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This review was originally published on March 7, 2024, whenIllinoiseopened at the Park Avenue Armory.
At the77th Tony Awards, Justin Peck won the award for best choreography.
Where have your laws gone?
I think about it now.
Stevenss music is sweeping and many-splendored, as rich in its orchestrations as it is raw in its emotion.
For 90 glorious minutes, youdofeel.
Irony and cynicism slink away with their tails between their legs.
That and the music will tell us everything we need to know.
They Are Neighbors!!
They Have Come Back from the Dead!!
Tittles dancing is magnificent: This isnt tap as quaint Broadway diversion.
Its tap as athletic, virtuosic heritage, both physical and spiritual.
We know, however, as we go on these individual journeys, that a central storyline awaits us.
His comrades keep encouraging him to share, but he cant quite bring himself to step forward.
Its also a coming-out story and a leaving-home story.
Mourning his lover was also the first time the singer spoke publicly about his sexuality.
(Stevens himself isnt onstage inIllinoise; hes just everywhere inside it.)
Much has been made of Stevenss religiosityis he Christian?
All things go … All things grow, sang Sufjan.
Now, in another world, in the same old world,Illinoisesings on.
May it leave behind seeds for more theater that dances, literally or figuratively, with such joyful abandon.
Illinoiseis at the St. James Theatre.
