The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame calls him “the original folk hero”—the artist who turned the American folk ballad into a fierce vehicle for social protest. Decades later, the fascinating, wildly prolific, and deeply relevant legacy of Woody Guthrie takes center stage in London with the award-winning production, Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie.
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| David M. Lukten in Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie. Photo by Roger Mastroianni. |
Told through Guthrie’s own words and featuring more than two dozen of his timeless songs, Woody Sez is a joyous, toe-tapping musical brought to life by an extraordinarily talented cast of four actor-musicians playing over a dozen instruments. It’s a simple, beautiful, and rousing celebration of songs rooted in defiance, hope, and resilience—tunes that continue to shape today’s storytelling songwriters.
We sat down with the show's creator and star, David M. Lutken, to discuss bringing this authentically American musical journey across the Atlantic, the enduring power of Guthrie's message, and what it takes to perform a living legend's catalogue live on stage.
What can you tell me about Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie?
“Woody Sez” is a four-actor, acoustic musical biography-for-the-stage devised by David M. Lutken along with the original cast of actor/musicians, Darcie Deaville, Helen Jean Russell and Andy Teirstein, and director, Nick Corley. It weaves together Woody Guthrie’s writings, songs, essays, letters, poems, journals and journalism to recount not only the life, times, friends, family, influences and origins, but the zeitgeist of America’s early 20th century through the eyes of one of its greatest ballad-protest-songwriters - a fervent, patriotic voice of the people who was also a fierce critic of corporate greed and government shortcomings.
How does it feel to bring Woody Sez back to London for the first time in over a decade?
It feels great to be singing these songs and telling this story to a new generation, as it were. Bringing the show back to London will be fascinating. The social and political climate here - and around the world - has changed a great deal since “Woody Sez” ran at The Arts Theatre in 2011, and also seems somehow to have shifted only slightly. The depth of people’s curiosity and genuine interest has changed, and across a wide spectrum of listeners.
How did audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe respond to the show this summer, and has the tone or energy of the performance shifted since you first created it?
We had marvelous audiences in Edinburgh. The new cast members, Nyssa Grant and Raquel Chavez, were swept up in all the wonderful excitement (as were veterans David Finch and myself). The tone of each performance is a balancing act onstage and ‘across the footlights’: a restlessly creative life set against dark and difficult times that is ultimately hopeful and always uplifting; it’s the energy of audiences that has really shifted to new heights and power. As evidence of that, our weekly post-show hootenannies were a spectacular highlight for us at The Fringe, with local musicians and friends from other shows joining members of our audiences and us to play and sing together.
The production features four actor-musicians switching between more than a dozen instruments live on stage. How do you and the ensemble manage that level of multi-instrumental choreography during a live set?
Finch, Nyssa and Raquel are absolutely brilliant in every way at this “instrument-ography” (not to mention the actual choreography and staging, straightforward though it may be) … practice makes perfect, I suppose, as our director, Nick, and associate director, Sherry Lutken, a choreographer and former dancer, have created something of a “Swiss-watch” movement for many of our scene/instrument shifts.
Woody Guthrie is widely recognised as "the original folk hero" who transformed the folk ballad into social protest. Out of the two dozen songs featured in the production, which one feels the most poignant or electric to perform live today?
There are a few that feel especially spot-on right now: “The Jolly Banker” with its wonderful, cheeky sarcasm, a 1930’s SNL; “I’ve Got to Know” - holding the mirror up to the actions of governments and their minions all over the world… right now. We’ve also had many people comment on our new rendition of “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos - Deportees”. It’sabout the terrible 1948 crash in the Diablo Range near Coalinga, California, which killed all onboard. A newspaper account that Woody saw named the crew of four Americans who died, and went on only to say: “along with 28 Mexican Deportees”. Guthrie wrote one of his greatest topical protest poems, later set to an original tune by Martin Hoffman: Goodbye to my Juan, Goodbye, Rosalita Adios mis amigos Jesus y Maria. You won’t have your names when you ride the big airplane. All they will call you will be “Deportees”.The song has been recorded by Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Woody’s son, Arlo, Dolly Parton and many more over the years. Cast member Raquel Chavez, who is from California and of Mexican heritage, sings Woody’slyrics from 78 years ago, so timely in the world of 2026, mixing English and vernacular Spanish.
Guthrie wrote extensively about the Great Depression, union halls, and social hardship. Why do you think his messages of resilience, hope, and protest remain so urgent for contemporary audiences?
… Because it’s all still true, and all around us every day, everywhere. The specific situations, ethnicities, economics, languages, and climate crises may be different, but the message remains the same: that human beings can - and must - rely on, believe in and hope for one another. Woody said: “A human bein’ ain’t nothin’ but a hopin’ machine” — a moment in our show expressing that hope, together with resilience and defiance, hits me every night: the chorus of Eugene Poittier and Pierre De Geyter’santhem from the 19th century: So comrades come rally and the last fight let us face The Internationale unites the human race.
How did you balance using Guthrie’s exact writings, diaries, and letters with shaping a narrative that flows naturally as a theatrical piece?
The short answer is: I’ve had a lot of very capable and enthusiastic help. There have been many tributes, musical revues, dance concerts and an Oscar-winning motion picture aboutWoody Guthrie and his music - all of them together are an incredible testament to his vision, his tenacity, and the breadth of his talents as a writer. Woody’s former manager and the longtime trustee of his estate, the late Harold Leventhal, and Woody’s daughter Nora Guthrie, now President Emeritus of Woody Guthrie Publications, encouraged and assisted my early efforts to devise a script, contributing material and advice. His little sister, Mary Jo, who passed away in2019 at age 96, was a joyful raconteur, a direct connection to the greater family story, and a wonderful friend for almost 40 years. Anna Canoni, Woody’s granddaughter, now President of WGP, is continuing all of their vital support and assistance. I’ve “soaked up” stories and details from each and all of them. I had always considered Woody’s life as something of a Homeric “hero’s journey” (influenced no doubt by Woody himself and his book, “Bound for Glory”, which I read when I was 14). My own approach and research has led down many roads and ‘rabbit holes’, including John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”, (another book from school) and the song Woody wrote from it - one of his greatest: “The Ballad of Tom Joad”. From the beginning, I had enlisted Darcie Deaville, Helen Russell and Andy Teirstein as my ‘co-devisers’. Each of them spectacularly capable on multiple instruments, fantastic singers, and natural actors as comfortable as myself with the songs, the history and the many characters in Woody’s life. Darcie and her fiddle became our‘Greek Chorus’ and “Tom Joad” became the ‘backbone’ of the journey. She - and Helen, playing and singing as Woody’s mother, Nora Belle - powerfully embodied the crucial element of influential women that shaped,and in many respects led, his life. Andy’s many roles and instruments encompass friends, confidantes, partners and collaborators, the wide and deep musical roots and threads that Woody admired, copied and drew from. With Director and essential fifth co-deviser, Nick Corley’s critical ear, his ‘objective-eye’ contributions to timeline and focus, coupled with editing, re-examining, and staging, we have continued to shape and balance the show.
You have lived with Woody Guthrie's life and music for many years. Has your personal understanding of him evolved over the decades you've spent performing his story?
I believe so, yes. I hope I have continued to communicate something of “the message” he sought to show through his songs, because the evolving of my personal understanding of Woody Guthrie has revealed to me that he believed that music can affect - and effect - our social evolution in a positive way, as he himself wrote: Change the pen and change the ink. Change the way that people think
If you had the opportunity to ask Woody a question about his life, what would you choose to ask him?
I think I’d ask something like: “What’d you have for supper?” and just let him talk... because I know he would. No telling where he would go, but it’d be something to get to listen!
What do you hope modern songwriting and storytelling audiences take away from Guthrie’s legacy after seeing the show?
I believe one of the more surprising things that folks today can learn about Woody Guthrie and the legacy of his stories and songs is their sincerity, simplicity, dimension and depth. When they know more about his life, I’d like to think our audiences come to experience, to hear and understand some measure of how stingingly funny, deeply philosophical and heart-wrenching, rousing, uplifting and profound Woody’s songs are, and how powerful all of our folk music around the world can be.
Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie runs 8th- 19th September - 19:00 (15:00 & 19:00 Saturdays, 14:00Sunday) | 80 mins - Underbelly Boulevard - 6 Walker’s Court, Soho, London, W1F 0BT. Tickets are available from https://underbellyboulevard.com/tickets/woody-sez-the-life-music-of-woody-guthrie/
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| Photo by Wendy Mutz |
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