First seen off-Broadway, the ground-shaking force of this musical lies in songs so blazing that they give goosebumps at every turn. The story, adapted from Sue Monk Kidd’s novel about an interracial friendship amid the civil rights era, seems almost secondary.
Starting out in South Carolina in 1964, as Lyndon B Johnson announces his civil rights bill, it is a Thelma and Louise-style road trip with added racial politics. Lily (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), a young motherless white woman, takes fugitive flight with her Black housekeeper, Rosaleen (Abiona Omonua), who has been attacked and imprisoned. Their quest lands them in a community of indomitable sisters led by beekeeper and businesswoman August Boatwright (Rachel John).
