Stage review: John Henry tale is a heavy machine

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Take the exploitation of black America during Reconstruction, structure it with metaphoric parallels to the science of mechanics, interweave quotations from dozens of contemporary sources, throw a few tendrils back to the primeval creation of the Alleghenies, add music and a lumbering, evocative set ... pant, pant, pant ... and you have this massive construction called “JH: Mechanics of a Legend.”