Review Roundup: Todrick Hall’s MIDNIGHT Opens Off-Broadway

Todrick Hall’s new musical Midnight recently celebrated its opening night Off-Broadway, and the reviews are rolling in in. Find out what critics are saying about the new production below.

Set in the American South during the 19th century, Midnight explores love, identity, empathy, and the relationships that connect people across divisions of race and class. The sung-through musical features a score blending gospel, rhythm and blues, pop, rock, folk, opera, and musical theatre.

The story follows twelve interconnected characters, six Black and six white, whose friendships, romances, and personal conflicts challenge their beliefs and the social expectations of their time.

The 28-member company includes Todrick Hall, Jeremy Beloate, Charlotte Odusanya, Kennedy Caughell, Kolbi Jordan, Bella Coppola, Tony Award nominee Sidney DuPont, Jimmy Brewer, Dwayne Clark, Ciarán McCarthy, Ayana George, Autumn Hurlbert, Jenni Thomasson, Bronwyn Tarboton, Nissi Shalome, Ndaya Dream Hoskins, JJ Niemann, Brayden Newby, Jaylon C. Crump, Brandon Burks, Abbey Friedmann, Aveena Sawyer, Keely Beirne, Emily Yates, Barnaby Reiter, Matthew Varvar, Omar Madden, Gregory Carl Banks Jr., and Kyla Bartholomeusz.

Kyle Turner, New York Theatre Guide: Midnight is surely entertaining: The cast feels gloriously unified while also giving actors like Charlotte Odusanya, Bella Coppola, Ayana George, Kennedy Caughell, and Kolbi Jordan standout vocal moments of their own. The choreography is dynamic and creates fine stage imagery, and the score has multiple earworms. But one can’t help but wonder if Midnight is also indebted to the age of the megamusical, when spectacle mattered more than a meaningful relationship between the subject matter and the style in which it’s delivered. Does Miss Saigon really need that gigantic helicopter to convey the impossibility of love in a fruitless, tragic war? Does Midnight really need clubby strobe lights while Rail gets beaten on a plantation? Probably not, but it certainly is memorable.

Dan Rubins, Slant Magazine: If Midnight makes the leap to Broadway, Hall should embrace the show’s thorny uncertainties, including the risky possibility that audience members asked to see the world through a new lens may glimpse vastly different vistas. Rather than pulling his punches, he can acknowledge that his theatrical experiment, much like race in America, is complex, messy, and resistant to easy solutions. Midnight already sounds, looks, and innovates like the best new musical of the year. Instead of smoothing over its difficulties, Hall should go further, exposing the rough edges.

Kelsey Minor, 1 Minute Critic: The voices are powerful, and by the end, theatergoers will wonder whether they could live someone else’s life. Although the show is set in the 1800s and centers on racism and homophobia, both remain sources of contention today. The music will keep you in your seat, but the message, especially so close to a monumental midterm election, will challenge your heart and mind.

Average Rating: 80.0%

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