Annie’s always been interested in, as she calls it, the virtuosity of form versus the virtuosity of a performer. Annie-B has a company called Big Dance Theater, and I’ve performed with them since 2005. Can you talk about how Annie works and how the choreography for this show was born? For people who are used to either traditional Broadway choreography or traditional backup dancer choreography in a live music show, the dancing in American Utopia will feel really different. Your connection to Annie-B Parson is how you first got involved in this show. I did “Burning Down the House,” because I’m an old color guard, marching band person, so they were like, “You got this.” I’ve assisted Annie-B on a lot of choreography gigs, and I did choreograph one number in this show. It’s really just a very basic act of me stepping into my queerness and owning it. This is not necessarily about me putting on another face. I was the kid with the purple hair in the second row.” And then I was like, Oh, OK. And he was like, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know how important it was for me to see a queer person onstage with one of my music idols. But then after a show in Brazil, a fan messaged me on Instagram. But with American Utopia, from the beginning, I was wearing makeup and I knew it wasn’t drag. No, she’s the kind of incredible trashy Jersey woman that I grew up with my whole life, that I worship. I wasn’t painting my true deep self on my face when I was doing Kimberly Clark. For Kim, the act of putting on makeup was always just a tool-just a way for me to get from Chris to Kim. What did your drag experience bring to the work you did in the show? You have a YouTube channel for Kimberly and you’ve been performing in that persona for a long time. Kimberly is my drag persona, and this is her home base. Just as Stop Making Sense was more than just another live album from just another rock band, American Utopia on Broadway does more than document Byrne's 2018-2019 tour, it stands as a grand and powerful statement of its own from an artist who is as relevant now as he was in his salad days.Dan Kois: Whoa, what is this beautiful room you’re in?Ĭhris Giarmo: It’s Kimberly Clark’s beauty room. And if American Utopia was thoughtful and whip smart, the Broadway show is thoughtful, whip smart, and fun - an entertainment that doesn't compromise its intellect for its unique brand of showmanship and vice versa. For the show, Byrne also filled out the program with a rich variety of songs from his days with Talking Heads and his solo career, and they enhance the effect of the American Utopia numbers, as well as reminding us that the LP's view of the State of the Union in the Trump era was ultimately one more chapter in a story he's been pondering for decades now. Where the surfaces of the studio album were often cool and dryly ironic, the sweat and fire of a live show is apparent throughout, and Byrne's ensemble is capable of cutting his brand of funk with confidence and élan. Listening to this performance without seeing it puts the material at a certain disadvantage, but this is a significantly more satisfying and pleasurable experience than the American Utopia album was. The tour eventually led to a run on Broadway, and American Utopia on Broadway documents how the show sounded to the patrons who saw it on the Great White Way. Byrne's 2018 album American Utopia fared well with critics, but what really caught the attention of his audience was the tour he mounted in support, in which he performed with a small army of dancers and musicians who were in constant, carefully choreographed movement that changed it from a concert into something truly spectacular. David Byrne may be the most cerebral rock musician of his generation, but unlike most of the artists who follow close behind him, he's someone who understands the physicality of performance and the notion of giving it up for an audience smart and arty as he may be, he understands the age-old concept of giving the audience a show, and he happens to be very good at it.
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