By Bill Hirschman, FloridaTheaterOnStage.com, for SouthFloridaReporter.com, Dec. 19, 2015 – Allegiance, the story of a Japanese-American family rent apart by their internment in World War II, has the potential to be a great play. Unfortunately, it’s a musical.
It’s not an awful musical other than one facet, just a mediocre one. Every time the narrative closes in on an insightful dramatic moment, somebody breaks into song. Not just a song, but a barely adequate tune with cripplingly banal lyrics, neither of which advances the plot and rarely tells us something unique about the characters.
Yet, the show is delivered by a strong acting corps led by a reasonably decent director and backed up by a polished Broadway production team. It’s a lot of effort lavished on a weak property.
This very conventional Broadway musical about a very unconventional Broadway topic has received a good deal of respectful ethnically-sensitive criticism that recognizes its virtues and only mentions in passing its shortcomings.
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