Reviews - Mlima's Tale and Mean Girls

You're probably wondering if I've taken a second and third job to afford all this theater I'm seeing lately - the answer is no.  I probably should take additional jobs, but this past week has been a lucky one for me - handsome Tony voter friends have let me be their plus-one for the new Broadway shows.  It is award season, after all.  And for the Off-Broadway show, I put myself on a standby list and was fortunate to receive a free ticket.  So I've saved money on ticket costs, though I have had more cocktails lately than is probably good for me.  There's where my money is going...

Anyway, last weekend I was on the standby list for a free ticket to Lynn Nottage's new play at the Public Theater, Mlima's Tale.  They had put so many people on the standby list, though, that not everyone could get in.  They very kindly offered us a ticket for another date, should there be room.  I happily took advantage of that offer.  As I'm a big fan of Lynn's work, I was quite keen to see the show and yet not-as-keen to spend all my money (did I mention it's award season?).  When free stuff comes my way, I try to pounce.

Mlima's Tale is Nottage's follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat (which you may remember I greatly enjoyed - you can remind yourself of my review HERE).  Further showing Nottage's eye for detail and elegance of language,  Mlima's Tale tells the story of an old African elephant, slaughtered at the beginning of the play for his ivory tusks.  Mlima is played by the charismatic and powerful actor Sahr Ngaujah, whose physicalization of Mlima is simply spectacular.  Even though Mlima's physical body is dead throughout the play, his spirit and tragedy pervades the entire evening.  The play basically shows us the chain of the illegal ivory trade industry in Africa and Asia, from Mlima's death to the display of his tusks in a wealthy family's home.  

Using the form of Schnitzler's play La Ronde as a model, Mlima's Tale uses that same form where one person from the previous scene moves into the next scene and so on and so on.  So the poachers who kill Mlima meet with a shady police chief, who then tries to pay off his ranger nephew, who tries to persuade a bureaucrat...all down the line to the wealthy purchaser.  It's an ingenious way to show us how we're all complicit in the ivory trade, whether we know it or not.  

photo credit: Joan Marcus

Alongside Ngaujah's Mlima, all the other characters in the play are portrayed by only three actors.  They are astoundingly good, with just tiny changes of costumes to aid them in their many characterizations - they each play across ethnicity, across gender, across power dynamics.  Mlima's Tale is a terrifically acted piece.  It is also wonderfully designed and directed; there are so many beautifully evocative stage pictures and sound effects (the live music was terrific), I was frequently transported.  The use of white paint, marking Mlima's dead body and then marking all of the people who aided in his illegal transfer, was brilliant.  If I occasionally hoped for more theatrical magic along the lines of Ngaujah's elephant, well, that's on me.  Nottage has given us a beautiful and sad story of how humans destroy the earth (with echoes of how they destroy each other - the disturbing image of Mlima being transported on a cargo ship carried terrible reminders of other African cargo).  I marvel at her imagination and I can't wait to see what she brings us next.

Last night, a handsome Tony voter friend invited me to tag along to see Mean Girls, the new Broadway musical.  I have to admit two things up front: one, I've never seen the movie (I know, it seems strange to me, too), and two, I know a member of the creative team (we were college roommates, but haven't really kept in touch).  So I had those two things in my mind as we sat down to experience the show.

I guess Mean Girls is quite a big part of certain consumers' pop culture, there seemed to be such enjoyment from most of the audience for lines and situations they already knew by heart.  Going in with no previous knowledge put me at a little bit of a disadvantage, I think.  I mean, I could see where the story was headed, but because I didn't already have a fondness or a reference for it, stuff didn't land in my funny wheelhouse as easily.  I was confused by the framing device, because it didn't continue throughout the entire piece and I was often unsure about who our narrator was.  I did laugh at a lot of the very funny dialogue, and I did enjoy the monstrously talented cast.  Seriously, this cast was working.it.  But it was a tad annoying to not be in on the joke most of the time.  So, when I parse it out, I guess I liked Mean Girls, it was fine, but it just seemed kind of a waste of time to simply replicate the film onto the stage without finding a new way in.

photo credit: Joan Marcus

I took a look at the internet last night, to see which actress played which part in the movie, and when I looked at some stills from the film, the design of the film looked so much like the design of the musical.  Characters were costumed in the same way or carried exact same props (even if they weren't really necessary).  At intermission, I asked my handsome Tony voter friend if they had added a lot of material to the musical, since the first act was nearly 90 minutes long.  He said no, it was basically the movie, just with songs.  So the songs didn't really move things along, they just sort of happened alongside the book.  They were fine, they were definitely well-performed, but...I don't know.

The second act was more successful for me, with the extra-infusion of girl power and empowerment.  I enjoyed seeing a cast of all shapes and sizes on stage, though then having the mean girl's punishment be that she's made fat (and her newly costume-extra-padded butt was the center of ridicule) didn't sit the right way for me.  As a gal of a certain size, it seemed awkward to me to both ridicule for comedy the girl's weight gain and also denounce the ridicule.  Again, I don't know.  Maybe I was just taking the whole thing too seriously.  I did frequently smile, I did laugh, and I do think this is an awesome cast doing an awesome job.  Do I wish Mean Girls took more chances?  Maybe.  But I guess that's not what it was written to do.  If the rest of the audience's continual glee throughout the evening is any indication, the show was designed to replicate the film experience and that's what they came for.  So perhaps the show is successful after all and doesn't need me on board.  And that's ok.  Lots of happy people buying lots of theater tickets makes me happy.  That's ok, too.