WANTED
Book Writer: Angelica Chéri
Composer: Ross Baum
Lyricist: Angelica Chéri
Genre: Western folktale, historical dramedy
Musical Styles: Folk, gospel, jazz, R&B, a cappella, traditional, blues, country, hip hop, spirituals
Time: 1893, post-Civil War/emancipation/slavery
Place: Texas – Marlin and Sweet Christine
Cast Size: 13 (4 principal characters, 9 ensemble)
Similar Shows: The Colour Purple – for its emphasis on sisterhood and self-love
Log Line
African American twin sisters pass for white in an effort to settle their mother’s sharecropper debt and preserve their home, leading them to become notorious outlaws in the Wild West, all while romance threatens to undo everything they’ve built together.
Story
This is a story worth telling.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree).The true story roots add an enticing element to the narrative as it unfolds like a legend or fable passed down through generations. It’s an engaging, thrilling, funny, and emotional adventure in the Wild West—more than just a clever twist on a Western, it has genuine warmth and heart.
The characters feel authentic to their backgrounds and given circumstances.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree). The sisters’ awareness of bigotry and misogynoir shapes their actions. Martha uses hard power—guns and quick decisions—while Mary wields charm and foresight. Their individuality stands strong beyond being twins.
The protagonist’s main goal and conflict are clear.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree).The sisters’ mission to earn money and save their home is immediately compelling. The antagonistic force is racist society, embodied in part by Jesse—a beneficiary of slavery and the plantation system.
The themes are relevant and resonant today.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree).Themes include prejudice, injustice, identity, colourism, code-switching, privilege, resilience, and the pursuit of true freedom and love. These are both timely and timeless.
The dialogue reflects the characters’ language and intentions.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree).The Southern Texan dialect felt authentic throughout.
Songs
The songs further the dramatic action of the story.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree). Standout numbers include Inheritance, Gun and Powder, Real Woman, Mama’s Name, The Way I Am, Trigger, and Freedom.
The music and lyrics reflect the characters’ language and intentions.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree). Each character and group is expressed through a unique musical style that creates a rich, cohesive soundscape.
The score has variety and range.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree). A vibrant fusion of genres—soulful, energetic, contemporary, and distinct from the standard Broadway sound.
The marriage of music and lyrics is happy (i.e., they sound like one voice).
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree)
Production
The materials submitted are well-organized, complete, and free of spelling, grammatical, and proofreading errors.
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree). Only a small fix needed on page 12: change to ‘cause in this crooked world’.
After reviewing the material, I see that this piece is in keeping with the vision of P3..
Rating: ★★★ (3 – Strongly Agree)*
Comments:
Overall, there is so much to appreciate about this musical in what it sets out to do, tackle, and achieves, especially with its varied and richly textured musical score that advances the plot and story in meaningful and appropriate ways. Both Martha and Mary make for engaging protagonists, each of whom are clearly defined as individuals outside of their relationship as sisters, who must contend with and navigate complicated circumstances. Together with the Wild West atmosphere and the presence of humour to enliven the narrative whenever things risk becoming too solemn or melodramatic (Passing Through or Dangerous as great musical examples), audiences would get a lot out of this show as an experience. Because there is so much to enjoy and admire, any small things I note below are things to consider going forward in case any fine tuning or tweaking material is needed.
I will say that I did find that there was a lack of tension in Martha's escape from the law, where I wasn’t feeling as strongly that she needs to be on her guard. Jesse appears to be none the wiser about her being responsible for him being shot, and there’s no explicit mention or showing of police investigating and searching. And the drama is centered mainly on the relationship between Mary and Jesse in the second act. I didn’t really believe in the chemistry between them, which can connect to the point that this isn’t real, unconditional love, but it is important to get right in establishing the weight of the betrayal that Mary experiences later. At the moment, I feel like her acceptance of his proposal to her is mainly her recognition of what wealth and “real” femininity this will provide her, more so than her genuine love for him, and if it is meant to emphasise the latter then I don’t really understand why she loves him.
Martha does have some lovely moments during her arc in the second act. Examples include her song ‘Freedom’, where she reasserts her commitment to her ideals of liberty, familial devotion and selfless loyalty to community for the sake of future generations, as well as her confrontation with and memorable curse upon Mary that leads to the latter’s nightmare. Her romantic interlude with Elijah is quite sweet, as he encourages her to be a little selfish. It’s important to ensure that both sides are as balanced as possible, with Mary’s sincere love for Jessie, which is entangled by the anxiety that he will uncover her ancestry, parallelling Martha’s wish to maintain her liberty even as her feelings for Elijah blossom. As a minor aside, the locket given by Tallulah to Mary, specified by the former as what their father left behind before he ran off (page 16), acts effectively as a possible foreshadowing for Mary as she could abandon her family like their white father for the sake of security. There might not be room or a place for it, but it could be interesting if there were a moment where Mary could possibly acknowledge and apologise to Flo and Sissy for how she treated them as her inferiors despite them being part of the same community.
I loved the presence of Flo and Sissy as comic relief that also provided home truths and insights. They relieve tension from the serious narrative at appropriate moments while also giving perspective to dark skinned black women who lack the privilege to pass for white. I noted that their decision to help Martha and Elijah with their heist to get to Jesse’s money was made offstage (page 98). While I understand mainly keeping it to the sisters’ POV to potentially aid in pacing or runtime, I would have liked to have seen them wrestle and come to that choice, which could make for an amusing and empowering moment, either as a scene or song.
I appreciate the use of the Kinfolk to reinforce the themes of legacy, playing into the importance of oral storytelling and what you pass down or leave for the next generation to be inspired or survive. There were one or two points where I wondered if their asides could risk feeling a bit interruptive as we go further along in the narrative (though equally it’s important to have their presence as a reminder of the importance of legacy), making them superfluous or repetitive as they describe to the audience what we clearly see or implicitly knew.
I was initially worried about the presence of Fannie Porter (page 33) potentially feeling out a place, being possibly a thankless role to acknowledge women’s issues which transcend race. In reality intersectional feminism highlights how if black women aren’t free then no one is. Mary and Martha’s story can stand on its own and deserves to take up space, especially when it so often that black women’s narratives are the ones left on the margins, where space is conditional, an afterthought or footnote. However seeing how she was implemented into Mary’s dream (page 92) as this taunting figure made her feel a lot more justified in how she fit into the story’s themes of assimilation and passing. I appreciated the significant background role that the one drop rule in US law played in the musical, with acknowledgment of the tragic mulatto stereotype in Mary’s nightmare, the frequency of blood imagery in the narrative and its connection to family and inescapable inheritance. Information regarding what the law involved - the rule designating an individual as black if they have merely a drop of African blood, unique to America and solely exercised on American black people for racist purposes - would be good to include in a playbill or program for the show. The final musical number ‘All of Me’ is intriguing in this context where it reclaims racial biologism as a rejoicing metaphor for self-love and acceptance, togetherness and emancipation. It is good to keep in mind however Audre Lorde’s seminal argument that the master’s tools cannot disassemble the master’s house. This doesn’t mean the ending or even the song needs to necessarily change; the happy ending to this piece of the family reunion and moving on together to a better future feels truly touching and rewarding rather than giving into tragedy, especially with this being a historical fable or legend. But it is worthwhile considering in case of critique.
A small sidenote, but I do prefer the original title of the musical. Gun and Powder embodies the two sisters’ natures, with the hard power of Martha, who wields their family heirloom Old Betsy as a symbol of defiance and a connection to their heritage, and the soft power of Mary, who reckons with the allure of passing and assimilation if it means wealth, security, and romantic love. Wanted as a title may be a bit more appealing to a general audience who could be turned off from the connotation with violence, and there is a possible double meaning with it not only referring to their outlaw status but also the sisters’ wish to be loved and desired. But the specificity and double meaning of the original title better draws attention to the themes of the narrative.
Ultimately this story is a poignant if serious example of how much everything changes and everything stays the same; the timeliness of this piece derives from how we are much closer to history in the present than we think. This story deserves to be seen and known by as many people as possible, in order to fight to preserve these voices as Mary and Martha fought to save their home and inheritance.
