A talented film maker in his own right, David Byrne attracts other titan talents to document his stage shows.

Academy award winning director, Jonathan Demme made an outstanding concert film, Stop Making Sense, when Byrne was still fronting the band, Talking Heads, and now Spike Lee has made a spectacular recording of David Byrne’s dazzling smash-hit Broadway show based on the album of the same name.

AMERICAN UTOPIA played at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre in New York City from October 2019 to February this year and was filmed by Lee with 11 camera operators to intimately capture the multi-faceted production.

Choreographed by Annie-B Parson, AMERICAN UTOPIA finds Byrne performing songs onstage with 11 musicians from around the world. As well as performing selections from Byrne’s American Utopia solo album, the set list includes hits from the Talking Heads’ back catalogue, such as “Once in a Lifetime,” “Burning Down the House,” “Road to Nowhere” and tracks by other musicians such as a rendition of Janelle Monáe’s “Hell You Talmbout,” featuring the ensemble calling out the names of black Americans who have been unjustly killed in recent years.

Showing he is more than just a Talking Head, Byrne leads his fellow performers through an energetic and agile musical march, positioning true patriotism is rather allegiance to ethics and not party political.

AMERICAN UTOPIAN is a joyously upbeat concert film even though it tackles some dystopian aspects of America and, indeed, the world. Racial prejudice, immigrant enmity, and civic apathy are all talked, sung and danced about.

An upbeat jamboree against jingoism, a shindig against chauvinism, AMERICAN UTOPIA is just the ticket at the moment for warding off the Covid blues.

AMERICAN UTOPIA WILL BE AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIAN CINEMAS FROM 26 NOVEMBER