TheaterMania: Brazilian-born percussionist Mauro Refosco began playing with former Talking Heads front man David Byrne during his 1994 In Constant Motion tour. American-born Karl Mansfield, a veteran Broadway keyboard player and synth programmer, first worked with Byrne on his Public Theater musical Joan of Arc. Together, they're the dual musical directors of Byrne's American Utopia, now at the St. James Theatre for a victory lap after its Tony-honored 2019 run and subsequent Spike Lee filming.
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I’m a huge fan of David Byrne and the Talking Heads, although I never got the chance to see American Utopia. However, I definitely plan on checking it out now. The way the two musical directors talk about it is super interesting, and I’d love to watch it for myself. I didn’t know much about the show, but it seems to be a really interesting mix of rock concert and live dance performance piece. The way they incorporated technology and music into the show is really interesting, especially the fact that none of the instruments were visibly wired, which allowed all the musicians to be much more mobile. I know David Byrne is pretty out there when it comes to musicians in what he likes to do on stage, so maybe this won’t catch on, but I’d be interested to see if this took off as the future of concerts.
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