A documentary film by Spike Lee that turns David Byrne's acclaimed Broadway show into an immersive cinema experience, featuring music, dance and spoken word.
David Byrne's American Utopia comes to Harbour Lights Picturehouse on Wednesday 5 August, with Spike Lee directing the film. It's a cinema version of Byrne's Broadway show, following the big-screen success of Stop Making Sense.
Back in 2019, Byrne teamed up with eleven other musicians to perform a modified version of his 2018 album America Utopia alongside Talking Heads classics. The production ran at the Hudson Theater from 20 October 2019 to 16 February 2020, and this film turns that stage show into an immersive cinema experience. Spike Lee's direction blends music, dance and spoken word, with renditions of 'Once in a Lifetime', 'Burning Down the House' and 'Road to Nowhere' among the songs. The show draws on work by James Baldwin, Janelle Monáe and Kurt Schwitters, and carries a political urgency, calling for anti-fascism and anti-racism and offering a hopeful vision of unity and civic engagement. It's described as joyous, inventive and crowd-pleasing.
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On the night, there are 20 minutes of trailers before the film, which runs for about 105 minutes. That's just under two hours of music and dance on screen, so you'll be out in a reasonable amount of time.
