“The Porch on Windy Hill” is a new play with old music

09/29/2025

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This is a photograph of a theatrical scene featuring three actors on a rustic wooden porch. On the left, a young man sits on the edge of the porch, holding a banjo. He is smiling and enthusiastically pointing off-camera to the left. In the center, a young woman in a red top and dark pants sits between them, looking up with a surprised or animated expression. She is holding a small, unidentifiable object in her lap. On the right, an older man with a beard and glasses stands and plays a five-string banjo. He is wearing a light blue shirt, suspenders, and jeans, and has a spirited expression as he looks off-camera to the right. The background shows the weathered wooden wall of a house with windows and a door, and several other string instruments are visible in the shadows between the actors. — Morgan Morse, Tora Nogami Alexander, and David M. Lutken. (Photo by Ben Hider)

This is a photograph of a theatrical scene featuring two actors on what appears to be a rustic wooden porch. A young Asian woman sits on the left, facing forward with a bright, open-mouthed expression as if singing or speaking. She is wearing a bulky, patterned cream and brown cardigan and dark pants. To her right, a middle-aged man with a beard and glasses sits and is focused on playing a lap dulcimer, which rests on his legs. He is dressed in a dark plaid flannel shirt and jeans. The background consists of a weathered wooden house wall with two windows, and various scattered props like crates, a lantern, and an old radio, suggesting a cozy, rural setting. — Tora Nogami Alexander and David M. Lutken. (Photo by Ben Hider)

The ramshackle front porch of the Beckett house in Windy Hill, North Carolina is the setting for The Porch on Windy Hill, currently at Urban Stages in New York. The three-character play is heavy on old time country bluegrass music, including riffs on old folk tunes, played by a talented cast who also are skilled musicians on a variety of instruments, including violin, guitar, piano, and harmonica.

It is a feel-good show both in its simplistic plot and its robust musicality, aiming to please and oftentimes succeeding.

Korean-American Mira (Tora Nogami Alexander) and her boyfriend Edgar (David M. Lutken) have decided to make a long summer road trip, visiting local Appalachian music festivals along the way, to escape the big city. Their route takes them to Windy Hill, the speck-on-the-map town where Mira’s widowed grandfather Beckett (Morgan Morse) still lives. Mira is irritated that the two haven’t spoken for years, but Edgar is eager both to hear the old tunes and to learn all he can from Beckett, who he recognizes as a seminal folk musician.

Beckett, already uneasy around his estranged granddaughter, is equally uncomfortable with Edgar’s hero-worship. Mira is adamant about not staying the night in her childhood home, but Edgar counters that it’s better than sleeping in their old truck — and Beckett reminds her of the pleasures of feeding the mosquitoes overnight.

As the evening progresses, Mira unleashes her long-held resentment toward her grandfather. Beckett hits back with how the way his daughter packed her family up and left affected him and his wife. Neither father nor daughter made the first move to communicate over the years, and Mira seems to have taken up where her mother left off.

The Porch on Windy Hill is written by Lutken and Morse, along with Sherry Stregack Lutken and Lisa Helmi Johanson. Ms. Lutken also conceived and directed the play, and the four playwrights are credited with the orchestrations and the lovely vocal arrangements of the songs. Scenic Designer Andrew Robinson has come up with a realistically dilapidated, small country town home setting, enhanced by John Salutz’ lighting and Sun Hee Kil’s sound design.

This is a dynamic theatrical photo of three musicians playing on a rustic wooden porch. On the left, a young Asian woman in a reddish-brown top and dark pants is energetically playing the violin. In the center, a young man in a blue patterned shirt is leaning forward and playing an electric mandolin or small guitar. On the right, an older bearded man in a blue shirt, jeans, and a tan vest stands while playing an acoustic guitar. All three performers are looking focused or intense, suggesting an upbeat musical performance. The background shows the weathered wooden wall of a house with two windows and various props including an old wooden spool, a glass jug, and a banjo in the corner. — Tora Nogami Alexander, Morgan Morse, and David M. Lutken. (Photo by Ben Hider)

This is a wide theatrical scene showing three actors positioned on and around a rustic wooden porch at night. On the far left, a middle-aged man in a light denim shirt and dark jeans stands and appears to be singing or playing a harmonica, which he holds to his mouth. A guitar rests vertically next to him. In the center, a young Asian woman in a red top and dark pants sits on the edge of the porch, looking straight ahead with a serene or thoughtful expression. To her right, a young man in a patterned blue shirt and dark pants sits next to her, focused on playing a mandolin. The background is a weathered wooden house with two windows, a door on the left, and various tools, instruments, and furniture suggesting a remote, rural setting. — Tora Nogami Alexander, Morgan Morse, and David M. Lutken. (Photo by Ben Hider)

The Porch on Windy Hill was first performed in 2021 at the Ivorytown Playhouse in Connecticut, and has been produced at a handful of regional theatres since then. The production at Urban Stages is its New York premiere, and while it is not yet perfect — especially in its balance between gloriously played and sung music and somewhat pedestrian script — the underlying story is firmly planted in the tradition of inter-generational conflict where music and long-delayed communication brings family members together.

I would be interested to see future iterations of this play, and I encourage the playwrights to keep developing it. As for this production, I do not see any reason why audiences should avoid it during its limited run. If you’re looking for a good play for an autumn evening, make the trip to visit The Porch on Windy Hill.

The Porch on Windy Hill is presented by Urban Stages at their theatre, 259 West 30th St., in New York, through Oct. 11, 2025. For more information, or for tickets, go to urbanstages.org.

Restaurant recommendation: before going to the theatre, Bill and I went to an Irish pub and restaurant, The Molly Wee, on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 30th St. Bill was delighted with his perfectly poured Guinness, while we shared an order of French fries that were cooked to a perfect, non-oily crispness. The food we saw at other tables looked delicious, and the prices were reasonable for New York. If you find yourself in that part of the city, give it a try!