'Rolling Thunder' Off-Broadway review — make rock music, not war
Read our review of Rolling Thunder: A Rock Journey off Broadway, a new musical at New World Stages set to the rock music of the '60s and '70s Vietnam War era.
With songs like the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” and Peter Green’s “Black Magic Woman,” the new show Rolling Thunder: A Rock Journey underscores various characters' journeys into the Vietnam War. The story by Bryce Hallett frames the arcs of four young men — Johnny (Drew Becker), Mike (Deon’te Goodman), Andy (Daniel Yearwood), and Thomas (Justin Matthew Sargent) — from innocent patriots and draft picks to traumatized veterans through letters to and from their loved ones (Cassadee Pope and Courtnee Carter) back home.
But though there is technically a book, the scenes come and go, devoid of drama and nuance and flanked by unmemorable video graphics. These scenes, anyway, are just the paste holding together great rock music from the era, competently performed by the cast and onstage band.
Rolling Thunder's nostalgia is rooted in the effective wail for justice, solidarity, and care that the music (like Edwin Starr’s legendary “War” or Barry McGuire's “Eve of Destruction”) articulates in a way the script does not. The letters only offer a thin psychology of the characters, bland first-person accounts of the paranoia and brutality of war, and vaguely condescending descriptions of Saigon’s inhabitants, who are as much, if not more so, victims of Western warmongering as the soldiers.
There are echoes of a project like Julie Taymor’s 2007 film Across the Universe, which uses the music of the Beatles to communicate the sociopolitical changes in the U.S. as the Vietnam War radically changed young people’s perception of their place in the world. But Rolling Thunder is less experimental and less concerned with — despite the impressive array of newspaper headlines that splatter across the screens — charting the evolution of the war at home and abroad. Little TVs across the stage often feature Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon addressing the state of affairs, but their presence is more like a visual interlude between songs at a concert.
If one wants to hear “House of the Rising Sun” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” (on-the-nose choices, to be sure) energetically sung, then Rolling Thunder is not a terrible place to escape the heat this summer. Sargent provides a vocal chord-shredding rendition of “Rising Sun,” and Carter gives verve to “Nowhere to Run.” Though the characters’ letters are supposed to provide a personal, on-the-ground context to this music, Rolling Thunder leans toward redundancy by simply reaffirming the American narrative of the Vietnam War. It is constantly battling itself, betraying that the furious sounds of the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and Steppenwolf are better at capturing a generation’s wartime anxieties and desperations than most conventional drama could hope for.
Rolling Thunder summary
In Rolling Thunder, four soldiers are enlisted and hope the Vietnam War will give their life meaning. They express their ambitions and fears through letters home to their mothers and girlfriends, and all the while, the greatest rock songs of the '60s and '70s — like “Magic Carpet Ride,” “The Letter,” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” — soundtrack their struggles in a changing world.
What to expect at Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder’s design is simple but fairly effective, with scenery by Wilson Chin maintaining a concert look, the stage scattered with box TVs, and lighting work from Jake DeGroot (particularly well-used during helicopter scenes). The video design by Caire Hevner does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of setting narrative context, and while they’re skillfully made, the constant barrage of graphics implies a lack of trust in the audience’s ability to imagine themselves in a warzone of the past and get lost in the music.
What audiences are saying about Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder has an 81% audience approval rating on the review aggregator Show-Score, compiled from 30 reviews from theatregoers who largely praised the performances of the classic rock songs.
- “Interesting exploration of the era. It allows the audience to connect with the young soldiers that served in the Vietnam War. First, we learn about their dreams, expectations, and apprehension. Later we learn about their struggles, their longing, their trepidation and their suffering.” - Show-Score user ZORAYDA M
- “Excellent performers singing rock songs from the mid 60s/early 70s with video footage of the time. The characters are composite sketches, reading letters pertaining to Vietnam and those affected by it.” - Show-Score user nancykasz
- “It was a nice concert, I guess…? But I’m not really sure who the target audience was.” - Show-Score user Dan 4013
Read more audience reviews of Rolling Thunder on Show-Score.
Who should see Rolling Thunder
- Fans of music from the mid-’60s and early ’70s will enjoy the energetic performances from the cast and band.
- Jake DeGroot’s lighting work is fantastic and gives each song a distinctive feel and aura.
- See the show if you want to experience standout vocal performances from Justin Matthew Sargent and Courtnee Carter.
Learn more about Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder: A Rock Journey is more of a concert than a musical with emotional thrust. Its ability to explore the tragedies of war, shifting social and political landscape, or political manipulation in the era starts and stops at spectacle. Even as the cast carries protest signs during one number, with blink-and-you’ll-miss-them Ukraine and Pride flags displayed above them, Rolling Thunder is indifferent about acknowledging the ways in which history rhymes with itself, remaining unable to roar with contemporary resonance despite the thunderous guitar licks.
Photo credit: Rolling Thunder off Broadway. (Photos by Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)
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