Todrick Hall knew his original off-Broadway musical, “Midnight,” would spark some controversy, he told Page Six in an exclusive interview — but “not the conversation that it has sparked.”
“Midnight” is a musical written, directed, created and starring Hall, set during the 19th-century American South.
Hall plays Rail, an enslaved man, who falls in love with his next-door neighbor, a white plantation owner named Richard. And while the new musical is packing seats at New York’s Daryl Roth Theatre, it’s sparking backlash.
Hall is being accused of using revisionist history of slavery to exploit “black trauma,” and of making the perils of slavery fantastical for the sake of art.
“I’m grateful that it has sparked any conversation. I’ve gone to see so many musicals. My partner and I saw like 178 musicals together in the few years that we were together … It didn’t make us sit down and have like thought-provoking conversations as human beings. It didn’t challenge us, and there’s a space for that,” he added.
Hall’s idea for the musical came during the pandemic, while paying attention to the Black Lives Matter movement. He says it was important for “Midnight” to be told in the context of slavery because he wanted to start “at the very beginning.”
“It is the place where we were at the most divided … we’ve ever been. And the seeds that were planted then, are still in existence today,” he explained.
“There were so many factors, but I think in order to understand where we are now, it’s always best to, like Maria says in ‘Sound of Music,’ let’s start at the very beginning,” he said.
Hall has taken to social media to address his critics head-on because he wants to “protect [my art] with everything in me.”
“I think this show deserves to be heard, and so, when I heard criticisms, I was like … I’m gonna stand up and respectfully try to give my opinion … But I’m not OK with someone going on social media and declaring on behalf of everyone who exists on the planet that’s black, that a musical is not for them …
“I’m watching in real life, every night, black people, brown people, white people, Asian people, old people, young people, queer people, straight people, all types of people, coming [to this show],” he said.
And when it comes to how theatergoers — particularly those who are black and queer — receive the story, Hall says he doesn’t want to put the show in a box.
“I don’t know that I want them to receive it in any other way than just to say, ‘Look at the sheer amount of work that has been put into the show’,” he said.
“To minimize something that has such intricate melodies and story arcs and characters, and twists and turns … I don’t want it to be put into a box,” he concluded.
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