Price of Victory

Warrior

Presented by Actors Bridge Ensemble

Through Oct. 7 at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theatre, 222 Fifth Ave. S.

The hit-factory “co-write” is a staple of the Nashville music business. But nowhere is this style of communal relationship more evident in our town than at Actors Bridge Ensemble, where a special and productive bond has been formed with songwriter Marcus Hummon. Actors Bridge has produced four Hummon musical pieces in the past few years, including last year’s Francis of Guernica (slated for remounting in the spring by Tennessee Repertory Theatre) and American Tune, which may yet find renewed life in a New York staging in the near future.

Hummon’s latest creation debuted last weekend at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theatre. Warrior is a musical biography charting the turbulent, often tortured life of Native American world-class athlete Jim Thorpe. His story was told most popularly in 1951 by way of Michael Curtiz’ film, Jim Thorpe—All American, starring Burt Lancaster. It would be pointless to compare the two works: The Lancaster vehicle is entertaining, yet filled with Hollywood melodrama; Warrior, on the other hand, is an unrelentingly musical piece, albeit one that takes liberties of its own.

So let me state up front that Mr. Hummon’s gifts are well intact. His distinctive blend of pop, folk, bluegrass, and gospel does often thrill and inspire. He plays the piano, guitar, and mandolin with professionalism and passion, and he is nicely backed up by Steven Sheehan on guitar and Andrea Zonn on violin. (Prerecorded sound tracks are also tastefully and subtly interpolated into the score.)

Furthermore, director Bill Feehely coordinates events in the Actors Bridge style, which involves making the most of limited space—Ford Theatre is a concert venue, truth to tell—drawing on dependable, familiar talent, and infusing the performance with controlled movement and useful but fairly unambitious dance (with choreography by Cara Rawlings). In these regards, and especially with the Hummon projects, Actors Bridge Ensemble may be the most repertory-like company in spirit that we have in Nashville.

To be sure, this is all to the good. In general, Warrior is solid entertainment, and there are musical passages that simply soar and chill the spine. Nevertheless, a full-bodied review of this work of art demands closer scrutiny.

If musical theater is an exercise in show and tell, then Warrior does little of the former. The program lays out summaries of each scene, not unlike opera, then amplifies the outline through song. Not a thing wrong with that, but we are shown very little of Thorpe’s personality. He comes off—documentary-like—as a propped-up figure who is acted upon by all things devilish: his upbringing, booze, his Sac and Fox heritage, the athletic fraternity, and so on. There is also at least one misdirection when it is stated that Thorpe batted “close to .300” in his baseball career. While the musical number “To Hit or Miss a Curve” addresses the issue of Thorpe’s difficulties in Major League Baseball, it should still be noted that his career batting average was .252.

Hummon finds a real bad guy in the story in the person of Avery Brundage, former president of the American and International Olympic committees. Facts are maybe stretched here: Brundage finished sixth in the 1912 Olympic decathlon that Thorpe won, meaning he wouldn’t have been on the medals dias as is portrayed. And while Brundage, a millionaire construction magnate in private life, reportedly harbored resentments against Thorpe till the day he died—and all because Thorpe had taken a little money as a semi-pro athlete before he struck Olympic gold—this theme seems to be hammered into us with too much force. The play also tends to imply that Brundage was a bigot, thoroughly disgusted at Thorpe’s rather coarse receipt of his gold medal in the presence of the King of Sweden.

The Thorpe portrayal is both helped and hindered by Mark Luna. When he sings numbers such as “Easy to Fall, Hard to Rise” and “Rush” (co-written by SHeDAISY’s Kristyn Osborn), he’s terrific, his voice cajoling out bittersweet feeling and commanding great attention. Yet Luna isn’t much of an actor. Perhaps so much the better that Hummon’s music is decidedly stronger—and more prevalent—than his script.

In addition to the two aforementioned songs, there are engaging musical numbers throughout. The show’s choral theme, “Welcome,” is tunefully stirring—and certainly fits well with the current patriotic mood in our country. “Forty-nine to Nothin’ “ (co-written by Hummon’s father, John, and Jack Packard) is a fun number sung by a Harvard football team being decimated by Thorpe’s on-field prowess. Brundage’s oft-reprised “Thanks, King” is down, dirty, yet still humorous. And the duet “Iva’s Lament/Child in Winter” is moving to be sure.

Feehely has assembled an excellent supporting cast. He’s got the marvelous Michelle Prentice on hand as Thorpe’s first wife. As in last year’s Francis, her singing is simply beautiful. Tim Orr Fudge as the embittered Brundage is also very good, as is Milton Bagby in the role of legendary football coach Pop Warner. As Whiskey, the Ariel-like representation of alcoholism, Jacqueline Graziano is as light and airy as an Indian feather and fraught with delectably dark good looks. Various ensemble players help noticeably with their singing and dancing, including Nathan Lacey, Lisa Marie Smith, Tara Lacey, Pam Boylan, and Alain Browning. Hummon’s wife, Rev. Becca Stevens, even gets into the act, acquitting herself nicely.