Globe Theatre Musical Goes to Afghanistan

When U. S. Army medic Mike Randolf (the angel-voiced Aaron Finley) loses his best friend to an IED in Afghanistan, Christmas suddenly becomes not the joyous homecoming anticipated by his wife and young daughter, but a wrenching psychological struggle.

Country music giant Clint Black took the title of this original musical from one of his early albums of the same name. He crafted the show’s music and lyrics in the tradition of American Country, where every song is a mini novel and cries from the heart are the underpinning of the genre. Through 17 songs Black looks at America’s 17-year war in Afghanistan and the yearning of an unsung family of three to be whole again.

The show opens with the title song sung by daughter Ellie (a little girl with a big voice) and Mike, still thousands of miles apart, and follows with a touching duet between the newly reunited Mike and his wife, Jessie (the charming Liana Hunt).

Mike, in the throes of PTSD, cannot voice his conflicts to an increasingly desperate Jessie, is startled by loud noises like the IED that killed his friend Doug (the stalwart DeLeon Dallas), and harassed by everyday conversation and routines. Worse, Doug is real to him and appears as a ghost character, filling him and Doug’s wife, Alissa (the exquisite Syndee Winters), with anguish. Capping Mike’s turmoil is a remarkable scene in a shopping mall, where customers fight over gifts.

Young Ellie and her pals are preparing a Christmas pageant about the Christ child and the arrival of the Magi. Can Mike pull himself together and attend? A glance around the full house for this world premiere revealed many men—possibly vets themselves—teary-eyed as they silently rooted for one of their own to become “normal.”

Director Kent Nicholson delivers a clean, schmaltz-free production and makes cell phones veritable alter egos as the protagonists talk, text and gaze at each other across continents. Matt Hinkley conducts a wonderful off-stage musical ensemble. Charlotte Devaux’s inspired costumes are this-minute millennial, complementing the right-now nature of the story.

But it is Clint Black’s artistry that raises an all too familiar story to a new level. Remember songs like “Someday,” “The Kid,” “Me and the Moon” and “Never Knew Love”?

Some minor carping: Before heading to Broadway, make the death of Doug clearer (it happens in literally one bang and the audience is none the wiser). Limit the amount of kiddie activity — and let the tight-lipped Mike break down and get over the mountain.

The show is on view in the round in the tiny Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, whose confines make the characters’ interaction all the more vivid. Give yourself a Christmas gift and see it through Dec. 31, 2018.