“Atomic”: Excavating the Heart of the Matter

Atomic, the new musical by Danny Ginges and Gregory Bonsignore (book and lyrics) and Philip Foxman (music and lyrics), does what theater does best. Rather than try to illuminate the scientific complexities or trace the bumpy historical narrative of its world-changing subject, this high-octane show excavates the conflicted inner workings of its characters’ hearts and minds. Those characters are the famous real-life scientists who developed the atomic bomb—J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Leó Szilárd, Edward Teller. It’s their shifting feelings, intellectual integrities, moral justifications and personal torments that form the show’s flammable psychological terrain.

The musical thoroughly contextualizes the making and dropping of the bomb amid the U.S.’s prevailing political and military viewpoints during World War II. But with its intentionally anachronistic elements, the show prevents us from relegating nuclear concerns to history. Played against a futuristic matrix of bright-silver cubes and lit rock concert–style with fast-moving spotlights, the musical is fueled by an invigorating rock-meets-Broadway score. (In fact, it often sounds a lot like Jesus Christ Superstar.) Atomic’s hard-hitting production demands that we think about nuclear weaponry in contemporary frameworks.

With the exception of weak-voiced Sara Gettelfinger, who plays Szilárd’s wife, the cast gives raw, piercing interpretation to songs that strip bare their characters’ emotional turmoil. As Oppenheimer, testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, suave Euan Morton launches the evening with an intimidating rendition of a charged rock song, claiming the story we’re about to hear is the “most seminal tale of our species, a warning sign for every other animal to heed.” Jeremy Kushnier, as Szilárd, raises the rafters expressing his enthusiasm to “build a chain reaction that will light up the world.” The Italian immigrant Fermi, entertainingly portrayed by Jonathan Hammond, sings his love for America in a snappy mambo song-and-dance routine. But the show’s musical highlight is the haunting “Stars and Stripes Will Rise,” an anti-Japanese tirade electrifyingly sung by Randy Harrison, who plays the U.S. Army flyboy who will ultimately pilot the Enola Gay.

Despite the foreshadowing prologue set in Japan, we are caught off guard when Atomic delivers a surprise attack in its climactic moments. After two hours wrestling with ideas about nuclear energy from the safe distance of moral argument, we are suddenly thrust onto the front lines. Yes, the show actually attempts to depict the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima! My hat’s off to Atomic’s entire production team, helmed by Damien Gray, for having the pluck and ingenuity to conjure a heart-stopping theatrical representation of this historic occurrence. Presented through a keen combination of stage-combat choreography, assaultive lighting, sensitive sound design, carefully crafted dialogue and dramatic timing, this incredible scene offers a profound demonstration of the explosive power of the theater.