Preview Thoughts on The Great Society and Scotland, PA

I'm seriously considering taking a long hiatus from blogging - my brain just isn't firing on all synapses at the moment.  Maybe I'm experiencing anxiety for some reason (I had two really weird dreams the other night that seem to indicate anxiety, but I don't know what I'm anxious about!).  Or maybe it's because I'm teaching a class this semester; my compartmentalizing can only go so far.  Between working and teaching and my apartment building repairs (they are making it hard for me to sleep, which I guess could lead to weird dreams [maybe I should do a post on those weirdo dreams because...super weird]), I'm basically a walking-and-sometimes-talking piece of swiss cheese.  I've got a few shows coming up, so let's see if my brain wakes up.  If not, I may just disappear for a while and return with a flourish some time soon.  Maybe in the new year.  Let's just see what happens...

Anyway, I was very fortunate to receive tickets to two shows recently (I have another show coming up soon and then ballet in a couple of weeks; I will put out some good vibes for inspiration), both of which were in previews when I saw them, so I'll only offer a few thoughts.  They were pretty much at the opposite ends of the theatrical spectrum, though both handsomely produced by major theater companies.  One was a serious piece on history and the other a dark, funny, spoof-like musical.  Though they both had to deal with ambition, in a way.  If I wanted to pair them, maybe that could be my way in.  Hmmm.

I was fortunate to attend the Sunday matinee of The Great Society, produced at Lincoln Center (though I don't think it's a Lincoln Center production, now that I consider it).  It's a sequel to the successful All the Way, which I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't see.  It was a hot ticket!  Both plays deal with the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson and his rise and fall as a leader and statesman.  The Great Society starts right after Johnson's re-election and ends with his deciding not to run again and a meeting with Nixon in the Oval Office.  This was a particularly busy time in American history, with the Voting Rights Act, the Vietnam War, the creation of Medicare - Johnson was consumed with passing many domestic bills designed to assist Americans living in poverty, and giving more people access to a good education.  So there was a LOT of American history to cover in a three-hour play, starring nineteen actors playing over 50 characters.  Whew.  Though I must say the time flew by...

photo credit: Evan Zimmerman

I thought the first act of The Great Society was rather thrilling, with delicious dialogue and smartly-constructed scenes showing how LBJ (played with a little too much bluster by Brian Cox) used different tactics to get what he wanted out of different people.  The first act ends with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, opposite the riots in Watts, so it was a cliffhanger of sorts.  I thought the second act, with everything that had been built sort of falling apart, was less successful for me, but I find that to be a problem with a lot of second acts - once you build to getting what the lead character wants, how do you show the aftermath?  Anyway, I've probably already said too much.  If you've been reading my blog for the last year or so, you can probably guess I was also a little uncomfortable seeing another white savior (ish) story told from a white male point of view, no matter how humanely and respectfully told.  I found myself wishing I could see the same story told by a writer of color.  But that's just me, of course.  I am horrifyingly ignorant in history (history and geography are how to beat me in Trivial Pursuit), so I am so grateful I got to see The Great Society and learn some important facts about our history, told by someone who obviously took great pains to do the research needed to make this piece.  I was especially taken with how some of the struggles then parallel some of the horrors we're living with now, so if you're a fan of real-life stories, you'll definitely enjoy this play.  It's handsomely produced, terrifically directed, and wonderfully acted by a lot of fantastic NY stage actors (Grantham Coleman was wonderful as Martin Luther King, Jr; I admit I wish Richard Thomas had had more to do).  Theater that makes you think about who you are as an American is always a welcome thing.

photo credit: Nina Goodheart

Last night, I saw a new musical at Roundabout's Off-Broadway space, Scotland, PA.  It's based on a 2001 movie, which I didn't see.  It's on my watch-list now, though!  I mean, how did I not know it was a retelling of Macbeth?!  You know that one of my bucket list goals is to see every version of Macbeth ever, right?!  So...I can't believe I missed it.  Moving on.  This new musical has music and lyrics written by a friend of mine, so I guess I'm constitutionally incapable of disliking it.  I enjoyed myself a lot and had a big smile on my face the entire night.  I thought the songs were fun and evocative of the 70s time period, the book was campy and funny and pretty clever, and the cast was fantastic.  The lead gent, playing Mac, reminded me of a sunny friend I had back in OH, and he had just the right wide-eyed cluelessness that the character needs to be convinced to do all of these terrible deeds, and he played his arc beautifully.  My seat was very close to the action, so I enjoyed seeing the performances up close, but I would really like to go back and experience the show from further back.  Even though the Laura Pels is a small house, I still would like to take in the show as a whole, rather than in pieces, to experience it differently.  But I thought the way the script took Shakespeare's story, kept it a story of thwarted ambition, but also added in the 70s 'me generation' notions and even included a flavor of today's narcissistic millennials, was well done.  The witches were now stoners, the MacDuff character became the detective investigating Duncan's murder, and so on.  There's a fantastic song, that I can see kids doing all over the place, in the second act that took me by surprise.  I had a great time the entire night, except for intermission, when my seat neighbor worked my last nerve.  He was a gent of a certain age, who kept telling me stories of his theater-going youth, and whenever I tried to enter the conversation, he would say, "Not yet, let me finish, then you can talk."  But he never finished.  He kept up the dialogue, starting new sentences with "Now you'll appreciate this..."  Finally, the lights were going down for act two, and he was still talking.  Sigh.  He was definitely an annoyance, but he couldn't dampen my enthusiasm for Scotland, PA.  You should see it before it opens and becomes a big cult classic.  Maybe I should try to talk to those stoners sometime about what my blogging future will be...