John McCutcheon’s portrayal of Joe Hill honors both a folk music hero and a labor hero. John McCutcheon probably would not be the masterful folksinger he is without Joe Hill. For that matter there probably wouldn’t have been a Woody Guthrie, no Pete Seeger and numerous other folk musicians. Without Joe Hill protest songs may not have existed. In many respects Joe Hill invented the protest song part of folk music. He invented it because he tried to change the wages and conditions of laborers, especially in the mines at the turn of the 20th Century as he organized for the IWW labor union.
Of course Joe Hill sang not only for labor, but for immigration reform, for worker’s rights, about the death penalty, war, justice and love as well. The play “Joe Hill’s Last Will,” the scant minutes before Joe’s execution, covers his life, his work and his music. The audience gets to hear it all as John McCutcheon delivers Joe Hill’s words and the songs. The play (many might say a musical play) is a labor (pun intended) of love for John to show his followers and friends just what Joe Hill was all about.
As you sit back to enjoy the play put yourself back in time to November 19, 1915, to an era with which most of us – all of us – are unfamiliar. Let John McCutcheon immerse you in the life of Joe Hill.
~Bruce Roberts