Broadway's 'Wanted,' about a pair of white-passing sisters in 1890s Texas, has a scattershot plot
By Charles Isherwood
New York
Were man buns a thing in 19th-century Texas? The question swam into my mind -- a principal character sports one -- during the musical "Wanted," about a pair of black sisters who go on a righteous crime spree in the state in 1893.
It would be cheering to report that this first new musical of the Broadway season gets things off to a thrilling start -- especially since, as was the case last season, new musicals aren't numerous. But while it boasts a likable score showcasing a gifted cast, the show, inspired by the family history of one of its authors, packs so many wild and woolly events into its storyline that it becomes overburdened with increasingly implausible incident. As it rollicks along, piling romantic subplots onto the rampaging-outlaws tale, it comes across as a somewhat didactic folk fable, or an inspirational but surface-skimming Wild West cartoon. Hence my mind straying to inconsequential details like the historical veracity (or not) of that man bun.
Mary and Martha Clarke, played by Solea Pfeiffer and Liisi LaFontaine, respectively, are helping their mother, Tallulah (the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Ledisi) work off her sharecropping debt. But Tallulah's nefarious landlord plays fast and loose with the numbers, forcing Tallulah to keep working the land for him instead of owning it as she expected to. Outraged by this cruel turn of events, her daughters decide to strike out on their own to earn the needed funds. Because two black women traversing Texas at the time would be likely to cause comment -- or worse -- they decide to pass themselves off as white, both being light-skinned.
They soon learn that even white women aren't safe, when two men attempt to assault them -- only to beg for their lives, and give over all their money, after Martha pulls out the pistol her mother gave the sisters for protection. Struck by this windfall, Martha, the feistier of the two, decides that rather than earn money they will rob at gunpoint -- brothels, saloons, an auction of relics of the Confederacy. In one of the more preposterous scenes they happen upon a black woman being rebuffed when she tries to deposit money in a bank, so they rob the bank -- and easily disarm the sheriff, who happens to show up. (Spoiler: They let the woman keep her money.) Also preposterous: Despite the pair becoming notorious as they continue their spree across a gun-flooded state, we never actually see them pull the trigger on a victim. These hallowed heroines mustn't be sullied by bloodshed, it seems.
The tale is based on lore passed down in the family of Angelica Chéri, who wrote the book and lyrics. Ross Baum supplies the music. Despite the setting and the period, the score blends mostly contemporary-sounding Broadway pop balladry and R&B with a country twang or hints of hymns and gospel, the latter mainly performed by a chorus of "kinfolk," ancestors clad in ghostly white who swirl in and out of the story, singing narration and commentary and further complicating the tale's unfolding.
Both Ms. Pfeiffer, as the more demure Mary, and Ms. LaFontaine, as the staunch and unyielding Martha, have rich voices that bring warmth and suppleness -- and, as needed, vibrant voltage -- to their solos and duets. Their performances have a bright bloom that makes us feel the firmness of the bond between them. Ledisi also has a handsome and powerful voice that gives emotional amplitude to her songs, and she lends a quiet dignity to the proud Tallulah.
But the show swaggers into soapy territory when romance takes over. While casing a job, Martha and Mary meet Jesse (Bradley Jaden), a rich white man who invites them to stay in his hotel -- despite instantly recognizing them as the now-infamous outlaws (incidentally raising the question of how they have managed to avoid discovery for so long). While he and Mary embark on a love affair, Martha befriends the black Elijah (Luke James), one of Jesse's employees, who soon grows sweet on her and, with the help of his tongue-wagging fellow employees Sissy and Flo (the delightfully funny Aurelia Williams and Awa Sal Secka), guesses the secret of her racial identity. The score, while always ear-pleasing, grows blander and more conventional as one love ballad or duet follows another.
Director Stevie Walker-Webb draws forth fine performances from the entire cast, but there is not much he can do to tame the melodramatic excesses of the second act, which finds the sisters' bond threatened by their different choices. What is wanting in "Wanted" is a less cumbrous and more credible storyline that would allow the characters, and by extension the show, more depth and a greater sense of authenticity.
Wanted
James Earl Jones Theatre, 138 W. 48th St., New York, 212-239-6200, closes March 31
-- Mr. Isherwood is the Journal's theater critic.
This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (November 13, 2026).