AMERICAN UTOPIA Celebrates a Rockin' Opening Night on Broadway!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

David Burns' American Utopia has come to Broadway, and we caught up with him and the company on opening night

Welcome to Broadway. How does it feel? Oh, it's really exciting. Yeah, very exciting

And tonight was great because we got to play to our friends and family

What has this whole experience been like for you, David, with working on this show? it's been about

thinking how the show the concert that we used to do a year ago

how we could change it to make it into something else to make it into something different

that has a little bit more of a narrative arc and a little bit more engagement

you have assembled some of the finest musicians and now I'm calling them dancers

what was it like finding everybody some of them I knew some I'd heard about

some recommended themselves to each other yeah so when you took your bow tonight on Broadway for your debut do you remember what you were thinking Um as usual I thinking okay who triggers the next bow Where do I go after this Where do I

step? Do I need to shift to the left? Yeah, all that. It's that kind of stuff. The most exciting

thing for me is to have that much percussion, to be able to choreograph that much percussion. I love

drumming and I've watched drummers all over the world dance so it's particularly challenging and

and fascinating for me to be able to apply my own ideas to drumming

Haring the stage with David Byrne. Pinch me moment what is that like

I mean honestly at first it was like oh my gosh wait is this real life somebody pinch me

but then as time progresses he's just such a open and like just down to earth person that we've

We're creating such a family that it's just like, we're performing and continue to encourage each other

push each other, inspire each other, every single song. And have fun

Like, it's not a joke. We're not playing, we're actually having fun on stage. Yeah, he is like a child

He is like a little joyful boy When he sets foot on that stage it is infectious Everyone like why do you have so much fun And him he is just having the time of his life

You cannot help but have a blast. Tell me about the tube, which I heard you invented

I don't know if I invented it, but the tube, you just blow air in the drum to change the pitch

So I can have a tom, and since we're carrying all the instruments, basically one drum can have multiple sounds so it's almost like having two

drums instead of one what are you enjoying the most what am i of the whole

thing oh my goodness i probably just playing music every night you know it's

incredible especially playing with david oh it's pretty amazing i mean we just got off that 28 country tour last year so we kind of became a family and then at

the end of the tour he said it's not over you guys and then you know they

started talking about Broadway and you know, she seems so far away and all of a sudden now we're here

It's amazing. When you heard that you were going to Broadway, what went through your mind

Oh, you know, I'm from Brazil. Like a dream you know Like a dream for me for my family Oh my God very exciting It super surreal I grew up on David music but now we just become like a big family

And the feeling among the musicians is so good and so like home, you know

So every night it's surreal to play these songs that I love and to be a part of it

But it feels so natural by now. I think it was kind of a natural step, you know

because we had toured the world, and the opportunity came, and it's like perfect

So it's just a natural thing that happened. I was so excited, I think, about being on Broadway

I always thought I would be as a dancer, but now as a percussionist, playing with David Byrne

it's like a layer cake. It's so delicious, so many wonderful layers to it

What are you enjoying the most about doing this with David Byrne? Being with David

Learning from David. He's an infectious person. Teaches me a lot of stuff. And he's got great energy all the time

It leads to love, so it's good. When you took your bow tonight, do you remember what you were thinking

I was just happy. I was happy, yeah