Everybody's Son is a new musical written by Alric Davis and Aaron Alon and based on the celebrated novel by Thrity Umrigar. When nine-year-old Anton, a Black boy from the Projects in Brooklyn, is picked up by Child Services after his mother disappears, he's taken in by the Colemans, a wealthy white family mourning the loss of their teenage son. After Anton's birth mother is found beaten and imprisoned in her drug dealer's house, the Colemans use their immense power and privilege to keep her away and adopt Anton. Years later, Anton (now a Harvard graduate in a tight race for the governorship) unexpectedly receives a letter from his birth mother – a letter that threatens his campaign and risks rewriting his entire life story. A gripping new musical, Everybody's Son takes audiences on a journey through American systems of power, class, race, and privilege, all while telling a deeply moving story of identity and family.
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Act I
The show opens on Young Anton, a nine-year-old Black boy whose mother is in jail. David Coleman, a middle-aged white man, talks to Anton about fostering him and offers to take down what he's saying in a letter to Anton's mother, Juanita. As Anton sings and David writes, we see Juanita being processed and pleading guilty at her arraignment. The song ends with Juanita being led by a court officer offstage in one direction, as Young Anton is led off the other by David. ( )
Young Anton comes to the Coleman home and meets David's wife, Dee. David is almost deperate to forge a connection with Young Anton, but Dee is still mourning the death of their son in a car wreck and doesn't feel ready to open her home or heart to another child. ( )
David's best friend Connor is prosecuting Juanita's case and he and the judge both aim to give David more time with Anton by giving Juanita the maximum sentence. Out of loyalty to his mother, Young Anton resists bonding with David for months, until one night when David helps him push past his fear and learn to ski. ( )
Afraid of losing another son, David manipulates Juanita into giving up parental rights, so he can adopt Anton. ( )
David and Anton grow closer. While she adores Anton, Dee can't imagine why Juanita would give him up and never signed up to adopt another woman's son. David and Dee argue, and Anton, devastated by his mother's decision, decides to run away to try to find her. He writes the Colemans a goodbye note. ( )
David and Dee are frantic about where Anton might have gotten off to. As they're talking to the police, Anton calls them. He's in his old neighborhood, but his mother isn't there. David rushes to pick him up and they talk before heading back home. Anton agrees to let the Colemans adopt him and calls David "dad" for the first time. ( )
Years later, Anton has followed in David’s footsteps and he and his best friend, Brad, are now Harvard undergraduates. He meets Carine, a brilliant and revolutionary Black poet, and the two start dating. ( )
Carine meets Anton's parents and it doesn't go well. Their fight afterwards culminates in her saying to Anton: "I can’t decide if you’re the blackest white man I’ve ever met or the whitest Black man." This sends Anton reeling and he and Brad debate if he should break it off as they play racquetball. Anton is thrown further when Brad makes some racist comments. ( )
Between his parents’ disapproval of her and David’s near-fatal heart attack, Anton breaks up with Carine and refocuses on his political career. He graduates from law school, and serves in the state legislature and as attorney general before finally running for his father’s former office as governor, at age 35.
While the Colemans remember David’s father on the one-year anniversary of his death, Dee worries that Anton is unhappy, while David pushes him to focus on the governor’s race. ( )
One night, while responding to voters’ letters following a national magazine profile, Anton discovers a letter from Juanita, his birth mother. In it, she says he was smart to pick the Colemans over her, and that single statement upends Anton’s entire life story. ( )
Act II
Act II opens with Anton afraid that his birth mother is lying in order to blackmail him. He plans a rushed trip to Georgia to confront her, despite Brad desperately trying to stop him. ( )
Anton reunites with his birth mother, Juanita, and they come to realize that David manipulated them both, kept their letters from one another, and raised Anton with a false story of his life. Anton also learns the reason his mother never came home when he was nine. ( )
Anton leaves Juanita's house, stunned and panicky. He calls David to confront him. David admits what he did, but he refuses to apologize. Dee knew nothing of it. ( )
Anton reconnects with Carine, his college girlfriend, who helps him process everything that’s happened. Feeling at peace for the first time in years, Carine’s life of quiet domesticity makes him rethink everything about who and what he wants to be. ( )
Anton also bonds with Carine’s son, Shay. They put him to bed, and Anton bears witness to a life he might have had. ( )
Anton realizes he has to return to the campaign trail and, while arguing with David by phone in the car, he gets pulled over by a racist cop. The traffic stop turns dangerous and, while Anton is handcuffed and thrown to the ground, David frantically reaches out to the Georgia governor to try to save him. While Anton’s life hangs in the balance, the three women in Anton’s life – Juanita, Dee, and Carine – celebrate him reconnecting with his birth mom. ( )
Thanks to David’s frantic efforts, the cop lets Anton go. Anton is left deeply shaken, but alive. Just back from Georgia, Anton begins to give a campaign speech and finds he can't go through with it. He instead talks about his own history and the history of the US, as many people from his past appear in his mind and join in. ( )