‘Completely original’ musical Midnight tries (and fails) to imagine a slavery-era romance

Todrick Hall’s off-Broadway show is about a doomed interracial love affair during US slavery in the 1860s

During the intermission of Midnight, an off-Broadway musical about a doomed interracial love affair during US slavery in the 1860s, a woman sitting behind me lauded the show and compared it to Hamilton. On the surface, she was correct. Midnight also has a diverse cast with stunning vocals and a story that reimagines a time within American history. The difference, however, is that Hamilton’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, used source material – a 2004 biography on Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow – to develop his original work, something the Midnight creator and star, Todrick Hall, eschewed entirely. Therein lies the issue. Midnight aims to focus on the intimate lives of enslaved people and deviates so far from the mark that it seemed the bull’s eye was somewhere outside the theatre.

Midnight’s premise is that an enslaved man named Rail, played by Hall, who wrote and directed the musical, falls in love with Richard, a member of the wealthy planter class. They grow close after Richard “rents” Rail from Rail’s owner, Charlotte. Rail is in a relationship with Lily Rose, an enslaved woman, and Richard is engaged to Scarlet, a southern belle who needs to secure her family’s financial future through marriage. It’s a formulaic and recognizable story about star-crossed lovers – updated to explore a queer relationship during the time of enslavement. For years, Hall, a singer, choreographer and theatre actor, has repurposed classics like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast through a queer lens. He deftly remixes the originals with modern cultural references, such as Beyoncé’s music or the tensions within current-day gay communities. But in Midnight, Hall reworks the past and creates his own fantasy that neglects the social realities of its characters.