The Great Immensity – Location, Tickets, Reviews
The Great Immensity, a new musical from The Civilians, tackles the hot topic of climate change. It is part of The Public Theater’s Public Lab, meaning it is a work-in-progress. The Great Immensity was written and directed by The Civilians’ artistic director Steve Cosson and features songs by Michael Friedman (Love’s Labour’s Lost, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson).
The Great Immensity traces the path of Phyllis. She is searching for her husband Carl, a nature filmmaker, who disappeared from a tropical island. While searching for Carl, Phyllis uncovers a conspiracy related to a forthcoming environmental world summit. The production includes educational songs about climate change.
To encourage engagement on the issue of climate change, The Civilians created a website about environmental issues. Characters from The Great Immensity share stories and information on the site. Visit thegreatimmensity.org to learn more.
Maxamoo
The Great Immensity merges a traditional missing person narrative with overtly educational material on the topic of climate change. Combining education and entertainment, while widely attempted, is notoriously difficult to do well. Unexpectedly, the problem in this production isn’t on the education side of the equation. Michael Friedman’s songs about environmental-related topics such as dying species, climate summits, and the shifting continents are fresh and unusual. Never did we think a song about the history of climate summits would have us laughing out loud. The issue is the underlying mystery, we were not invested the couple at the center of this story and their journey was convoluted. This production at The Public is just workshop and while the balance of storytelling and lecturing isn’t quite right it was more than worth the $20 ticket price. We enjoyed the songs, the performances, and the impressive and informative video projections.
Public Opinion
Have you seen The Great Immensity? What did you think? Comment below or tweet us at @maxamoo.
Critics’ Reviews
New York Times
Climate Change Onstage: Singing of the Extinction of Fauna
TICKETS
$20 (click here for tickets)
DATES
Performances through May 1, 2014
LOCATION
The Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
2 hours, 1 intermission
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written and Directed by Steve Cosson
Songs by Michael Friedman
Featuring Damien Baldet, Cindy Cheung, Dan Domnigues, Rebecca Hart, Trey Lyford, Chris Sullivan and Erin Williams