“The Potluck” is a musical inspired by the Greensboro Massacre of 1979, in which the Ku Klux Klan shot and killed five young activists at an anti-Klan rally in South Carolina. César James Alvarez, the writer of the musical, was born in Greensboro a year after the murders, and is named for two of those killed, one of whom was the best friend of Alvarez’s father.

 “The Potluck” is not documentary theater, nor is it a conventional musical.  It’s more about César than it is about the massacre; we don’t meet the activists until halfway through the show, and they’re ghosts.  There is an odd mix of tones and numerous fanciful or philosophical digressions. It’s not wrong to call “The Potluck” a mess. As I wrote about “Futurity,” Alvarez’s 2015 musical : “What it is exactly is hard to sum up or to pin down.” But I found “The Potluck” extraordinary, and  devastating. The journey that César takes is also the journey César Alvarez takes us on, from intellectual ambivalence to visceral understanding.  After it was over, I happened to take the elevator down with the cast members who portrayed the activists; I was unable to give them even a polite compliment. I was so moved I couldn’t speak.

That’s not how I reacted at the start, when César (who is non-binary) tells us they have been commissioned to write this musical, and doesn’t want to write it. But it’s for $15,000 and they can really use the money. “Raise your hand if you need $15,000?”

I felt then a bit like César’s father, who said: “We’re not so into your navel-gazing stuff.”

Or César’s mother, who said it more politely: “You know I adore you, but I don’t know if your particular kind of art is able to make any contribution to this awful history.”

César (who is being portrayed by Anthony Alfaro) doesn’t disagree with their parents (portrayed by Rubén Flores and Barbara Walsh.) Much of the show is taken up with César’s uncertainty, and procrastination. With the help of a student/comic sidekick Moss (Jasmine Rafael ), who is getting school credit for an internship, they talk it out, start and restart the show, gather props for a séance.  

But one senses Alvarez’s amused self-awareness in what one can read as César’s self-indulgence, and it doesn’t come at the expense of the act of violence that’s central to the musical – and, we come to realize, just as central to César’s life.

The audience is shown a seven-minute video that was part of a documentary that César’s mother put together. Audience members who did not want to watch the video were given the option of going to the lobby, where Mom, Dad and a couple of the other characters led them in a ritual, which included the reading of the five names, and the singing of a l930 song whose lyrics were rewritten in the 1980s to honor the victims of the Greensboro Massacre.

When we finally meet the five activists, they perform stirring folk songs and discuss heady issues, sometimes in conversation with César, sometimes among themselves.

Among the dozen songs in the show, the two I found most arresting were sung by Cesar’s parents, the survivors.: “The Myth,” because of Walsh’s stirring delivery (the audio at the link sung by somebody else.)

In “Mandela” , the father talks simply and poignantly to his dead friend Cesar about what has happened, historical events in the world and personal events in his life, in the half-century since his murder, returning repeatedly to one event.

I named my son after you. My second born I mean.
And I have five grandkids.
I saw my mom’s childhood home in Spain.
I have two hearing aids.
But I can’t complain.
After you died I grew up too fast.
Whiplashed.
Why you? Why not me?
Why not any other god damn thing?
I can’t believe you didn’t get to see Mandela get elected;
you would have loved that”

In one of the conversations that César has with the ghosts, Jim asks him:

“Are things better now than they were in 1979?”
“Not really,” César replies.
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Write musicals?”

César says it as a question, but really means it as an answer. The title of the musical comes from the survivors’ annual meeting on a beach North Carolina to have potluck paella. And the writer and character seem to have spent the musical struggling towards the realization that this is the contribution that César Alvarez can make.

The Potluck
Soho Rep and INTAR at Playwrights Horizons through August 2
Running time: Two and a half hours, including an intermission
Tickets: $35-$45
Written and composed by César Alvarez
Directed by Sarah Benson
Choreographed by Ana Maria Alvarez
Alex Bechtel (Music Director), Emily Orling (Scenic Designer and Spiritual Advisor), Qween Jean (Costume Designer), Mextly Couzin (Lighting Designer), Eamon Goodman (Sound Designer), Stefania Bulbarella (Video Designer),
Cast: Anthony Alfaro as César, El Beh  as Jaime / Cello, Jacob Brandt as Jim / Bass & Guitar, Andrew R. Butler as Bill / Guitars & Moog, Sammy Figueroa percussion, Rubén Flores as Dad, Dionne McClain-Freeney as Sandi / Keyboards , Jessica Lurie as saxophone/flute, Gían Pérez as Cesar / Percussion, Jasmine Rafael as Moss, Zack Segel as Mike/percussion, and Barbara Walsh as Mom.