(Reviewed by JD Jung)
#CommissionsEarned
“Less than a year ago, when the curtain fell after the opening night applause, I assumed the New York City I knew—and my place in it—could last forever.”
A Season in Lights celebrates performers and other creative artists who travel to New York to fulfill their dreams. Specifically, the story centers around two such performers who are trying to make a successful career in the city.
It’s June 2019 and Cammie, an aging dancer, is to perform in her first off-Broadway play. She left her comfortable life in Lancaster, PA for an attempt to fulfil her dreams as a dancer on Broadway. Now, she frets about making her monthly rent.
In 1986, nineteen-year-old pianist Tom Haley left the drug-ridden streets of South Bronx in hopes of becoming a classical pianist and perform at Carnegie Hall. He finds a few jazz gigs, but his true passion is classical music.
The story takes us between the two years of 1986 and 2019 to revisit what has transpired in their lives to determine their choices in trying to make a life in New York. While both come from contrasting backgrounds and are decades apart in age, they develop a special friendship. Their circumstances are different, but there is a common thread in the problems they face. Both are ridden with family guilt and pressure from their mothers. Both challenge stereotypes that keep them stagnant in this commercial world. Both are forced to face their demons and make peace with their realities. The author carefully weaves in these similarities without downplaying the differences.
Readers will be able to identify with these two characters on multiple levels as well as feel for the supporting characters. Tom’s employer and friend Charles, battles the fear of contracting AIDS while plagued with guilt of being a survivor. Remember, this is 1986 when there were a lot of unknowns and myths about the disease.
The strength of this novel is not just the memorable characters but the structure of the plot. As we go back and forth between the two main characters, we wonder if they will make it and at what cost. Always in the back of my mind was the thought of how COVID would affect their lives…that’s if they made it that far.
Though written before Broadway’s reopening, A Season in Lights: A Novel in Three Acts gives hope for the resilience of New York and the people who make it what it is.
