There's no denying Roger Miller had a unique and tuneful talent, and that, pushed by producer Rocco Landesman, he rose to the challenge of writing a Broadway musical score to fit the story of Huckleberry Finn. The catchy songs feel right and flavorful, but Landesman should have pushed the tunemeister a notch more. Just when a song seems about to get going, Miller simply repeats the best lyrics - two or three times - instead of coming up with something new or clever to say. This still keeps Big River from being an exceptional musical, though in the Roundabout Theater Company's presentation of a Jeff Calhoun-directed revival for Deaf West Theater, we are given more to look at when our ears go on autopilot. That's because half the cast is composed of deaf or hearing-impaired performers. They don't speak or sing (hearing actors stand on the side for that purpose), though they do sign throughout, as do the hearing actors.
The result has the benefit not only of novelty but of occasional added context, as when a deaf actor ends up playing a hearing character who pretends to be a deaf one; or when runaway slave Jim sings about living in an isolated world that Huck will never understand. All told, a pleasant, engaging evening, though still more for the family-audience crowd than musical aficionados.
