How do you stage the story of Woody Guthrie, possibly the most iconic and certainly one of the most prolific songwriters and chroniclers of the first half of what we might call “the American century”? Theater Alliance has honored him with a musical tribute outdoors in a park next to the Southwest Wharf. I was there on Saturday night’s rescheduled opening when the Friday show had to be canceled due to a lightning storm. A hot late summer night in Washington, and we came to celebrate a man and his music, and hope hung in the air.
People started gathering informally. Many brought blankets or folding canvas chairs. Pretty soon we were talking to each other and helping each other accommodate space for the families and the occasional dogs that had come along, soon to be strangers no longer. I couldn’t help but think Woody would have liked this.
Soon, the performers, all nine singers and a designated bass player, threaded their way through the audience singing up onto a makeshift stage, decorated with some funky-looking red-white-and-blue painted boards as a backdrop and some long rags hanging from the structural pipe scaffolding. One of the singers carried an old guitar with the words painted on it, just like Woody’s, “This machine kills Fascists.”
Peter Glazer, who conceived and adapted the songs and writings of Woody Guthrie, did not want this to be a star bio-musical but a “shared telling.” In his collaboration with director Tim Seib, they had landed on the convention borrowed from the tradition of Indigenous people of passing the talking stick. Only here it would be a guitar, passed around, and both the male and female performers took turns, stepping into Woody’s proverbial shoes and singing his songs.
Born in Oklahoma in 1912, Woody early on picked up songs and stories on the street, and as a young man he began crisscrossing the country, riding freight trains, picking up odd jobs, from writing journalism pieces to working on the Grand Coulee Dam, and making friends with many he’d meet along the way. He lived through the stock market crash and Great Depression, the Dust Bowl that lost farmers their livelihood and their homes, and the mining industry boom that made investors rich but forced miners to work in airless, unsafe conditions underground. He was there in New York and other cities as the unions organized. Folk always knew when he sang “Which side are you on?” where he stood. He stood with workers, the downtrodden, and the poor. He was, as he termed himself, a “fellow traveler.”
And so, these super expressive performers — Marvin Wayne, Savina Barini, Jeremy Allen Crawford, Jordan Leah Embrack, Anne Graninger, Ixchel, Ethan J. Miller, Liam Tanner, and Faith Wang — proved to be a fellow-traveling ensemble. They showed us in song after song people facing hard times, people we can relate to — wanderin’ workers, “jungle camps” of the displaced, worried men (and women), and folk who’ve come to the end of the line.
One of the most powerful songs in the program was “Deportees,” where we felt the resonance to our times most keenly. The song is about Mexican migrant workers in California and an historic tragedy that occurred when a plane carrying some deportees crashed. Some songs were well known, such as “Union Maid (Oh, you can’t scare me, I’m sticking to the union).” Several were graced by duets, sung in lovely harmony, and many songs were expanded to incorporate the full ensemble. Sadness and despair and even class anger were shot through or replaced by joy and hope by the resilient people who cannot be stopped. They encouraged the audience to join in, and many did. The evening had us clapping and tapping along. We all affirmed the message, as Woody sings in his most popular anthem: “This land is your land; this land is your land … this land is made for you and me.”
The show sums up to be a joyful testament to the mission of Theater Alliance and the good work of Artistic Director Shanara Gabrielle and her team to bring people together, to give voice to the marginalized, and to have all of us go away thinking more deeply about our shared humanity. This is a summer treasure. Come soak some up while it lasts. Now until August 29.
P.S. One of the aspects of living in Washington I love the most is how different art forms are so richly represented and can therefore be in dialogue with one another. The day after the show, I went down to the National Gallery of Art to take in “Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography.” It was like bearing witness to what Woody chronicled and celebrated in this wonderful show. Go see the show, then go see the exhibition.
Running Time: One hour and 35 minutes without intermission.
Woody Guthrie’s American Song plays through August 29, 2026, presented by Theater Alliance performing at the Wharf Waterfront Park, 515 Water St SW, Washington, DC. All tickets are Name Your Own Price (plus a $6 processing fee) and are available online.
Woody Guthrie’s American Song
Songs and writings by Woody Guthrie
Conceived and adapted by Peter Glazer
Orchestrations and vocal arrangements by Jeff Waxman
Directed by Tim Seib
CAST
Marvin Wayne, Savina Barini, Jeremy Allen Crawford, Jordan Leah Embrack, Anne Graninger, Ixchel, Ethan J. Miller, Liam Tanner, and Faith Wang
CREATIVE TEAM
Music Directors: Eily Erickson & Emily Baltzer, Choreographer: Siani Nicole, Scenic Designer: Jonathan Dahm Robertson, Lighting Designer: Minjoo Kim, Sound Designer: Kevin Lee Alexander, Costume Designer: Danielle Preston
