I Saw Sufjan's Musical + The Flailing Landscape

My review of "Illinois" the musical by Sufjan Stevens + some stray thoughts on living life on autopilot.

On Sunday, I made my pilgrimage upstate. I was going to my alma mater, Bard College — a small semi-chic liberal arts school in the Hudson Valley. It’s where I spent 2018-2022. It’s where I went to school. Where I became a writer. Where I zombied my way through bright college fields.

My time there was recent and . . . complicated. But wow is it green in June!

The Hudson Valley is, after all, a sort of pastoral-heaven with rolling green hills and hamlets boasting a city folk’s dream of country life. New York City has always shaped the region, but since COVID, even I, a recent resident, noticed a marked shift. City dwellers, either re-locating or buying second homes upstate, turned swaths of towns into newly painted Domino Magazine spreads. Under the generous blue sky, all this new sheen looks even more glistened. The Adirondacks towering over my my Labne Sour Cherry Ice cream from Fortunes. It’s a strange dream.

I wasn’t there just to eat ice cream though. I was going to see Illinois (the musical) premiering at Bard’s ostentatious, Frank Gehry-designed Fisher center. Illinois (the album) is a staple of the 2000s indie cannon. It’s also considered the crowning achievement of Sufjan Steven’s ouvre. Illinois is one of two albums that Stevens wrote to tell the story of a state. The songs’ subject matter lilt between the quotidian and dream-like. John Wayne Gacey Jr. appears, chopping up his victims dressed as a clown. But so does stubborn, aching love. Dreary self-doubt.

Stephens is a masterful writer and composer. He infuses his songs with a breathless scope through his rhapsodic instrumentation, but his work is always grounded to the soil. His lyrics are vividly specific, meticulously rendered.

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You can reach me at tobiehess@gmail.com or @tobiasfornow on all platforms — always looking to connect!