DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. PBS is presenting a new televised version of a multimedia concert staged at Carnegie Hall last April. It's called "We Chose To Go To The Moon" and tells the history of the Space Race in what our TV critic David Bianculli says is a very unconventional, extremely emotional and exciting approach. Here's his review.
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: The onstage narrator of "We Chose To Go To The Moon," John Monsky, also is the show's creator and writer. As a historian, he knows his stuff. And like Ken Burns (ph), he's interested in finding and hearing lots of different viewpoints, especially from minorities, women and often overlooked contributors. But for his American History Unbound concert series - previous ones have included presentations on World War II and Vietnam - he's also one hell of a showman. For "We Chose To Go To The Moon" at Carnegie Hall, there was a 45-piece orchestra, Broadway stars who acted as well as sang, film footage and still photos - all of it combining to bring history to life in ways as touching as they are illuminating.
Take Neil Armstrong, for example. He was the first astronaut to step foot on the moon in the summer of 1969, but we learn about him much earlier in his life, as a teenager obsessed with taking flying lessons. By age 20, he's called up by the Navy and flying jets off an aircraft carrier during the Korean War. Skylar Astin, from Broadway's "Spring Awakening," reads from Neil Armstrong's letter to his father, while the orchestra plays "Suicide Is Painless" in the background, which, of course, was the theme to TV's "M*A*S*H," set during the Korean War.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WE CHOSE TO GO TO THE MOON")
SKYLAR ASTIN: Dear dad, a short note to you with some pertinent details. Things aren't quite as easy as I pointed out in my last letter to mother, although they could be a lot worse. I don't want to worry her too much. The day after I wrote my last letter, I was hit by enemy fire, and I almost lost my aircraft in a dive about a hundred miles behind enemy lines. However, I managed to nurse the plane back to friendly territory, and I bailed it out safely. But the next day, two of our boys in the squadron were shot down. It was a pretty grim day.
BIANCULLI: Music plays a huge part in this production, and not just because it's a multimedia concert. The songs chosen and performed reflect popular culture's obsession with the Space Race. There's not only a stellar version of "Fly Me To The Moon," sung by Skylar Astin, but versions of "Rocket Man" by Elton John, "Mr. Spaceman" by The Byrds and two seminal David Bowie songs, "Life On Mars?" and "Space Oddity." But the less familiar music matters too. We learn that Armstrong was so much a fan of an obscure album called "Music Out Of The Moon," that he took a recording of it with him into space. Its featured instrument was an electronic gizmo called the theremin. At this point, historian John Monsky picks up the story.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WE CHOSE TO GO TO THE MOON")
JOHN MONSKY: In 1932, The Theremin Orchestra (ph), led by Leon Theremin, performs right here on this stage, in this spot at Carnegie Hall. And now, 94 years later, I present to you "Music Out Of The Moon."
(SOUNDBITE OF SAMUEL J HOFFMAN SONG, "LUNAR RHAPSODY")
BIANCULLI: But we're not through with the theremin just yet, because it's also the featured instrument in a much more familiar song from the mid-'60s, when the United States was racing against the Soviet Union to establish dominance in outer space.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WE CHOSE TO GO TO THE MOON")
MONSKY: So the Space Race continues, and we are all caught up in it. Space exploration opens the world for us to dream big. Reflecting on all that will be a sensational hit TV show called "Star Trek."
(SOUNDBITE OF ALEXANDER COURAGE'S "THEME FROM STAR TREK")
BIANCULLI: Monsky calls "Star Trek" a hit TV show, which it wasn't, but it mattered greatly to many of those who watched it. Some future scientists would design phones and computers based on what they saw on that show, and there was even more "Star Trek"-related history to come.
Joy Woods, who was nominated for a Tony for her role in the recent revival of "Gypsy," steps downstage to explain that Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, was about to quit "Star Trek" midway through until she was talked out of it by one very influential viewer. She tells this story in character as Nichols, quoting the Black actor directly and passionately.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WE CHOSE TO GO TO THE MOON")
JOY WOODS: (As Nichelle Nichols) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sees me in the crowd and comes right up to me and says, I am your biggest fan. Your show is the only show that my wife, Coretta, and I will allow our three children to watch. And I tell him, thank you for watching, but I am leaving the show. His entire demeanor changes. You cannot do that, he says. Don't you know that a Uhura represents more than just a part for Nichelle Nichols? And then he says, while we're out there marching and having hoses turned on us and dogs jumping on us, there is a TV show that says we don't stop here. We go on. And there is a woman on that show who looks just like us. We are there. That's what you represent. And this character tells us that this is worth it. You cannot leave. And I did not leave.
BIANCULLI: The entire presentation is like that, full of delightful surprises and unexpected connections. Performers dressed as astronauts are suspended above the stage, as in "Peter Pan," but instead of flying, they're walking in space. Cartoons and movies are projected at certain points, as are such breathtaking real images as the first Earth rise seen from space, and, of course, Neil Armstrong's famous lunar landing. It's all a thrill to behold and a persuasive template for a dynamic, fresh approach to teaching history. Please take the effort to seek it out. It'll be worth it. "We Chose To Go To The Moon" is out of this world.
DAVIES: David Bianculli reviewed "We Chose To Go To The Moon," available on pbs.org and the PBS app.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILL FRISELL'S "TELSTAR")
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FRESH AIR's executive producer is Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support from Diana Martinez. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I'm Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILL FRISELL'S "TELSTAR") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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