The upcoming Broadway musical Paradise Square, which begins previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on February 22, has released its first music video, featuring the song “I’d Be a Soldier,” one of several new numbers written since the show’s 2019 Berkeley Rep premiere. The story is set in New York’s infamous Five Points during the Civil War, where “Irish step dancing joyously competed with Black American Juba.”
This song, about America’s first draft instituted during the Civil War to increase the Union Army, is performed by Nathaniel Stampley (Rev. Lewis) and Sidney DuPont (Washington Henry), backed by Chloe Davis, Bernard Dotson Jamal Christopher Douglas, Jacobi Hall, Jay McKenzie, Kayla Pecchioni, Lee Siegel, Rashidra Scott, Yasmeen Sulieman, Alan Wiggins, and Hailee Kaleem Wright.
The libretto is a collaboration of Christina Anderson, Marcus Gardley, Craig Lucas, and Larry Kirwan, who also collaborated on the music with Jason Howland. Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare provide the lyrics. In addition to its original songs, the score includes interpolations of Stephen Foster, who was living in Five Points at the time.