Midnight - Play

Midnight sets twelve lives against one another in the nineteenth century: six Black characters and six white, in a society organised around that division, whose paths keep crossing whether or not anyone involved wants them to. The musical moves between them rather than following a single hero.

The score ranges across gospel, rhythm and blues, pop, rock, folk and opera, and uses genre itself as a way of separating the characters and then bringing them together. The writing is less interested in plot machinery than in how inherited assumptions get passed down, tested, and occasionally broken, and in what it actually costs a person to change their mind about someone else.

Todrick Hall wrote the book, music and lyrics, developing the piece over several years, and it had two earlier runs before this one. It suits audiences who want a new musical with a large ensemble sound and a serious subject underneath it, and it works best live, where twelve voices arriving together in one room is itself the argument the show is making.