"As the band build up the driving reggae skank of Toots and the Maytals' Funky Kingston, the Jamaican capital awakens. A workman's hammer and a cleaner's brush help tap out the tune, the stage bustles with life and in one comic vignette a banana is brandished like a gun. Later in the show, a tamarind-switch punishment will provide a more brutal percussion and real pistols will be drawn one in each hand, as in the iconic poster for the 1972 Jamaican movie."
"If you love the movie but are allergic to musical theatre, fear not they're sweet and dandy. One of them, Hero Don't Never Die, augments the irresistible film-within-the-film in which the characters watch Franco Nero's Django lay waste to his opponents. Henzell's film itself is a spaghetti western at heart, with the arrival of an outsider, country boy Ivan, in a violent town controlled by crooked enforcers, a tyrannical preacher and a powerful businessman (cynical music mogul Hilton)."
A musical adaptation opens with a driving reggae skank that animates Kingston, using everyday sounds and vivid stage vignettes to create atmosphere. The production moves from sun-kissed comedy to elegiac tragedy while supported by a genre-defining soundtrack featuring Jimmy Cliff, the Melodians and Desmond Dekker. Suzan-Lori Parks' book remains faithful to the original screenplay while adding new songs, including Hero Don't Never Die, which enlarges the film-within-the-film moment. The underlying story echoes a spaghetti western: outsider Ivan rises from wannabe singer to criminal to folk hero modeled on Rhyging amid newly independent Jamaica. The staging emphasizes protest, justice and communal solidarity, delivered with energetic performances.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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