What Walt Whitman called the “barbaric yawp” of his poetry has been turned into a tasteful, reverent 80-minute theater piece that celebrates the voice of the 19th Century American writer in music, verse and biographical history.
Eric Rosen, the musical’s author, conceived and first staged his “Whitman” while a doctoral candidate and teacher at Northwestern University; and in the present, highly polished form it has taken in Rosen’s staging at About Face Theatre, the show still has a slight whiff of academia clinging to it.
Eight players–four men and four women–costumed simply in period dress and acting as a chorus, make a stately procession through Whitman’s life and work, concentrating on the period from 1855, which marked the first publication of the poems of “Leaves of Grass,” to the sad end of his life in 1892.
Entries from letters, journals, diaries and public statements by Whitman and those around him provide information on the poet’s career. Extensive excerpts from the poems, many sung (in varying degrees of success) with live piano and cello accompaniment to original music by Andre Pluess and Ben Sussman, offer tastes of the writer’s songs of himself.
“The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it,” Whitman wrote; and Rosen has responded with an extremely affectionate review of Whitman’s life.
The “poet of the Body and poet of the Soul,” as Whitman grandly described himself, has become an icon of the modern gay and lesbian community because of his history of homosexual love affairs.
That aspect of his life, including his period as a male nurse in Washington, D.C., in the Civil War, receives full treatment in “Whitman,” with gentle kissing and touching of bodies by same gender couples.
But there is also an emphasis on the exultant romantic and celebrator of self, the man who wrote, “I dote on myself.” Occasionally, as in the playful treatment of “We Two Boys Together Clinging,” there is even a touch of humor amid the ceremony.
According to Whitman, “Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,” and scenic designer Geoffrey M. Curley has taken him at his word, creating a large, open platform stage with trap doors that allow for several imaginative scenic effects.
Small plots of grass rise up during the “Leaves of Grass” segment. Against the back wall of the auditorium, there are sometimes lovely images of butterflies and foliage, and at one point, a wooden branch, beautifully framed and lighted, is brought on for atmosphere.
Such inventions, and the continuing, rolling force of the Pluess-Sussman music, help make “Whitman” more than a simple recitation of texts, but they cannot quite enliven the evening.
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“Whitman”
When: Through Nov. 26
Where: About Face Theatre, 3212 N. Broadway
Phone: 773-549-3290
