The Finest of Dead People
Dave Malloy's ‘Ghost Quartet’ at the Bushwick Starr
Ben Brantley
October 10, 2014: Spirits rise in all sorts of ways in Ghost Quartet, a rapturous little show that asks the musical question: “If you could be any kind of dead person, what kind of dead person would you be?” After due consideration of assorted supernatural species, including the currently in-vogue zombies and vampires, the answer arrives in soaring song in this four-person production, which opened on Wednesday night at the Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn. One would only want to be a ghost, of course, the kind that goes “hoo, hoo, hoo” all night. To say that’s what Ghost Quartet does is a more or less accurate but far from complete description of its inebriating effect. Written and composed by Dave Malloy — the rollicking talent behind the hit Off Broadway popera Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 — this happily haunted song cycle speaks in many styles.
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