Broadbend, Arkansas NYC Reviews and Tickets

77%

(97 Reviews)

Positive

86%

Mixed

13%

Negative

Members say

Great singing, Slow, Ambitious, Relevant, Disappointing

About the Show

In Transport Group’s world premiere musical, an African-American family grapples with decades of inequality, violence, and suppression in the South.

From the show:

Benny, an orderly at a nursing home, delicately balances his role as a caregiver to an ornery white resident who shares a contentious past with his white boss while at the same time caring for his own family as the fight for equality grips the nation in the midst of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Thirty years later, his daughter, Ruby, struggles to understand an incident of police brutality against her 15-year-old son. This unique musical, spanning nearly half a century and three generations, asks us to contemplate the cycle of violence in this country and how we will find hope and create change against the backdrop of hate that plagues America.

PLEASE NOTE: Please arrive early as there will be no late seating during the first act. Late patrons will be asked to wait until intermission to sit.

Member Reviews (97)

Unadorned, Unfulfilling, Slow, Great singing, Ambitious

See it if u want to hear two spectacular singers perform a chamber musical parable about the multi-generational effects of the Civil Rights movement.

Don't see it if you expect a concise story, a taut narrative, profundity or splashy staging. Read more

Great lighting design, Great sound design, Disappointing, Great singing, Great acting

See it if you really love great voices. Justin Cunningham can make you swoon.

Don't see it if you want a show with a strong book and consistently strong score and lyrics Read more

Critic Reviews (11)

"‘Broadbend, Arkansas,’ Tangled in Its Own Tale: This meandering jazz-infused drama, told across generations of a black family, strains to pull its focus from white women."
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"A Musical Theater Philanthropist Turns Composer in Wishy-Washy 'Broadbend, Arkansas': Two musical one-acts are presented by Transport Group."
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"Beautifully Realized Chamber Musical 'BROADBEND, ARKANSAS' Examines A Family's Legacy From The 60s Civil Rights Movement"
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"Shen's music, which manages to be both jazzy and contemplative, employs a kind of enhanced recitative approach, being tailored seamlessly to the text's progression of thought and providing brief, but powerful, bursts of melody for moments of emotional outpouring."
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4/5 Stars "What distinguishes 'Broadbend, Arkansas'-and make no mistake, it's distinguished, all right-is its trenchant handling of one of today's most pressing and most visible headline grabbers: racism."
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3/5 Stars "A musical crafted by a multi-racial, multi-generational creative team that traces an African-American family's journey over decades from adversity to hope, from the famously innovative Transport Group in association with the Public Theater."
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"'Broadbend, Arkansas' is an instant classic. Although billed as a musical, it is really a chamber opera. The beautiful melodic music by Ted Shen is as American as Aaron Copland with influences of a great many other composers (Samuel Barber, Richard Rodgers, Leonard Bernstein, etc.)."
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"Significant as they are, the themes of 'Broadbend, Arkansas' are too familiar not to require a more memorable narrative. Lacking a strong dramatic text, Shen's music maintains interest only to a point…It's Cunningham and Fulton's performances that keep this…show from going any further south."
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"A 2-character chamber opera that's a thoroughly rewarding musical theater experience."
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"The engagingly emotional two-handed musical...a delicately entwined historical journey that spans generations of pain, love, and defiance, all through the cracked lens of American racial inequality."
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"Billed as a musical about three generations of an African-American family in the South grappling with injustice. While technically accurate, that's a misleading description of a show that falls so short of what it could be, that I prefer to view it as a work in progress."
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