Wanted review – generic crime musical lacks outlaw grit
The new retooled musical Wanted, from writer Angelica Chéri and composer Ross Baum, opens with a blare of excitement: a Greek chorus of sorts, clad in billowing white garments like spirits from the great beyond, lay their scene in 1890s Texas. There, we meet two Black sisters, Mary and Martha Clarke, who will become wanted criminals. The tone of Baum's music is portentous, its volume high, suggesting that an epic journey is about to unfold. What ensues from there is, sadly, not quite as suspenseful, moving or grand as advertised.