Talking Head David Byrne rocks Broadway

David Byrne’s theatrically conceived concert event has been playing to near-capacity crowds at the Hudson Theatre.

David Byrne at the International Convention Centre in Sydney. His Broadway show American Utopia has outsold many other shows on a weekly basis, despite having only six performances a week versus the more standard eight. Picture: Christian Gilles

Another rock star is finding success on Broadway.

David Byrne’s American Utopia, a theatrically conceived concert event featuring the one-time Talking Heads lead singer, has been playing to near-capacity crowds at the Hudson Theatre since last month. It has outsold many other Broadway shows on a weekly basis, despite having only six performances a week versus the more standard eight.

In one week, American Utopia grossed $US951,411 ($1.4m), topping eight-shows-a-week Broadway hits such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Mean Girls and The Phantom of the Opera, according to industry trade group the Broadway League.

Byrne’s success is not quite on the same scale as Bruce Springsteen, whose Springsteen on Broadway grossed $US113m across a 14-month run, but it does show that concert artists can find a home on the Great White Way.

While American Utopia features many of the artist’s popular songs from his Talking Heads days and solo career, including Burning Down the House, it is a highly theatrical event. Byrne and his musicians are in constant motion, presenting the songs almost like a marching band from an alternative universe.

American Utopia has a different approach than that embraced by Springsteen, whose show was largely a telling of his life story interspersed with his songs. But it is similar in that it shows how a musical artist can conceive their work for the Broadway stage.

Byrne is no stranger to New York theatre audiences. His rock musical, Here Lies Love, about Imelda Marcos, was presented off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in two separate runs.

The Wall Street Journal