The Revels Circle of Song
New Hutchinson Family Musical Theater Production

Revels is a wonderful Boston-based arts organization that stages musical theater programs and seasonal celebrations. The company is made up of professionals and amateurs, adults and children, and it is famed for its annual Christmas Revels shows. In recent years, the parent organization has given rise to a touring troupe called Circle of Song.

Circle of Song, an interesting enterprise, has brought out a new production based on the lives and careers of the Hutchinson Family singers. The show is called There's a Meeting Here Tonight!

Through a coincidence that borders on miraculous, the second public performance of There's a Meeting Here Tonight! took place last evening within easy walking distance of here. Talk about convenient! The first public presentation took place just a week earlier in Springfield, Massachusetts. The next is tentatively set for Lynn Classical High School in Lynn, Massachusetts.

There's a Meeting Here Tonight! depicts a Hutchinson Family reunion at the Milford homestead sometime after the Civil War. Hutchinson family friend Phineas Taylor Barnum (played by Walter Locke) serves as something like a master of ceremonies. After P. T. Barnum's introduction, the Hutchinsons break into the family theme song, Brother Jesse's "The Old Granite State." Not all the music, though, is so intimately connected with the Hutchinson Family concert repertoire. Some songs simply represent the popular and folk melodies of the day. All the music is well selected; and "Bound for the Promised Land"  -  a number that, as far as I know, is not particularly associated with the Hutchinson Family  -  is an early, booming standout. It follows a wonderful performance by Abby (played by Kathryn Denney) of "If I Were a Voice." While I've seen the music, this is the first time I've actually heard "If I Were a Voice" sung. Abby Hutchinson Patton introduced this piece at a time when she briefly re-emerged from retirement. It was a favorite of the ever-popular Hutchinson Family biographer, Carol Ryrie Brink (Harps in the Wind).

The next song, after "Promised Land," is an inspired choice. I've never actually seen "Old High Rock" on a Hutchinson Family program or in a press notice. John Hutchinson sang it in Lynn, Massachusetts, at an 1896 labor demonstration. Otherwise, it may have been reserved for family gatherings  -  such as the one presented in There's a Meeting Here Tonight!  -  as well as possibly for encores in concerts. Either way, "Old High Rock" is one of the best Hutchinson Family originals, and it was sung to great effect in the Brattleboro performance.

At least one of these musicians is no stranger to our town. I easily recognized Jack McCreless (he takes the part of John Hutchinson), who played the old Chelsea House Folklore Center in West Brattleboro, back in his Mandala Folk Dance Ensemble days. After the show, I even noticed a Mandala t-shirt. The cast members who played the Hutchinson quartet's four main singers, though no look-alikes, resembled their characters sufficiently to get the idea across. It was a great thought for Judson (played by Don Duncan) to jump up to address the crowd, and John's fiddling was another nice touch. Asa (played by Carl Corey) sang with marvelous enthusiasm.

The cover of the printed program is an illustration of a highly unusual John W. Hutchinson concert company from the fall of 1881. That troupe was made up of two vocal quartets (with Henry and Lillie Hutchinson singing in both) and a dramatic reader, formalizing the diversity of John's programs in those days. Nearly twenty years later, one Steamboat Joe Horn would appear with John, playing music and winning over audiences with his imitations. There's a Meeting Here Tonight carries that spirit slightly farther, with Leonard Solomon as "The Phenomenon." He particularly amazed with his juggling.

There's a Meeting Here Tonight! touches many bases:  temperance ("King Alcohol"), women's rights (a song/skit), the Civil War ("Tenting on the Old Camp Ground"), and of course antislavery (the essential "Get Off the Track!"). Sweet-voiced Fionnuala O'Donovan (Nuala, for short) was fantastic on Henry Clay Work's "Come Home, Father!", making me wonder whether she is related to Boston's fast-rising folk music star, Aoife O'Donovan. [I've since been told they're sisters.  -  Talented family!]

There's a Meeting Here Tonight! was pulled together with obvious care, and it would be fine if the program were left just as it is. At the same time, the Circle of Song crew wisely left themselves much room to make changes, if they want, to keep the show fresh. For instance, at times perhaps "Kind Words Can Never Die"  -  the most beloved Hutchinson Family original  -  could be zipped in. The same would be true for the Hutchinsons' most resiliant reform anthem, "Right Over Wrong."  "Johnny Sands" is one of the best of the family's comic songs, while "The Good Old Days of Yore" is among their greatest originals about home. John Hutchinson said that, for years, the original group opened its concerts with "The Cot Where We Were Born," making that song pretty important to the repertoire. A 1980s group, the Hutchinson Family Singers of the Old Granite State, made an excellent recording of "The Cot Where We Were Born," so it may be one of the more familiar pieces to modern audiences. Asa Hutchinson's concert company, in particular, did much to popularize the great Civil War songs, "The Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Kingdom Coming." For my own part, I'd love to hear Nuala O'Donovan sing the great adaptation of "The Spider and the Fly" by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr. And this is not even to mention the song that I'm most often pushing at the moment, "There Must Be Something Wrong." On the other hand, the people who selected "Hard Times Come Again No More" and who were wise enough to vary the performance by reciting "One Hundred Years Hence" hardly need any suggestions from me. They also made much more of Jesse Jr.'s Barnum verses than I would have ever imagined possible.

I've been listening to recordings and live performances of 19th- and early-20th-century American popular music since the late 1960s. And to tell the truth, most such efforts have been terribly disappointing. This material must somehow be a lot more challenging than it appears. But the Revels' Circle of Song cast delivers  -  they delivered last night, anyway. They presented There's a Meeting Here Tonight! with skill, enthusiasm, and that harder-to-define quality, talent. Audience members should be prepared to give in to the wonder of this show, as the actors and singers make a difficult task look easy  -  and make it fun for the whole family.

The Revels' There's a Meeting Here Tonight! was informative and delightfully entertaining. My suggestion is, next time there's a staging, be there.

Alan Lewis,  October 25, 2004

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