Amazing Grace sets sail on stage

If you were writing a musical about the life of “Amazing Grace” hymn-writer John Newton, the slave-trader-turned-pastor, would you hinge the plot on his conversion to Christianity, his pining love for Polly Catlett, or his condemnation of the slave trade?

How about all three? So goes Amazing Grace, a show playing at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago through Nov. 2. The show’s producers realized Newton’s life contains enough faith, romance, and social justice to appeal to a broad audience. (They hope to take the show to a Broadway audience, too.)

Amazing Grace,delightfully acted and sung by a 34-member cast, has been in the works for seven years. Josh Young (Jesus Christ Superstar) plays John Newton, a young man revolting against his father’s wishes and his mother’s God. Erin Mackey (Wicked) plays Catlett (renamed “Mary” in the play), who loves Newton but feels repulsed by his dabbling in the slave trade. Newton, the perfect rebel, welcomes her love but rebuffs her morality: “This is the world we live in. You don’t have to like it.”

Newton proclaims himself the master of his own destiny, but instead of charting his own course, he gets conscripted into the Royal Navy, and sails into one life-threatening situation after another. Like Jonah, he can run, but not hide.

From that setup comes a whirlwind tour of Newton’s life, from England to Africa to Barbados. We see sailors and Englishmen climb masts, have gunfights, endure cannon fire, and sink underwater (In a theater? Yes). We see the tragedy of 18th century slavery, where pregnant women are sold and branded. We see an upper-crust English society dancing and prancing while their black slaves cower.

At one point, Newton is himself enslaved by an African princess, an ironic historical fact brilliantly portrayed onstage by a sneering, haughty Harriett D. Foy (Mamma Mia). (The princess’ dancers, in skimpy costumes, might be a bit too historical.) The show has some strong language, although it understates Newton’s character: In life, he shocked his fellow sailors with his daring blasphemies. We see onstage his repugnance for the Bible, which he says makes people delusional: “It’s like opium, only stronger.”

The stage Newton sells and whips slaves, and the real Newton did worse things best left out of the musical and this review. How appropriate, then, to have the humiliated black slave Thomas (Chuck Cooper, The Piano Lesson) sing hauntingly Newton’s own condemnation: “Sin is only good for a season … but one day you will stand and give a reason. For no one ever leaves here unjudged. … Where will you go when there’s nowhere left to run?”

Thoroughly enjoying the musical requires you don’t expect a thoroughly biographical plot. In tying together Christianity, love, and abolition, the show compresses the arc of Newton’s life and fictionalizes some elements, while anchoring them in true events.

One fictional aspect is an overhaul of Catlett’s character, portrayed as a well-to-do singer who attracts the romantic attentions of a British major and pretends to love him in order to act as a spy for the abolition movement. In the musical, Catlett is a Christian and abolitionist calling Newton to faith and morals.

In reality, Newton became a Christian before Catlett did, although he was so cowardly early in his marriage he wouldn’t pray in front of her until she asked him.

This brings up a curious aspect of Newton’s real-life relationship with Catlett. During his attempts to court her, Newton was so nervous he could hardly speak. Yet he was madly infatuated with her, even after she rejected his first proposals. So strong was her tug on his heart that after he became a lecherous but successful trader on the African coast, it was the far-fetched thought of winning Catlett’s love that convinced him to return “home” to England when an opportunity arose. Newton met the “hour I first believed” on the harrowing return voyage. Catlett did indeed draw him to faith, though not through her will, but God’s.

One other biographical adjustment: In the play, when Newton converts to Christianity, his moral eyes are opened, and he immediately frees slaves and works toward abolition—a quick and tidy resolution.

Reality was more complicated: Lacking any spiritual mentors early on, Newton actually continued as a slave trader after his conversion, believing the business to be distasteful but economically essential. It was later in his Christian life, and growth, that he condemned slavery and became a mentor to William Wilberforce, the young politician who would help outlaw the British slave trade.

As far as the musical goes, those biographical edits don’t sink the ship. In contemporary culture, John Newton the slave trader may be an ideal character to demonstrate the cultural fruit of Christianity. God’s work in a human heart ultimately helped free blacks and whites from all sorts of chains.