Last night I went to see The York Theatre Company's presentation of a developmental workshop of Dust and Dreams: Celebrating Sandburg.

It's playing again next weekend November 18 to 20, and tickets are free but you need to call to reserve seats at 212-935-5824 x21.

First of all, let me say I totally agree with the show's name change! When this show was presented at Theatre Building Chicago's Stages last August, it was called simply Bringers. Until I saw the show on Saturday night I hadn't a clue as to what that meant. It's new name, Dust and Dreams: Celebrating Sandburg is much clearer! Mostly because that is exactly what it is -- a celebration of Carl Sandburg's poems from "Cornhuskers", for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1918.

"Bringers" is from one of the poems used in the show. Then again, that might have been obvious to some...

The music of this show is by Paul Libman and the concept and lyrics are by Dave Hudson. It is the winner of a 2005 Richard Rodgers Development Award.

The songs are inspired by Sandburg's poems, but are not mere musicalizations of them. They have nicely interwoven the actual poems into the fabric of the show, which is basically a lovely concert of songs. It has a really nice "Americana" feel and the musical styles are varied, from ragtime to barbershop and then some, but definitely part of a whole. The arrangements were really nice and the cast did a great job. It ran just over an hour without intermission and I'm not sure whether they are planning to expand it or not. I quite liked it as it was.

As it turned out, the evening was a bit of Chicago reunion as I ran into John Sparks (head of TBC) and fellow TBC workshopper Craig Wilson too! See you guys next weekend back in the Windy City!

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