Archives December 2023

By now, there’s already been much buzz surrounding Illinoise, the stage musical/dance performance based on Sufjan Stevens’s hallowed album Illinois. Since its premiere at Bard College in New York last spring, reviews for the production have been unanimously rhapsodic. After Bard, Illinoise traveled to Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater, the Park Avenue Armory, and finally to Broadway, where it opens tonight at the St. James Theatre—just in time to be eligible for the 2024 Tony Awards.

Upon its 2005 release, Stevens’s 26-song concept album immediately imprinted on the generation who gobbled it up. An ode to the state of Illinois, Stevens weaves historical figures, tragedies, and hyper-regional IYKYKs into an album that swells with plush marching-band riffs and then quiets down to homespun banjo strums. But for all its locale narratives, the album had mass appeal. It gave listeners the sense of being lost and found again, and who can’t relate to that?

Justin Peck—who directed and choreographed the production and cowrote the book with Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury—was about 17 when he first listened to the album, and there was no going back. (In the Illinoise pamphlet, you’ll find an essay from Jessica Dessner, an artist, writer, former dancer, and close associate of Stevens who recalls a Facebook message she received from Peck more than a decade ago expressing his desire to meet with Stevens.) Peck’s profound appreciation for Stevens has resulted in several direct collaborations at the New York City Ballet (where Peck is a resident choreographer), which began with a composition for the ballet Year of the Rabbit in 2012.

It can be easy to forget that the Met Gala is, first and foremost, a prodigious charity fundraiser. Like other events of its kind, it includes a cocktail hour followed by a seated dinner and then a performance. The Met being the Met, however, this capstone moment usually takes on epic proportions. Historically orchestrated in coordination with visionary maestro Baz Luhrmann, Met Gala performances have ranged from the cast of Billy Elliot swanning at the barre to Bruno Mars smashing it with pitch-perfect sincerity and Diana Ross serenading guests in a strapless feather contraption. On the Met stage, musical artists have collaborated, debuted new albums, and performed one-off songs never heard before or since. It’s a relief that, given where the show takes place, nobody has literally brought the house down. (Not yet, at least.) Here, some of the best Met performances to date.

In her truly stunning medley at the 2024 Met Gala, Ariana Grande managed to combine “Once Upon a Dream,” from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, with a string of her most infectious pop hits—both new (“Yes, And”) and long-established (“Seven Rings”). Bringing it all home? A tear-jerking rendition of “When You Believe” with her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo. Oh, and did we mention the 30 dancers, 40-person choir, and two different Maison Margiela Artisanal looks?