Asolo Rep’s musical ‘Hood’ gives a modern twist to Robin Hood legend

The legend of Robin Hood, the hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor, has captivated people for centuries in stories, radio shows, television and movies. Playwright Douglas Carter Beane and his composer/husband Lewis Flinn thought it was time to bring the familiar characters into the 21st century.

Their new musical “Hood,” which had a production five years ago at the Dallas Theatre Centre, finally arrives, after a two-year COVID-19 delay, at Sarasota’s Asolo Repertory Theatre, where it was originally scheduled to open in 2020.

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It is the second new musical in a row at Asolo that has been created by some prominent theater artists, following the world premiere of “Knoxville” by Tony Award winners Frank Galati, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

In addition to Beane and Flinn, the production team includes award-winning director Mark Brokaw, choreographer Ellenore Scott and New York producers Hunter Arnold and Tom Kirdahy, who are providing enhancement money to the Asolo Rep production with an eye on creating a future for the musical beyond Sarasota.

Flinn said that every period of time has seen a wave of enthusiasm for Robin Hood. “We wanted to take the tent poles of the story of Robin Hood and present it as interpreted for our time.”

Flinn and Beane have experience giving new and modern twists to classic stories. They turned the Greek comedy “Lysistrata” – about women who go on a sex strike to force a quicker end to the Peloponnesian War – into “Lysistrata Jones,” about a group of cheerleaders who take similar actions to get their boyfriends to start winning basketball games.

Beane is also the author of such shows as “The Little Dog Laughed,” “As Bees in Honey Drown,” the film “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” and a revised version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”

He said the idea for a twist on Robin Hood came while he was reading bedtime stories to the couple’s two children.

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“I found they were really drawn to the Robin Hood stories,” he said. “When I was very young, it was the tail end of a Robin Hood craze in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I realized he was considered an ideal for kids at the time, but he’s nowhere on the list now.”

Beane said they wanted to get people of all ages to fall for the tales of Sherwood Forest all over again.

“What is it about him? He stole from the rich, fighting bad guys. Batman and Zorro all had their foundation in Robin Hood,” Beane said.

Developing a new musical

Their first attempt at a musical version of the story was created for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where they were encouraged to develop it further, leading to the run in Dallas, which Beane himself directed.

Brokaw, who directed the current Tony-nominated revival of “How I Learned to Drive” with the original actors 25 years after its off-Broadway premiere, has frequently worked with Beane, directing “Cinderella” and “As Bees in Honey Drown.”

Kirdahy said because of their years of collaboration, Brokaw and Beane “speak a shorthand with one another. Mark is very smart dramaturgically and he has a very contemporary sensibility.”

The producers also brought in Scott, the choreographer of the current Broadway productions of  “Funny Girl” and “Mr. Saturday Night,” as well as Kirdahy’s off-Broadway hit revival of “Little Shop of Horrors.”

“When we put Mark with Ellenore, magic happened, and we knew immediately that chemistry is exactly what this piece needed to give it an utterly fresh vibe,” Kirdahy said.

The story is told by a cast of 12 using “puppets, shadow puppets, sword fighting and other kinds of fighting. It’s got a little bit of everything in it,” Brokaw said. Nick Lehane is the puppet designer.

The diverse cast of Asolo Rep newcomers is led by Anthony Chatmon II as Robin. He was seen on Broadway in “Hadestown” and “Be More Chill.” The cast also includes Savvy Jackson as Marian, Zachary Francis Stewart as Little John, Jamen Nanthakumar as Friar Tuck and Nick Rehberger as the Sheriff of Nottingham. Most of the performers were cast for the planned 2020 run and have stayed with the musical.

COVID break

The creative team used the COVID break to help build and strengthen the show, starting last fall after the Asolo Rep announced dates for the production.

“We were able to re-look at things with a lot of distance and tweak it further,” Flinn said.

Among those tweaks was the addition of more music, he said. Plus, “the world has changed dramatically, with all the events of the summer of 2020. Although this is not just a political piece by any stretch, it has resonances.”

But Robin Hood has become a touchpoint for people across the political divide.

“You see Robin Hood come up in various political rallies on both sides of the spectrum and that is interesting,” Flinn said.

Historically, the stories “are very male-centric, and we needed to find a way to bring a more female presence to it, not just Marian, who is presented in a very different way. We created a lot of women roles, so it’s not just the merry men, it’s the merry band,” Flinn said.

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The production earned glowing reviews in Dallas, with Variety saying, “Beane’s suitably merry, zinger-rich libretto is littered with wink-wink, self-aware contemporary references, but never sinks to off-putting snark. Flinn’s song score hits the sweet spot where country, traditional Broadway show tunes and decades of Top 40 radio converge.”

Brokaw, who saw the Dallas production, said, “I liked what the piece is saying. There’s a song at the beginning and end about finding the hero in your heart. It’s a really important message for now. The time we’re going through, sometimes we’re so overwhelmed, we need to step back and think what can I possibly do on my own, and this musical offers a solution for that.”

He said he wondered how differently the show might be received with a different presidential administration, “but the world continues to be odds, especially in this country, so it’s still more and more pressing.”

The political divide and two years of the pandemic have led to “so much uncertainty in everyone’s life,” Brokaw said. “This is such a joyous celebration of what’s possible when people come together and inspire each other, to find the best in themselves and put that to use for whatever is in front of them.”

Kirdahy and Beane go back as well. The lead producer of the Tony-winning musical “Hadestown” among numerous other Broadway hits, said the first show he raised money for was Beane’s “The Little Dog Laughed.”

“It was my first exposure to being in the room as a show gets born. The lead producer, Susie Dietz, gave me an opportunity to be involved. I loved the play. I loved the process and in many ways it helped launch my career.”

As to a potential Broadway future, Kirdahy said he and Arnold have no definitive plans other than making the Asolo Rep production the best it can be. But this may be a better time for the show on Broadway than it was two years ago.

“This show is so much about joy, so full of life and heart and I think post shutdown, ‘Hood’ will resonate even more with audiences,” Kirdahy said. “People want joy. People want to open their hearts and both have fun and be provoked to think. People want to be entertained and feel good about being alive. This show has an extraordinarily diverse company, largely young actors and I believe with every fiber of my being, when this company steps out on that stage, the audience is going to fall in love with them.”

‘Hood’

Book by Douglas Carter Beane, music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn, directed by Mark Brokaw. Runs June 3-26, Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Musical ‘Hood’ puts modern spin on Robin Hood at Sarasota’s Asolo Rep