The Paradise Square of the title is a saloon and a brothel. It is owned by a Black woman named Nelly O’Brien and her Irish husband Willie. It is located in the Five Points district of Manhattan, where Black people and immigrant Irish coexist and mingle seamlessly during the Civil War riots.
The visceral intensity of all the performances in this new musical set in the titular bar in the Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan during the New York draft riots of 1863 surely is indicative not just of the long, hard slog to beat back COVID-19 and wrestle an original musical to Broadway.