This show played its final performance on Sunday - July 17.
View all Broadway Shows and Off Broadway Shows and Events.The new musical,
Paradise Square has arrived on Broadway.
New York, 1863. An accidental society held the promise of what America could be.
As the Civil War rages on, free Blacks and Irish immigrants live and love together in the unlikeliest of neighborhoods – the dangerous streets and crumbling tenement houses of Lower Manhattan’s notorious Five Points slum. The amalgamation between the communities took its most exuberant form with raucous dance contests on the floors of the neighborhood bars and dance halls. It is here in the Five Points where tap dancing was born. But this racial equilibrium would come to a sharp and brutal end when President Lincoln’s need to institute the first Federal Draft to support the Union Army would incite the deadly NY Draft Riots of July 1863.
Within this galvanizing story of racial harmony undone by a country at war with itself, we meet the denizens of a local saloon called Paradise Square. These characters include the indomitable Black woman who owns it; her Irish-Catholic sister-in-law and her Black minister husband; a conflicted newly arrived Irish immigrant; a fearless freedom seeker; an anti-abolitionist political boss; and a penniless songwriter trying to capture it all. They have conflicting notions of what it means to be an American while living through one of the most tumultuous eras in our country’s history.
With visceral and nuanced staging and choreography that captures the pulsating energy when Black and Irish cultures meet and set to a contemporary score that reimagines early American song,
Paradise Square depicts an overlooked true-life moment when hope and possibility shone bright.
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Here is why we at Broadway Inbound think it's a perfect show for groups:
Paradise Square is an outstanding original Broadway musical about the Irish and Black communities who coexisted on the Lower East Side of New York City in the mid-19th Century. The story follows the residents as they struggle to survive and make sense of the Civil War that is tearing their country apart. Unfortunately, freedom isn’t free, and the battle to create a better world threatens to destroy everything the characters love.
The storytelling in Paradise Square moves seamlessly from drama to personal narrative to stirring song. And there are plenty of opportunities for an ensemble voice to belt out an anthem or a ballad, sure to make your group feel both inspired and united.
From the outset, the emotions conveyed by the cast are contagious and all-consuming. From the very moment they take the stage at the top of the show to the final emotional departure, the performers wield complete and total power and control over their artistic language and the audiences.
A perfect show for a group interested in history, civil rights, and social justice. Paradise Square speaks to a broad range of topics and will engage every member of your group. This is a great musical to add to your trip to the city, providing a brilliant theatrical backdrop to the history of New York.
Take a look at the video with one of the songs from the show performed by Joaquina Kalukango.
Get your tickets for Paradise Square