Sweet 'Caroline': Kushner's only musical

Last update: March 21, 2008 - 4:25 PM

The theater world's eyes will be fixed on Tony Kushner's "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures" when it opens next April at the Guthrie proscenium stage. Not quite lost in the shuffle but perhaps overshadowed is the Minneapolis premiere of "Caroline, or Change," Kushner's bold foray into musical theater. It will play on the larger thrust stage.

"Caroline" threads the civil rights era through some of Kushner's personal history. Set in the playwright's hometown of Lake Charles, La., the central story deals with an 8-year-old Jewish boy and his family's black maid. Kushner describes the scenario as more conventional than his masterpiece, "Angels in America," although he argues that, "Sometimes I think there are epic ingredients in 'Caroline,' too."

Composer Jeanine Tesori wrote the music for Kushner, and said in a 2004 interview with the Orange County Register that she thought musical theater plays right into the playwright's strengths.

"I've always thought that 'Angels in America' is an opera without music," she told critic Paul Hodgins.

"Caroline" opened at the Public in New York before opening on Broadway in 2004, with Tonya Pinkins in the lead role. It ran for four months. A 2006 London production, also starring Pinkins, won the Olivier Award for best new musical.

GRAYDON ROYCE