Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Heavily reconsidered on multiple fronts, WANTED arrives on Broadway still in need of focus, but boy does it sound glorious

• By drediman
• November 9, 2026
• No Comments

Last night, the new musical Wanted opened at the James Earl Jones Theatre, concluding its winding journey to the Great White Way. Having seen a previous iteration of the musical in 2024 under the title Gun & Powder over at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ, it’s been fascinating to assess in what ways the piece has been reconsidered for its Broadway arrival (prior to the Paper Mill production, the work was also seen at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA in another altogether different staging). Concocted by the exciting up-and-coming writing team of Angelica Chéri (book and lyrics) and Ross Baum (music), and directed by Stevie Walker-Webb (Ain’t No Mo’), the musical recounts the “mostly true” story of Chéri’s own great-grand aunts Martha and Mary Clarke, mixed-race sisters who — in order to save their Black mother Tallulah from eviction from the land they worked so hard to purchase — attempt to pass as white women to muster up some quick money. In the process, they somehow fall on the wrong side of the law, evolving into outright outlaws.

Somewhere in Wanted is one daring and game-changing musical. Chéri and Baum audaciously mash up genres — Western, satire, revenge drama, sentimental musical theater — to subversive, often thrilling, and ultimately uneven effect. Much of the score — an eclectic array of songs that pop with urgency and theatricality — remains potent and intact from when I saw it in Millburn. On the last leg of its trip to Broadway, the creators have taken yet another good hard look at other aspects of the show, substantially reworking its book, direction, design, and casting (and, of course, its title) as a result. One of the most successful developments to come out of this process is Martha and Mary’s more organic character development. More than ever, they come across as flesh-and-blood characters rather than merely unconventional badass outlaws. That being said, the sharp satire that loomed over the Paper Mill production has been dulled in favor of a more earnest tone, with ritualistic flourishes that come in and out of focus. The same muddled sensibility has been carried through to the visual vocabulary of the production, which now confines the action to a claustrophobic, unnecessarily cluttered playing area, despite some expensive-looking upgrades to the proscenium and curtain — an imposing “wanted” sign now greets audiences as they walk into the auditorium. As before, the musical continues to be overstuffed, with some crucial narrative details somehow brushed over (e.g., the resolution of Tallulah’s struggles back home at the end of Act One remains a mystery).

The performances are also a mixed bag. What isn’t is the company’s vocal firepower, which nearly blows the roof off of the Jones. As the central sisters Martha and Mary, Liisi LaFontaine and Solea Pfeiffer are, thankfully, outstanding. Notable among the newcomers to the Main Stem company is Pfeiffer, who brings her own brand of soulfulness to the production and is genuinely heartbreaking as Mary. Still with the show as Martha is LaFontaine, whose simmering performance continues to ground the musical. The big-voiced singer Ledisi, also a newcomer, gives a more introspective performance than Jeannette Bayardelle did at Paper Mill, for better or worse. Less convincing are the men, particularly Mary and Martha’s male love interests Elijah and Jesse, played respectively by Luke James and Bradley Jaden, who are given underbaked material that makes it feel like they’re merely going through the requisite motion to fulfill some sort of dramatic mandate. Last but not least, however, are Aurelia Williams and Awa Sal Secka, whose delicious portrayals as Jesse’s gossipy maids are comic gold. In fact, the duo nearly runs away with the show (how interesting would it be if the entire musical was narrated by these two wickedly sassy women?).

RECOMMENDED

WANTED
Broadway, Musical
James Earl Jones Theatre
2 hours, 30 minutes (with an intermission)
Open run