“When words aren’t enough”

ROTHSTEIN

“When words aren’t enough, the characters sing,” said Peter Rothstein.

It’s been the guiding principle of the musical “Twelve Angry Men: A New Musical” at Sarasota’s Asolo Repertory Theater.

Rothstein, the theater’s producing artistic director, has been working with writers for the last five years to make their upcoming production come alive on stage. He said the piece has a poetry kind of heightened nature to the movement, versus a regular dancing musical, which he thinks makes the piece unique.

“I’ve been helping shape it, making suggestions — and we’re still working on it, making changes as we go,” Rothstein said.

“It’s different as a director when you’re on a new work; sometimes it’s a much longer process as you’re building the show.”

Rothstein has been overseeing and working with the design process, running rehearsals and putting together the creative team and cast.

“When it’s a new work — which I love to do — it’s a much deeper investment over a long period of time.”

Because the material is so incredibly rich, trying to figure out and feeling out the best way to stage the dramatic action has been one of the challenges.

The play is 90 minutes long with no intermission. The plot couldn’t be simpler: 12 men debate the fate of a young defendant charged with murdering his father.

Rothstein said his biggest challenge has been figuring out the kinetics of the primary action — which is, essentially, just 12 guys sitting around a table and talking.

“Because it’s not a plot-driven piece, not a lot happens,” he explained. “It’s 12 men in a room, discussing a case and reaching a verdict, and that’s the sole action. So, figuring out how to stage that is a bit of a challenge on how to keep it active.”

The director brought on choreographer Kelli Foster Warder, who he said has been wonderful and very helpful with figuring out how the piece moves as a musical — but not a typical dance that you’d expect from a musical.

The original source material of the show was not something you’d even imagine lends itself to song and dance.

“Twelve Angry Men” got its start as a television production in 1954 on the dramatic anthology series Studio One, before becoming a stage play a year later, and a theatrical film in 1957. So why update what’s essentially a ’50s TV drama?

“For me, one of the reasons the piece is most relevant today, is that it’s about 11 men who change their minds over the course of the story,” Rothstein said. “They enter believing this teenager is guilty and the verdict ends up being unanimously not guilty. I think that, in this day and age, changing your mind is seen as weak, like you don’t have principles or you’re not grounded or you don’t have a spine. I think the piece would espouse that change in your mind as a heroic act, because it means you’re listening, you’re learning and you’re live to the world.

“That’s very relevant to be in a very divided country, and I think that’s about people not wanting to change their minds, not wanting to listen and not wanting to understand a different point of view.”

Like all American classics, Rothstein added, “Twelve Angry Men” speaks to multiple generations. That is why this musical resonates with the audiences of today.

The work is about the American justice system, Rothstein said, but also, it’s a piece about hope, and what it means to be able to live in a country where you are judged by your peers.

“Justice is in the hand of its citizens — and that’s a remarkable thing which America should be proud of. And when that’s the case, it’s impossible to leave one’s biases, so I think the piece is an investigation of our justice system but, ultimately, a celebration of our justice system.”

The original story consisted of a cast of 12 white men, and Rothstein wanted to diversify his actors, not just by ethnicity, but also by gender. However, he was told it had to be all men.

“At first, I was like, ‘Really?’ I was kind of disappointed with that news.

“But I was trying to understand it, and the piece is really about toxic masculinity and what men in our society pass on generation to generation, and are the biases that perpetuate racism, racial stereotypes, agism, fear and xenophobia.”

Although genders couldn’t be mixed, Rothstein was able to bring on a diverse cast.

“Half the cast are people of color. … In addition to the fusion of music in the piece, I would say the other primary difference is it’s not 12 white men sitting around talking — it’s a diverse room. And still today, I would argue, most people don’t sit in a room of mixed races, mixed ethnicities, mixed generations and ages to talk about serious issues and to have that conversation with folks who are different than themselves.

“Even today,” Rothstein said, “that’s a pretty radical idea that I don’t think happens all that often.”

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