The most striking aspect of the new musical “Wonder” is the light touch the creative team takes to heavy subjects. Not light as in “superficial;” instead, it’s more subtle, introducing ideas and then letting them unfold in a way that allows the audience to choose what’s important to them. The result is an extraordinarily heartfelt story that avoids dipping into cliché.
In fact, the care the American Repertory Theater’s creative team has taken makes the transformation of R.J. Palacio’s 2012 novel (and 2017 film) into musical theater feel like a natural progression. The 19 piano-driven songs from musical duo A Great Big World (Ian Axel and Chad King) are characterized by vulnerability (an apt description for their breakout hits of 2014, “Say Something,” and 2015’s “Kaleidoscope”), a quality essential to this story. The book, by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl (“Eurydice,” “The Clean House”), hews closely to the novel while also working well with the lyrics by Axel and King, which play off the dialogue and vice versa.
And every element of Matt Saunders’ scenic design – from Bradley King’s vividly colored blocks of light that give a gentle nod to the pixelated style of the video game Minecraft, to the turntable that encircles Auggie Pullman’s world – sketches the parameters of this universe without hemming us in.
Palacio’s novel and the musical tell the story of Auggie, a boy with facial differences who has endured more than two dozen surgeries in his young life. When he is enrolled in school with other kids for the first time, he lands in middle school – a terrifying rite of passage that includes gym class with dodge ball, described as “’Lord of the Flies’ with balls.” His attempts to be ordinary are met with disdain and bullying that eventually evolve into curiosity and friendship over the course of one school year. Palacio’s novel is credited with starting the “choose kind” movement, a theme that feels remarkably apt for our fraught political climate.
Director Taibi Magar has assembled an outstanding ensemble, dominated by a terrific group of young actors who play Auggie and his middle school classmates. Garrett McNally portrays Auggie (alternating performances with Max Voehl) with unadorned sincerity, making him immediately endearing. He is surrounded by fellow pre-teens Jack (Donovan Louis Bazemore), Charlotte (Skylar Matthews), Summer (Kylie Mirae Kuioka), Julian (Reese Levine), Amos (Nicholas Trupia), as well as Ryan Behan and Maddie Le, who play various members of the ensemble. Every member of this group delivers performances so energized with personality and vocal power, it’s always abundantly clear who they are and where they fit into the story.
Matthews is a standout as an over-the-top theater kid, while Bazemore demonstrates his vocal prowess as he sings about the unseen pressures these preteens experience with “Shoes,” which riffs on the idea of “walking in someone else’s shoes” and expands it into an extraordinary exploration of socioeconomic differences in the students’ private school, as evidenced by the shoes people wear. “Shoes” serves as a wonderful musical moment that invites the audience into the students’ world without the need for extensive exposition.
One of the aspects of Palacio’s novel that makes it so appealing is the shifting perspectives on the action offered by different characters. Within the condensed timeline of musical theater, Magar, Ruhl, and Axel/King still leave room for “Around the Sun,” an opportunity for Auggie’s high school aged sister Via (Kaylin Hedges) to acknowledge her place in the family with both acceptance and resentment. And her friend Miranda (Paravi) gets space to admit that comparisons between the love displayed by the Pullmans and her own broken family made her happy, but also jealous and sad, in “If It Makes You Feel Better.” This scene, set on a swing set, is an example of how beautifully “Wonder” illustrates the wild swings of emotion everyone experiences, giving them a sense of subtlety and grace.
Palacio’s inclusion of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” as the school play is another opportunity to remind us of what’s important in life, without preaching to us. In this musical version, the sweet romance between Justin (Diego Cordova) and Via, and the gift her friend Miranda gives her, allows Via “A Moment to Shine,” and be seen in a way that is unexpected and rewarding.
As Via’s perspective makes clear to us, Auggie is the sun, with the family revolving around him. His parents Isabel (Alison Luff) and Nate (Javier Muñoz) create the warm embrace that provides Auggie with a foundation of resilience, including the touching songs “Ordinary” and “Moon Boy.”
“Wonder’s” creative team made one new addition to the cast of characters: Moon Boy, Auggie’s imaginary friend and alter ego, who provides an appropriately theatrical view into Auggie’s internal monologues and the way he sees himself. Nathan Salstone infuses Moon Boy with enormous emotion, matched only by his heavenly vocals.
Linda Cho’s costumes never distract from the action, except for the hilariously appropriate Rock Paper Scissors Halloween costumes donned by the school principal (Melvin Abston), English teacher (Raymond J. Lee), and science teacher (Pearl Sun), each of whom add enormous personality to their roles.
In these early performances of this new musical, the pacing is a little uneven, with the second act accelerating so much that we race past a few key moments. Characters we could have easily dismissed as two-dimensional villains barely have more than a moment to reveal their complexity, which feels like a missed opportunity for character development.
But ultimately, “Wonder” is less about transformation or redemption and more about recognition and acceptance.
In a media environment flooded with over-explained messaging, “Wonder” welcomes us into a range of perspectives and provides an opportunity to expand our horizons and choose the way we want to be and grow in the world.
WONDER: THE MUSICAL
Music and lyrics by A Great Big World (Ian Axel and Chad King). Book by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Taibi Magar. Music director Ryan Cantwell. Presented by American Repertory Theater, through Feb. 8. Tickets from $43, AmericanRepertoryTheater.org/Wonder.