‘Completely original’ musical Midnight tries (and fails) to imagine a slavery-era romance

Todrick Hall’s off-Broadway musical *Midnight* imagines a romance between an enslaved man and a white planter’s son in 1863. The review argues that the show’s attempt to portray queer intimacy under slavery fails because its romantic fantasy overlooks the realities and lasting consequences of enslavement.

The story follows Rail, who is in a relationship with Lily Rose, and Richard, who is engaged to Scarlet. The review points to scenes that disregard historical restrictions on enslaved people and to Rail’s anachronistic reference to “40 acres and a mule”, a promise made two years after the play’s setting. Historian Beau Lancaster says there is no documented proof of relationships between male enslavers and the Black men they enslaved, while the article notes that artists can combine imagination with historical research when records are scarce.