Where to find it: may be on NowTV
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Broadway show from the art pop auteur
Recommendation rating: 3/5
What I like about it: choreography, band, music
What I don’t like about it: singing, time better spent rewatching Stop Making Sense
Review:
This show opens with Byrne alone on stage making observations about neurology, he’s wearing a grey suit with nothing on his feet, he’s soon joined by two backing singers dressed the same way as they all indulge in an interpretive hand-signalling dance. They’re joined by increasing numbers of live musicians/dancers (they do both at once and everyone else in this show is frankly more impressive than Byrne) and the choreography is also regularly reminiscent of Stop Making Sense, feeling like a big budget rehash. The setlist is basically a personally-selected Greatest Hits set, containing too much new stuff for all but the most hardcore Byrne fans but it is very well played and mixed. He was never a good singer but he seems to have gotten flatter and weaker with age. The artistic statements are beyond baffling, ranging from Dadaist poetry to a salute to Colin Kaepernick to just repeating “nyah nyah nyah” into the microphone. Plenty of cheap pops for the liberal Broadway crowd.
If you like spectacle, choreography and autistic art as much as I do, you won’t regret watching it – but then not many people do.
Content notes (may contain spoilers): strobe lighting