The piece began as an album that Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, released on Nonesuch Records in March 2018. Byrne's persona became sunnier and more communal, as you could see in Jonathan Demme's great 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, where Byrne and his fellow Talking Heads exude sheer collective joy.David Byrne's smash-hit Broadway show American Utopia has made its way to UK screens. What liberated him seems to have been his encounter with Black music, both American funk and the complex rhythms of Brazil. With his on-stage tics and spasms, he seemed a bit like Psycho's Norman Bates, if Norman hadn't turned into his dead mother but instead gone to art school. Back in his early, post-punk days, he was almost a parody of the nerdy, angst-riddled white guy. In a way, the show echoes Byrne's own artistic transformation. While Byrne starts alone on the stage, by the grand finale, he and his co-stars are marching through the aisles singing the cheery song "Road to Nowhere." Everybody's together on-screen - even the audience. It's about men and women from a diversity of races and cultures coming together to create something new, alive and beautiful that helps people connect. It's the show itself.įor Byrne, utopia is about embracing difference. Yet his vision of utopia is not any kind of political program. And yes, Byrne points out that many of his cast members are immigrants, as is he - a naturalized American born in Scotland. Yes, he gives a little speech about the need to vote - but he doesn't say who for. You'll be relieved to hear that Byrne is not hectoring. It's about conjuring an image of an American utopia. In fact, the show isn't actually about burning anything down. The answers range from the welcoming good spirits of "Everybody's Coming to My House" to the rowdier energies found in Talking Heads' party song "Burning Down the House."
#DAVID BYRNE AMERICAN UTOPIA DVD SERIES#
American Utopia features a series of songs that ask questions about the meaning of home.
Thanks to wireless technology, everyone moves around the stage in seemingly total freedom.īyrne's work has long been obsessed with the many ways of being imprisoned - in oneself, in an addiction to things, in a meaningless life - and equally attuned to different forms of escape.
He's gradually joined by his equally barefoot co-stars, also uniformed in silver-gray suits, who sing, dance and play hand-held instruments as they perform nearly 20 Byrne songs, from his Talking Heads classics to his more recent solo work. First Listen Review: David Byrne, 'American Utopia'Īmerican Utopia starts with Byrne, barefoot in a silver-gray suit, holding a model of the brain and pondering different ideas of connection.
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