It’s an enticing tale, the myth of the American West: a lawless land where men — armed with gunpowder and determination — carve out civilization against the backdrop of so-called savagery. It’s familiar. It’s romantic. And, in Wanted it’s tossed aside so an exhilarating legend can take its place: two sisters armed with guns, powder, and generations worth of pent up rage.
Wanted — which opened tonight at the James Earl Jones Theater on Broadway — offers a bold reframing of the familiar tropes, backed by powerhouse performances and Ross Baum’s anthem-driven score, part-western, pop, soul, and gospel. The excitement of the story ebbs and flows but when it hits its stride, the new musical is a crowd-pleaser as self-assured as the outlaw sisters that it follows.
It’s no surprise to learn that the story of gunslinging sisters Mary (Solea Pfeiffer) and Martha Clarke (Liisi LaFontaine) has been brewing in writer Angelica Chéri’s head for years — and in her bloodline for generations. Lovingly based on Chéri’s own family history, Wanted whisks the audience into the postbellum south where Black Americans have been given their freedom in name alone, as they are harshly and repeatedly reminded.
Solea Pfeiffer, Liisi LaFontaine, Ledisi and the cast of ‘Wanted’
Credit: Julieta Cervantes
It’s Texas, 1893: Tallulah Clarke (Ledisi) is a sharecropper finally ready to own something of her own, after saving enough money to purchase the land where she and her daughters have scarred their hands picking cotton for decades. But their success is swiftly set back when the landowner profiting off of their labor saddles them with impossible debt.
Yet, his cruelty comes with a boon: It teaches Chéri’s great-great aunts that if society won’t change, then they’ll need to adapt to the status quo. And that sets them on a path to pondering a dangerous question: How might their lives change, if they take their Blackness out of the equation?
The Kinfolk in ‘Wanted’
Credit: Julieta Cervantes
With a single pistol for protection, the Clarke sisters step into the world masquerading as white women, intent on making quick, legal money. But they soon discover that the quickest way to pocket cash is to point their pistol and take it. And so their adventure truly begins.
They’re backed on this journey by a Greek chorus of sorts — their Kinfolk — who step in to guide the audience through the show with humor, reverence and some very impressive vocal runs. On top of being a fascinating spin on the role of oral tradition, the Kinfolk are a striking reminder that the Clarke sisters can’t easily leave their history behind.
This is key because, in truth, the gun slinging is only a fraction of the story being told. The musical’s title — and certainly its marketing — give the impression of a rip-roaring adventure about two outlaw sisters riding headlong into danger. But the reality is a little more grounded and a lot more heartfelt.
For one glorious number, “Gun & Powder,” we watch them swindle and smirk their way across the countryside. Just when the music is soaring, the blood pumping, and it seems they might rob a bank or hold up a train, they instead halt to a stop at a saloon owned by Jesse Whitewater (Bradley Jaden), an outlaw with an even more dangerous (and lucrative) résumé than theirs.
The cast of Broadway’s ‘Wanted’
Credit: Julieta Cervantes
There, Wanted reveals that its true intent is not to trace the actions of two wanted criminals, but to bask instead in what these sisters want out of the world… and what they’ll give up to grasp it. Admittedly, it’s something of a letdown to realize that the majority of the show will hinge at the saloon, where the sisters will diverge, swept up in separate love stories. But it’s hard not to give in when Wanted bares its soul.
Soul is something the Clarke sisters have in spades. LaFontaine’s Martha wears her outrage on her sleeve, ready to bare teeth at the world in the name of protecting her family. Still, it’s Pfeiffer’s cautious Mary that sits at the emotional center of the show. Her desire to be viewed as a full person becomes the crux of the story being told, and Wanted doesn’t shy away from the darkness of those impulses nor the humanity of her desperation.
Solea Pfeiffer in ‘Wanted’
Credit: Julieta Cervantes
Mary also bears the more compelling of the two romances, as her burgeoning connection is saddled with the intrigue of her thorny desires, misplaced in a man looking to possess what money can’t buy. The other involves Martha and Elijah (Luke James), a former slave searching for a reason to finally push back and take more than the scraps he’s been given. Despite James’ best efforts, his easy charisma and arresting warmth of his vocals can’t make up for the underbaked relationship, which doesn’t stand a chance against the bond shared by the two sisters.
Flawed as it may be, Wanted has a winning quality that constantly breaks through. It’s that sense of pride, always, evident in every aspect of the productuion: It’s imbued in the music and exploding out of the performances, from the gravitas that Ledisi wields to the vulnerability etched in Pfeiffer’s every run.
Aurelia Williams and Awa Sal Secka in ‘Wanted’
Credit: Julieta Cervantes
Every song, every scene seems designed to let the cast shine. Though Awa Sal Secka and Aurelia Williams often have little to do as Flo and Sissy, the recently freed maids who suss out the Clarke sisters’ ruse, they make the most of every second onstage to riotous effect. And the Kinfolk who, under normal circumstances, might drag the story with their expository duties, are always a delight: The sheer depth of talent among their ranks makes every moment worth relishing. Helpfully, the book gives them more to do than just narrate plot developments as they serve as phantoms of the past, best utilized when Mary toys with severing her familial ties in a haunting act one sequence.
Wanted is the kind of show happy to let its company members belt, just for the hell of it. It’s steadfast in celebrating and brandishing the onstage talent, wielding them for pleasure and pride. Everyone not only delivers, but has a hell of a time doing it. It’s not your typical Western, but it’s a slick romp all the same. And like those outlaw sisters, even at its lowest, Wanted is worth rooting for. Grade: B+
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