will Dusek who plays the adult Jim. He gets the most complicated version of that character of the three, often having difficulty processing his own feelings for Ántonia, which sometimes leads him to lash out in a way that hurts them both. This is in no small part because of the complicated issue of gender dynamics on the prairie. Ántonia shows herself to be as strong and hard-working as any male farmhand, with a spunky and assertive personality to boot. She knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to seek it out. Jim by contrast is more bookish, quiet, and seemingly content to follow the path set for him by society. He looks at Ántonia and yearns not just for her romantically but also for her independence. But there are moments when Ántonia’s independence gets her in trouble – she’s still a woman in turn-of-the-century Nebraska, after all, and reputation matters a lot. There are men who she finds herself linked professionally or romantically to that people in town know won’t work out well for her, but either because of her own stubbornness or because of a reluctantance of people to disrupt the town’s dynamic by speaking up, Ántonia stays with them, at least until she can’t anymore. There’s one key scene where Jim tries to protect Ántonia from her shady employer, and it goes wrong in such a horrific way that it drives a wedge between them that he fears might never be fixed.

All of this would be an emotional and heartrending story all on its own, but this is a musical, with an indie/folk flavored score composed by The Kilbanes (Lucille Loertel and Drama Desk award-nominated for their previous musical Weightless) and music direction by Jason Hansen, and it’s beautiful. Every song fits the setting and mood perfectly, from the joyful “Name, What Name” and “Hired Girls” to the mournful “Lay Your Burden Down” and suspenseful “Snake in the Garden”. Contrast this with something like The Great Gatsby that revels in its jazz age setting but has a score that sounds like any number of other contemporary musicals. In My Antonia the songs, whether they serve to move the story forward, deepen our understanding of a character, or simply set the mood, are always a joy to listen to. This is helped, obviously, by being performed by such a wonderful cast. Aside from the previously mentioned Reed, Masterson, Dusek, and Rosenberg, the cast also includes such local mainstays as Sally Wingert, Bradley Greenwald, Emily Gunyou Halaas, and Anna Hashizume. You can tell they all care deeply for this material – it creates an infectious feeling of love that emanates from the stage. There’s always a sense of joy that comes from discovering something new and special, and that’s what I felt through every minute of My Ántonia.

MY ÁNTONIA plays at the Ritz Theatre in Minneapolis through July 12th