"My Ántonia" by Theater Latte Da at the Ritz Theater

Back in 2010 (the birth year of Cherry and Spoon), Illusion Theater won two Ivey Awards (remember the Ivey Awards, Minnesota's own Tony Awards?) for their adaptation of Willa Cather's novel My Ántonia, one for playwright Allison Moore and one for Kate Guentzel, who played the title character. I didn't see it that year, but lucky for me Illusion continued to produce the show every few years, and even toured it around the Midwest and into Cather's Nebraska. I've seen it three times, most recently in 2019, and loved it more each time I saw it, calling the sparse 90-minute six-person play with music "a perfect adaptation, in that it captures the wistful and nostalgic tone of the novel as Willa describes the people and place she loved so much." I was excited and a little trepidatious when two years ago Theater Latte Da announced that a new musical adaptation of My Ántonia would be part of their NEXT new play development series. I saw the reading of the musical in development that summer and was reassured that the tone of the novel was maintained (unlike the recent musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby, which turned it into a romcom). And now after seeing the full production, even though I'll always have a special place in my heart for Illusion's play that made me fall in love with this story, I love seeing another version of it that fills out the story with more life and music. With a talented cast twice the size of the play, a lovely indie folk score that I wish I could download and listen to on repeat, and sparse design that evokes the achingly beautiful prairies that surround us, Theater Latte Da has brought us another beautiful adaptation of this classic American story (continuing through July 12).

Theater Latte Da's founding Artistic Director Peter Rothstein and Director of New Work Elissa Adams actually commissioned the foursome of bi-coastal artists that created this piece back in March of 2020. West Coast-based composer/lyricist team Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses (who are married), aka the Kilbanes, worked with book writer Noah Brody and director Jessie Austrian (also married, and based in NYC), supported by Latte Da through many rounds and years of development. Similar to Lauren Gunderson's adaptation of Little Women currently playing across the river at the Guthrie Theater (another foundational American story written by a female author who defied gender norms and based her work on her home and family), this My Ántonia places the author on stage with her story, interacting with and observing it. The play begins with Willa in a low place, drowning her sorrows in a bar in NYC, when she meets Jim Burton, a character she created for her novel as a stand-in for herself. But in this imagined place, Willa converses with Jim, who tells her his story, which is of course really her story. We watch the story play out as Willa and Jim also watch, occasionally breaking out of it to get their reaction, until at the end they return to Nebraska and Ántonia in a full circle moment.

Ántonia and her family on the train to their new home
(Lillian Hochman, Emily Gunyou Halaas, James Rodriguez,
and Spencer Chandler, photo by Dan Norman)

Jim first meets Ántonia on a train as they both travel to their new home in Nebraska, he from Virginia after the death of his parents, she with her family immigrating from Bohemia. They become fast friends as he teaches the older girl English, and she shares her confidence and enthusiasm for life. We watch them grow up into teenagers, moving to town, Jim furthering his education and Ántonia always working hard to help her immigrant family survive. They grow up, grow apart, and come back together, the kind of friends that made such an impact on each other's lives, they're always together even if they're apart.

Under director Jessie Austrian, the musical has a playful and meta "we're putting on a play" kind of feel. At showtime and post-intermission, the actors begin to wander onstage, waving at people in the audience. Actor Sara Masterson (who's taking a break from her role as Sarah in Guys and Dolls at the Chan to do this show) starts talking to us about practical modern things like silencing our cell phones, and then reminds us where we are sitting, on the edge of what was once the Great Plains of America. Suddenly we hear the crickets, and the birds, and the wind through the grass, as the opening song begins. From there the story continues, the actors rarely leaving the stage, sitting on benches on the side watching if not in the scene, grabbing clothes (practical but chic prairie skirts, working clothes, and boots) and props from a dozen simple and graceful wooden coat racks. Set pieces are minimal, just a handful of long wooden benches, a higher bar, and a table, moved around to represent a bed, or a car, or a horse. The stage of the Ritz Theater is open to its beautiful historic walls, with a patchwork panel that evokes the prairies in our imaginations, our generational memories (costume design by Sarah Bahr, scenic design by Benjamin Olsen).

hired girls (Sara Masterson, Lillian Hochman, Emily Gunyou Halaas,
and Anna Hashizume, photo by Dan Norman)

This twelve-person is truly an embarrassment of riches, and they're all so playful as they jump from role to role, yet earnest in their portrayal of these crisply drawn characters. Em Adam Rosenberg is perfectly cast as Willa, bringing humor and an almost unhinged sense of desperation to the author at the beginning of the show, with a devastatingly gorgeous final song as Willa finds her muse. Tom Reed plays the adult Jim with a sense of sadness and nostalgia, then finding joy in "running home" to Nebraska and Ántonia. Both also step into the story to play various minor roles in the story. Our Ántonia is first personified by Lillian Hochman, former child actor at CTC and other stages, now pursuing a BFA in musical theater at Ithaca College in New York but home for the summer and making us fall in love with the young, spirited Ántonia as Jim does. The 10-year-old Jimmy is played by Maddox Tabalba, already a pro after roles at Lyric Arts and Artistry, so sweet and genuine as this young boy making a new start. 

Jim and Ántonia as young adults (Will Dusek and
Sara Masterson, photo by Dan Norman)

Towards the end of Act I they pass the baton to the aforementioned Sara Masterson and Will Dusek as the teenage / young adult Ántonia and Jim, the Ántonia transition particularly affecting as the character is forced to grow up fast after a tragedy. Both actors beautifully portray the optimism of youth as it gives way to the complications of adulthood, maintaining the established connection between the characters. At the end of the play when adult Jim returns home, Emily Gunyou Halaas, who was my first Ántonia in Illusion's 2012 production, once again steps into the role in a way that feels like coming home, the fullest version of this character we've watched grow up before our eyes. Completing this most excellent ensemble are #TCTheater veterans Sally Wingert and Bradley Greenwald as Jim's grandparents (who wouldn't want them as their grandparents?!), Anna Hashizume as independent town girl Lena who briefly steals Jim's heart, Spencer Chandler with a heartbreaking performance as Ántonia's troubled father, and James Rodriguez in a number of roles including a ruthless business man and Ántonia's unhappy brother (although a bit old for the latter teenage role).

The Kilbanes' indie folk / Americana score is totally my jam, and so evocative of the time and place of the story. Frequent Latte Da Music Director Jason Hansen leads the onstage five-person band on keys, with authentic instrumentation like banjo and mandolin. Highlights in the score include the ear worm "hello Jim, hello Ántonia" in the sweet and playful song "Name, What Name," the heartbreaking ballad "Lay Your Burden Down," the fun and upbeat "Hired Girls," and the party song "Saturday Night Me," accompanied by some down home country dancing (choreography by Joey Miller).

Perhaps this story resonates with me so deeply because I am the descendent of German (and some Polish) immigrants to the Midwest, who immigrated at various times in the 19th Century, lured by America's and Minnesota's promise of land. But of course, the land was not America's to promise to anyone, it belonged to the Native peoples of this land, stolen or "bought" in unfair or unhonored treaties. My great-great-great-grandmother Frederika paid the ultimate price of that betrayal (along with the entire Dakota nation); she was killed in the US-Dakota War of 1862. In her early 20s, she'd only lived in this country for five or six years, during which time she buried her sister, married her brother-in-law, helped to raise their four children, gave birth to two more of her own (including my great-great-grandmother), and worked to build a homestead. Life on the prairie was hard, but sadly she didn't live to enjoy the fruits of her labors, and no one is going to write a musical about Frederika. But thanks to Willa Cather, Theater Latte Da, and this team of artists, we have My Ántonia, which honors all of the unknown and unsung Ántonias and Frederikas - immigrants, particularly immigrant women, who sacrificed and worked hard to make this country what it is. This story also honors today's immigrants, particularly immigrant women, who continue to sacrifice and work hard to make this nation great. It's a beautiful thing to be reminded of these immigrant stories, our founding mothers' stories, as we celebrate America's 250th birthday.