“Paradise Lost is an epic poem by John Milton regarding the fall of humankind; the moment that Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and God banished them from the Garden of Eden.
Boston Crusaders’ 2022 production frames the poem’s concepts in five parts:
A Child’s Garden of Dreams – David Maslanka
What a Wonderful World – Bob Thiele/George Weiss
Bad Hombres (y mujeres) – Antonio Sanchez
Can’t Take My Eyes Off You – Bob Crewe/Bob Gaudio
Symphony No. 7: Mvmt-3 – David Maslanka
Requiem in D Minor, K. 626: VII. Lacrimosa – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concise horizontal planning and vertical orchestration deliver compositional depth while event pace and range offer simultaneous displays of emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual effect. Repertoire sophistication, choreographic and musical virtuosity, spatial variety (including verticality), and elemental integration (and coordination) are the design and performance foundations of this year’s production.”
Boston Crusaders is a corps that has been making a lot of noise since 2017, seeing a drastic shift in design philosophy and a large leap in placements with their very intense show “Wicked Games”. Other than their 2021 production for the non-competitive DCI celebration event, “Zoom”, there has been a trend of religious iconography and symbolism since this change. “Wicked Games” was about the Salem Witch Trials and the church’s role in them, “SOS” (2018) featured the universally recognizable hymn “Amazing Grace” with an emphasis on the “lost and found” theme, and “Goliath” (2019) was a take on the the biblical story David and Goliath.
Boston will be continuing this trend with their 2022 production “Paradise Lost”, this time turning their focus to the biblical story of the fall of man. Looking at their musical selections, we can see a wide variety of musical styles including music by the late David Maslanka and iconic songs as performed by Louis Armstrong and Frankie Valli. With their big competitive strides in recent years, the Crusaders have found themselves consistently in the top half of finals but seemingly unable to push into the top four, with the notable exception of their two-time Zingali winning color guard (2018-2019). Will this year be the year that the Boston Crusaders find their Paradise breaking new ground with their highest placement in corps history? Or will they once again be Lost in the mix of corps banished from The Garden of Top Three-den? Only time will tell…