1972, an original reproductive rights rock opera, made its official theatrical debut Tuesday at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, where it will run through Nov. 22. Written by Chadwick Stokes of the bands Dispatch and State Radio, the show follows 19-year-old Hannah, who train-hops across the country in search of an abortion.
The journey that brought the show to Cambridge began a decade and a half ago, with all roads leading back to Martha’s Vineyard.
The Gazette spoke this week with Mr. Stokes, his wife and collaborator Sybil Gallagher, producer Laurie David and Island actor-musician Darby Patterson, whose Island ties brought them together to create 1972. Mr. Stokes and Ms. Gallagher have a family home on the Vineyard, as does Ms. David. Ms. Patterson is a born-and-raised Islander.
“This show was made in our kitchen in Boston and in our living room on Martha’s Vineyard with friends and family,” Ms. Gallagher said. “So many of the people in this crew in their own right are activists.”
Fifteen years ago, 1972 was a germ of an idea. Mr. Stokes, who grew up listening to the musicals Hair, Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar, knew he wanted to write a rock opera. He also wanted it to have a female protagonist, and it needed to involve trains.
“When I was jumping freight trains around the country, I was so inspired by that world,” he said.
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protection of abortion rights and returning jurisdiction over abortion care to the states. It was then that Mr. Stokes had an epiphany: The show needed to be about a young woman hopping trains to escape her abusive boyfriend and secure an abortion. And she’d do it with the help of the Jane Collective, a real underground group that helped connect people with abortion care between 1969 and 1973.
Ms. David met Mr. Stokes and Ms. Gallagher on the Island during the pandemic, amid the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to a police officer murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis. At a kneel-in protest at Beetlebung Corner for Mr. Floyd, which were happening daily at the time, Mr. Stokes and his brother played a song that captured the attention of Ms. David.
“The musicianship was so incredible. I couldn’t even believe it,” Ms. David said. “The second the moment was over and everyone was dispersing, I made a beeline for Chad and introduced myself.”
Later, Mr. Stokes and Ms. Gallagher met Ms. David in Boston for a dinner party, at which point Mr. Stokes played her a song he had created for the proposed musical. Ms. David knew she wanted to support the project in any way she could.
“From that second on, I was like, I’m in,” she said.
Ms. Patterson, who plays one of the Janes, entered the mix in 2022. Reeling from the Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe, she joined a 100-person choral performance of the song I Won’t Back Down at Ms. David’s farm in Chilmark, organized to protest the decision.
“We were stunned by Darby’s energy and voice,” Mr. Stokes said.
It would be another two years before Mr. Stokes reached out to ask Ms. Patterson if she was interested in joining 1972.
“At first I was like, no, it’s the middle of wedding season. Call me later,” she said, referring to a busy time for her band. “And he did, which was crazy.”
She agreed to listen to some demos from the show and found herself so moved that she joined Mr. Stokes, Ms. Gallagher and other members of the cast and crew for a rehearsal in New Hampshire. The love everyone had for the music, and for each other, told her she was in the right place.
“I remember from the first rehearsal, I was like, I’ll follow this show anywhere,” she said.
The show has evolved continuously over the past several years. So far, the cast has performed the show about 10 times in total, starting in Woodstock, N.Y. In the summer of 2024, 1972 completed an early limited run on the Vineyard at Union Chapel and the Old Whaling Church.
That same summer, upon Ms. David’s recommendation, the group got in touch with Jessie Nelson, who wrote the Broadway adaptation of the film Waitress. She ended up joining 1972 as its director, and she co-wrote the book for the musical with Mr. Stokes.
“She’s very brilliant and very astute at fine-tuning,” Mr. Stokes said.
Once the script was in what Mr. Stokes called “fighting shape,” the show went in front of scouts from the American Repertory Theater, who were instantly supportive.
“They were like my Jewish mother reincarnate, [they] could not be more excited,” Ms. Gallagher said.
Before 1972, Mr. Stokes and Ms. Gallagher spent years in the reproductive rights activism space. Their organization, Calling All Crows, aims to mobilize music fans to support causes such as abortion rights. The pair also spent years lobbying Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and Mass General in Boston to bring abortion care to the Vineyard, which was classified as an abortion desert until 2023.
While Ms. David’s major projects, including the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, have largely been focused on environmental activism, reproductive rights are personal to her, and she saw 1972 as a way to tap into her passion and outrage.
“As a longtime activist and advocate, I have to channel my anger into action in order to survive,” Ms. David said.
Ms. Gallagher, Ms. David and Ms. Patterson agreed that it’s important that men like Mr. Stokes use their platforms and art to advocate for women.
“He’s well-versed in this area, but it still took a team of women supporting the messaging in this show,” Ms. Gallagher said.
The weeks leading up to opening night were intense, with the entire cast and crew stretching themselves to prepare for a month-long run, which is already sold out. Ms. Patterson said the long days and nights have been worth it to work on a production helmed by empowered women, unwilling to hold back when it comes to the music and their convictions.
“What Chad and Sybil have absolutely worked to capture is the fact that you can have this rage and you can have this anger, and it can be so righteous, but you can also carry with that the tenderness and the sweetness of love and compassion,” Ms. Patterson said. “That balance is absolutely [the] divine feminine.”