On the Levee

Ol’ Man River rolls over everyone in this roiling and wide-ranging new work of music theater, which looks at the personal costs of humiliation through an examination of a cataclysmic 1927 flood in Greenville, MS. Conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet, the show manages to be both delicate and blunt. In language soaked in color and wit, playwright Marcus Gardley weaves a tapestry of prejudice and pride, abetted by Todd Almond's exemplary score. If On the Levee's various strategies of strangeness leave you dry-eyed, they also leave you clear-headed: sorting through the show’s ideas and wondering at all the rules that On the Levee breaks.—Adam Feldman