Los Angeles Trip Report, part one

I made my first work trip to Los Angeles last week – I haven’t been there since the early 90s.  Last week was a glorious week to be there – a friend was having a film screened at the AFI festival and the weather was spectacular.  I had a great time and am looking forward to more trips in the future.  Because I'm me, I got a little long-winded writing this report, so I'm cutting it into two parts...

After packing and repacking my suitcase several times, I finally set off for JFK early Wednesday morning.  I chose to fly a different airline than the rest of my work chums because I wanted the frequent flyer miles on my regular airline.  Anything to help me make my big birthday trip next year a reality.  I got to the airport rather early; I had thought the trip would take 45 minutes or so by car, instead we were there in seventeen minutes.  That must’ve been a world record.  It was lucky I was early, because I got pulled aside for an extra search of my suitcase, which took a while.  Turns out my tweezers were freaking the x-ray people out.  I have been carrying those tweezers on airplanes for years.  You just never know who is going to be screening you any given day…

You know, when you fly to Chicago, which is a two and a half hour flight, you get a bag of pretzels.  When you fly to L.A., which is a five and a half hour flight, you don’t get anything.  That makes no sense to me.  So I was STARVING by the time I got to LAX.  I was texting my work chums to see where we could meet and I got caught up in a memorial service the TSA workers were doing for their fallen co-worker.  I tried to walk as quickly as possible out of their way, but it was impossible to get out of the airport without crossing in front of someone.  At least I had the grace to be embarrassed about it – other people were just marching through the airport with a scowl on their face that they were being slowed down.  Sigh.  People are nuts. 

Everyone was starving, but we were also late for our first work meeting, so we went through the Wendy’s drive-thru.  Yes, my first meal in Los Angeles was from Wendy’s.  The pretzel pub chicken sandwich was pretty good, though very messy.  But I had to laugh – I haven’t eaten in the car in years.  Not even in Ohio.  But we did have stuff to do…
Work-wise, things went well.  We looked at six sites for our next conference and had a couple of meetings with our members.  I think our trip was very successful from that end of things.  I’m just going to focus on my food now, thank you.  J

Wednesday night, we ate at Café Pinot, which was very close to our hotel.  It was lovely.  We ate outside on the patio (my mom finally told me to stop sending her text messages and pictures about how warm it was).  The server was delightful, though her accent was a wee bit difficult to understand.  At first, I was going to get an appetizer and dessert, but I decided to get a main course instead.  I should’ve stuck with my original plan, because I was too full for dessert, which broke my heart (of course, that didn’t stop me from trying someone else’s dessert!).   

For my appetizer, I got the Mediterranean octopus salad, which had octopus medallions sitting on a bed of fregola, with some very tiny diced cucumbers, chorizo and celery.  Thankfully, the celery flavor was very muted.  On top of the octopus was a spicy cherry tomato confit, and the whole thing was topped with a sherry vinaigrette.  This dish was DELICIOUS and will definitely make my year-end yummy food experience list.  It had everything, crunchy/soft, sweet/sour, spicy/mild, with a wonderful acidic punch from the vinaigrette.  I just loved it.  For my entrée, I got the roasted chicken, with a soy/mustard glaze.  It came highly recommended by our server.  It was really good, but it was HUGE.  I couldn’t finish it.  The truffle fries that accompanied the chicken were also yummy and were very shareable.  So, I loved the first meal.  I also loved the bite of the ‘coffee and doughnut’ dessert we all shared.  Next time I go there, I’m sticking with my appetizer/dessert plan.  I’m dying to try their mango coconut tapioca…

 

After dinner, we wandered over to the Standard Hotel to take a look at their rooftop bar.  It was spectacular.  The views were amazing and the weather was gorgeous.  Jet lag had set in for me, though, so I didn't stay long and went back to my very nice hotel room for some sleep.

Thursday was a big work day, though we did have an amazing breakfast buffet at one hotel.  We were so full we couldn’t partake of the lunch another hotel had planned for us, though we did eat the delicious tomato soup en croute since it was preset.  And one of the hotels we toured took us up to the helipad for gorgeous views of Hollywood!  That was so exciting!  After work was through, for dinner, we all went to Pizzeria Mozza, Mario Batali’s pizzeria.  I have loved eating at Otto, so I was very happy to go to Mozza.  It's not a very large restaurant, but it's very cozy and it didn't get too loud at all.  Our server was very helpful when I couldn't decide which wine I wanted to try - she brought me a taste of something she thought I might like, and she was right.  Thumbs up on the wine.  My caponata appetizer was incredible, so rich and delicious.  My margherita pizza, made with the mozzarella di bufola (our server called it the 'fancy margherita'), was also delicious.  The crust had a nice chew to it, and the sauce was very fresh and acidic.  The perfect sauce for all the rich cheese.  Yum.  After dinner, we went to the Laugh Factory to see Tim Allen.  He was ok, though a little mean-spirited for my taste, but I liked the kid who was his opening act.  It’s been years since I went to a comedy club – it was fun!

 

Tune in tomorrow for a report on the hotel pool, nearly being ripped off at a restaurant (clearly they didn't know with whom they were dealing) and a fantastic day at the beach!  In the meantime, enjoy some more photos from my first two days in sunny California!  :)

 

 

Review - Luce

This is my first post done on my office iPad.  Hopefully, things will work out.  Here goes:  after  reading reviews of the new LCT3 production, Luce, I figured I should check it out.  I've enjoyed the other productions I've seen and the subject matter of this one sounded interesting.  Plus, all tickets are $20!  If I had a magic 8-Ball, all signs would point to yes.  :)

JC Lee's Luce opens with a parent-teacher conference.  Both women are bright, articulate and passionate.  They're discussing seventeen-year-old Luce, a young boy adopted by the mother from the Congo when he was seven.  By all accounts, he has successfully adjusted to living in America and is a typical American teen.  But the teacher became concerned by an essay the boy wrote, along with something found in his locker.  The mother cannot accept the possibility the teacher is suggesting: that her son may not be the boy she thinks he is.  What follows is a labyrinth of ambiguity and allusion.  You're never really sure who is telling the truth, or whose version of the truth you should believe.  I felt unease, and unease about my unease, which was fascinating to me.

Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel

The production is terrifically designed and directed, and all of the acting is fantastic, as well.  Marin Hinkle beautifully captures the unconditional love of a mother, Neal Huff is her more skeptical husband, Sharon Washington perfectly captures the ramrod straight teacher who fights for herself first and her students second, and Okierette Onaodowan is perfect as Luce - clearly bright and affectionate, he also suggest more underneath...but maybe not.  Olivia Oguma is also heartbreaking as a classmate of Luce's.  There may be no sadder scene onstage this fall than watching Ms. Oguma try to drown herself inside her Starbucks drink.

The terror of parents -do you ever really know your child - and the struggle of today's overachieving kids, combined with liberal guilt over international adoptions, is all beautifully presented.  The characters all have compelling conversations and speak in complex thoughts that were completely appropriate; I think playwright Lee has a wonderful way with dialogue.  And I appreciated the tightwalk Lee walked with the plotting.  I enjoyed myself thoroughly at Luce, I've enjoyed playing scenes back in my head to see if I can figure out who meant what, and I look forward to what Lee brings us next.

Thoughts on August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned

Last night, I went back to one of my favorite NY spots - the Signature Theater - to see the third show in my subscription series.  I chose to see August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned because I do so love an August Wilson play.  His language is like no other and I thought it would be fascinating to see another grand actor walk in August Wilson's shoes.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson is a wonderful actor and director; I very much enjoyed his direction of The Piano Lesson last season.  Apparently, Wilson had put together How I Learned What I Learned as an autobiographical one-man show for himself, but then he asked Santiago-Hudson to do it instead.  After Wilson died, it took Santiago-Hudson a few years to gather the perspective to do it.

 

Photo credit: Joan Marcus

The show is still early in previews, so I'll only offer a few thoughts.  I enjoyed myself greatly at the show - Ruben Santiago-Hudson has a wonderful ease with the audience and with the material.  The text is funny and moving, thought-provoking and heartbreaking.  You get a lot of context for the lives of the characters in Wilson's plays, along with how he arrived at his world view.  There is music and joy, but also sorrow at the state of race relations.  There is a lot of casual dialogue and there are moments of heightened poetry, which was Wilson's specialty.  The bit about his first kiss was especially lovely.

 



Photo credit: Joan Marcus
 

The set is spectacular, designed by David Gallo.  Gallo also did the projections, which added a lot to the evening.  I'm sure they're still honing and refining, but the show is already in really good shape and it can only get sharper as previews continue.  I really enjoyed the show and living in August Wilson's world again, if only for 90 minutes.  And this production made me yearn for another revival of...anything.  Jitney, I think.  That's the only one of August's plays in the Century Cycle that I haven't seen.  Let's put good vibes out in the world for that.  And everyone should stop reading and go buy tickets to August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned.  It's worth the trip.


Review - A Time to Kill

While I was still in California, I received an e-mail from a Tony voter friend, asking me if I'd like to join him at yesterday's matinee of A Time to Kill.  Since the show is closing this weekend, I put all thoughts of jet lag aside and took him up on his kind offer.  Here's what I thought...

I've read the novel and I saw the movie A Time to Kill.  I enjoyed them both well enough, and I suppose I had a reasonably good time at the play.  I just don't know why they made it into a play.  There was nothing really theatrical or anything new about this production that made it clear to me why they adapted it.  Other than to have a recognizable title for a Broadway play.  Is it cynical of me to suggest that's the only reason this production came to be?

The show is directed with a light touch, probably to not seem overly sentimental - it's presented at a brisk pace, but there isn't much suspense.  The script has been so stacked in the defendant's favor, I began wishing for the end a lot sooner than I should've.  There's no real moral or philosophical complexity, it's just plot and resolution.  The physical production was slick and polished, but I wasn't really fond of the turntable set - I thought it was either laughably on the nose "the wheels of justice turning," or laughably on the nose referring to the song "Turn Turn Turn." Either way, the constant turning of the set became annoying to me and it made the already-approaching-too-long play even longer.  It also just played up the fact that they were just trying to make this play as close to a film as they could.  So, again, why was it a play?

The cast is filled with familiar names and they all do a good job with very sketchily written characters.  I guess to get a really large book to a manageable size, things needed to be cut.  Characters are cut and subplots aren't mentioned, but character development should've really stayed behind.  Not so much.  Every character is as they ever were throughout the play.  No one grows, no one changes, no one needs to dig deep for anything.  So that made for a rather shallow and bloodless, though attractively presented, afternoon. 

Photo credit: Carol Rosegg

You probably already know the plot, but there will be some spoilers here - at the top of the show, we see an ominous video and hear a young girl calling for her daddy.  Then we're in the courtroom where most of the play takes place.  Sebastian Arcelus is Jake Brigance, the young white hometown lawyer, and John Douglas Thompson is Carl Lee Hailey, the father of the young black girl who was recently raped.  As events unfold, Brigance becomes Hailey's defense attorney.  Arcelus looks a little bit like Matthew McConaughey did in the film, but he doesn't really have that charisma.  He's appealing, but you never feel really swayed by him, and I would think that's an important quality, since the audience becomes the jury in the second act.  I mean, the deck has already been really stacked in the defense's favor, but a little heightened feeling from Arcelus might've pushed the envelope more.

Photo credit: Carol Rosegg

John Douglas Thompson is wonderful as Carl Lee, if underused, especially in the second act.  He has great dignity and feeling, but at the same time, his character rather strained credulity in his naivete about how race relations work in a Mississippi courtroom.  Speaking of underused, Tonya Pinkins is her usual terrific self as Carl Lee's wife.  She's only in two brief scenes, but she's great.  I just wish she had been given more to do.  Patrick Page is also predictably glorious as the vain and ambitious prosecutor.  He really knows how to play an audience, and he's also appropriately rattled when his tactics are brought into the open.  I was also very impressed with Tom Skerritt, who I've loved for years.  He had his own rhythm and pace in his scenes, and he brought a certain rascally charm to an otherwise rather charmless rest of the afternoon.

I found it odd that the play doubled up a couple of the actors - there are fourteen actors playing seventeen characters.  Why not go with seventeen actors?  I mean, I guess I can understand why the actors playing the redneck rapists in the first scene would want more to do, but it was jarring to me to see them turn up as a lawyer and a doctor later on.  One other actor doubled up, but he didn't bother me as much.  I don't know why it bothered me, but it did.  Oh well. 

Since I liked the book and movie well enough, and I responded pretty favorably to this cast, I was reasonably engaged throughout the afternoon.  I just think they could've done so much more.  I'm actually a little surprised the play didn't do more business - it seems a good title that would appeal to tourists, and it seems a nice alternative to the heavier pieces that are playing right now.  The crowd who was at the matinee was engaged and jumped to their feet at the end, but I guess if you can cheaply rent the movie, why pay hundreds of dollars to see a reasonable facsimile onstage?  Maybe if they had made this adaptation a true piece of theater instead of basically the movie onstage, they would've been able to better position themselves.  I don't know.  It's disappointing, though - a crackerjack courtroom thriller onstage with this talented cast could (and should) be a lot of fun.  This was just reasonably pleasant.  Not the best of endorsements, unfortunately...

ABT fall season - GUEST BLOGGER ALERT!!

I went out of town last week and sadly had to miss my other ABT performance at Lincoln Center.  Happily, my impossibly handsome ballet buddy was there to save the day!  Below is his beautifully written report - thanks, impossibly handsome ballet buddy!

IHBB at ABT

Hello all.  I’ll be your guest blogger for the evening.  You can call me IHBB.  I’m a frequent companion of MissTari when she attends dance performances and in fact I accompanied our favorite blogger to the ABT matinee last Sunday.  She referred to me in her blog by a name that’s flattering but far too embarrassing to repeat in print, so for now I’ll go by the moniker IHBB.  When a business trip forced MissTari to give up her ticket to last Sunday’s ABT matinee she suggested that I go in her place and blog about it.  I leapt at the chance to see some for our beloved performers strut their stuff.  I was not disappointed. 

First, as a matter of form, I feel I should provide a “seat-neighbor review,” a feature I know to be a staple of a Magical MissTari blog post.  Overall it was a VERY well attended matinee and I was pleased to see the David Koch Theatre so full.  My most striking impression of the audience occurred as I was taking my seat in the fourth ring.  As I got to the base of the very steep aisle on which I was seated, I saw a white-haired woman with a cane.  “How is she going to make it up these stairs?” I thought.  No sooner had I thought that, did her (I assume) son, a robust grey-haired man, come down the stairs and said “How do you want to do this?” and proceeded to try to carry his mother up the stairs. Before getting very far he stopped and said “This is ridiculous.  Let’s see if we can find you a seat down here.”  Well duh.  Ushers came to the rescue and found the family seats more easily accessible to folks with mobility issues.  Otherwise, I have no real complaints about those patrons seated close to me with the exception of the very knowledgeable older man behind me who during the third piece uttered to his wife (presumably for her edification) “this is the theme” and then ‘this is the first variation.” “Dear God,” I thought, “is he going to announce every movement?” (He did.)  Fortunately he was silent for the first two pieces.   

photo credit: Rosalie O'Connor

First on the program was Michel Fokine’s Les Sylphides. It’s interesting to revisit this classic which is so often parodied or at least referenced in theater and film. I’d forgotten how many of my ideas of what ballet is I can trace back to this particular piece. It’s rewarding to see the choreography given a straightforward, un-ironic, and unapologetically romantic staging. It was an opportunity to showcase the beautifully precise, yet dreamily fluid ABT corps de ballet, ably led by Adrienne Shulte and Sarah Smith. MissTari has in the past described Cory Stearns as stalwart, which hardly seems glowing praise, but in this particular ballet it is a quality that works to great advantage particularly in the pas de deux, when his primary responsibility is to provide a solid underpinning for the lithe grace of his partner. He was alas less sure-footed and unfortunately somewhat turgid in his solos in this Sunday’s performance, however. The three ladies he partnered on the other hand were superb, particularly Polina Semionova whose expressive back and dainty footwork make her seem as if the subject of a grand manner portrait had begun to breathe and flutter against her painted backdrop. 

The second piece was Frederick Ashton’s A Month in the Country which in my opinion was, in a word, exquisite.  I’d never encountered this piece before and now I wonder where it’s been all my life.  The curtain went up to enthusiastic applause, the lush set and costumes designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman genuinely breathtaking. It may be the most elaborate set I’ve seen in an ABT production, with an ornate floor painted to look like inlaid marble and high French doors which afforded a view beyond of a tiny footbridge and colorful backdrop depicting expansive grounds. It immediately gave the impression of an opulent and aggressively idyllic country estate in mid-nineteenth century Russia.  It’s a warm summer afternoon and the house seems to throb with a complex life of its own.   Curtains flutter, watch fobs go missing, and numerous doors and windows give ample opportunity for characters to enter unobserved by others onstage.  The Chopin score is a perfect pairing with the Turgenev play about a handsome young tutor who upsets the delicate emotional balance in the home of a wealthy landowner and his wife.   Ashton’s choreography uses the music beautifully to tell the story.  At once expressive and humorous it never condescends to the characters but rather mines the depths of the score to find their passion and emotional complexity.  The cast is uniformly outstanding and I found myself falling in love with each of them in turn.

Photo credit: Marty Sohl

Julie Kent is sublime. Knowing MissTari’s affection for Ms. Kent, I hope she gets the opportunity to see this performance, because the dancer seems tailor-made for this role.  It is a wonderful showcase for her talents particularly in the pantomime scenes.  It is perhaps the mark of a truly great ballerina that she is as commanding seated stiffly on a chair or fanning herself languidly on a divan as she is in her more technical solos.  Daniil Simkin as the pre-adolescent Kolia is delightful. Hardly a youngster at 26, Simkin is nonetheless all youthful ebullience and innocence in this role, while at the same time displaying crisp technique and deft musicality. He effortlessly bounces a ball while performing a few tight, clean pirouettes and then seems perfectly natural and boyish as he leaps off-handedly over furniture in order to get his toy kite aloft.  Guest artist Guillaume Cote as the attractive tutor who is the catalyst for most of the drama is more than merely a handsome presence. He is a wonderfully confident, technically beautiful dancer, but in his solos, and in each of his duets he displays an understanding of how the movement delineates character and tells the story.  When he dances with Kent, yes there is heat, yes there is a connection, but there is something more as well.  Together Cote and Kent find the shadings in Ahston’s choreography; the pull and the tug; the romantic longing at war with the sense of duty; the sheen of noblesse which hides a deeper longing.  Both dancers understand that Ashton’s movement is as much about the force that keeps bodies apart as it is about the momentum that hurls them toward one another.     

George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations with exciting music by Tchaikovsky rounded out the program, and it was a marvelous way to cap things off. There is no subtext in the elegant Balanchine setting and therefore no place for performers to hide. This ballet is about dancers moving to music, which the company did to exciting effect. Despite their romantic trappings in bejeweled tutu and cavalier uniform, Paloma Herrera and James Whiteside didn't display a lot of passion in their duet, but performed with an ease and effortlessness that puts you in mind of those elegant married couples you admire from afar at parties who seem to make everything look so easy.  (Having photo caption issues now: for the photo at right, the credit should be Andrea Mohin.)

A delightful afternoon at the ballet for me.  Thank MissTari!  I also share below (In MissTari tradition) some pictures of my post show meal at Café Luxembourg as well as my pre-show repast (something you WON’T see in a MissTari review)...

Pre-show wine at Bar Boulud

Remnants of my pre-ballet oysters. Looks like it should be a Warner Brothers character.

IHBB at intermission avec champagne

Post-ballet Manhattan at Cafe Luxembourg

Post-ballet burrata salad. This was really tasty.

ABT fall season - The Tempest and more

Last Sunday afternoon, I met my impossibly handsome ballet buddy at Lincoln Center to enjoy an afternoon of ABT's fall season.  When the announcement for the season came out, I wrestled with which ballets to see (although we knew we wanted to see the new Ratmansky version of The Tempest), so we finally decided on two other pieces we hadn't seen before: Twyla Tharp's Bach Partita and Mark Morris' Gong.  I think we made an excellent choice.

As we settled into our seats, I found one of those distressing white slips of paper in the playbill.  Thankfully, it was just reversing the order of two of the ballets and not announcing a replacement dancer.  Not that I don't enjoy nearly all of the ABT company - I just don't want anyone to be injured.  After seeing the first piece, I could see why the last two pieces were reversed.  One dancer had a big role in both of them and I'm sure they wanted him to have a few minutes to breathe between dances.  

First up was the Tharp.  Set to the Bach Partita for solo violin, it's a lovely, complex piece with gorgeous, stunning dancing.  The solo violinist, Charles Yang, was wonderful.  With six principals, fourteen soloists and a sudden appearance by sixteen corps ballerinas, there is a lot of movement and variety on the stage.  Marcelo Gomes and Gillian Murphy were beautifully paired - sometimes she just seems to pirouette forever with no effort at all, and he is, of course, perfection.  As always.  :)   I also enjoyed the two other principal couples - Polina Semionova and James Whiteside, and Stella Abrera and Calvin Royal III.  There weren't many opportunites for Polina to showcase her amazing neck and back, but she was lovely nonetheless.  James is a vigorous presence and a very attentive partner.  Stella is just delicate and lovely, with beautiful arms and turns.  Calvin Royal, while a pleasant dancer, I think is still trying to find his little something extra.  But if ABT keeps giving him opportunities for lead roles, I'm sure he'll find it.

 

Photo: Ines Laimins

I admit that though I enjoy beautiful dancing for beautiful dancing's sake, I couldn't help comparing this choreography set to Bach to the Paul Taylor pieces I've seen recently.  Whereas the Taylor pieces find the elemental and the undercurrent of what it means to be a human in space, I felt the Tharp skipped the surface and sat on top of the music.  It was beautiful to look at, but I didn't really think about it again afterward.  Not that that means anything.  Just a comment from the peanut gallery.

Photo: Rosalie O'Connor

After an exceedingly long intermission, we were treated to Mark Morris' Gong.  I LOVED IT.  Gorgeously costumed by Isaac Mizrahi, and set to music by Colin McPhee, Gong is just stunning exuberance and beautiful stage pictures.  The lighting by Michael Chybowski also plays a big role in this dance and it was first-rate.  There was one point during the opening movement where I just held my breath and felt tears come into my eyes at how lovely everything was onstage.  But, as we all know, everything is beautiful at the ballet...

There were two pas de deux that were done without music - I don't quite know why, but they were very striking moving through the silence.  And the moment the sixteen ballerinas swoop in is breathtaking.  If they were a little out of unision later on, well, ok.  I just loved this piece (and my very favorite ballerina, Julie Kent, was also stunning in her solo work) and can't wait to see it again.  I want to wear one of those costumes for Halloween next year...

Photo: Andrea Mohin

After another exceedingly long intermission, we finally saw the premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's The Tempest.  We saw the second cast, with Cory Stearns as Prospero.  I find him to be an elegant and rather stalwart dancer, but lacking in "it."  He sort of was the same in The Tempest, though I don't imagine it's all his fault.

Photo: Andrea Mohin

I know Shakespeare's play, I've been in it, I've read it, and yet, I was confused at times.  There was a dramaturg credit, but...I don't know.  The flashbacks weren't clearly delineated and maybe Ratmansky tried to cram in too many plot points in a 45-minute ballet.  So it was never static and was always moving, but yet it still seemed inert.  The solos for Prospero didn't really comment on character and didn't really move the plot forward.  The solos for Ariel and Caliban were much more character-driven and were more successful, though Caliban has no real arc here.  The pas de deux for Miranda and Ferdinand were very nice and Jared Matthew's Ferdinand was especially fine.  The comic characters were appropriately comic, but they were shuttled on and shuttled off so quickly, it was a bit jarring. 

The Sibelius score didn't really help dramatize anything for me.  It's lovely music and the New York Choral Society was used effectively, but it was all rather one note with no real highs and lows to grab attention.  I don't know - maybe this is a piece that needs more than one viewing to really be appreciated.  I'm not sure that I'd want to see it again, unfortunately.  I'll have to think on it.  But I have loved Ratmansky's work before, so I should probably give him another chance.

I had hoped to go back and see three of the other ballets, but I'm headed to Los Angeles instead.  I'm trying to talk my impossibly handsome ballet buddy into writing a guest post and reporting on next Sunday's matinee.  Let's see how it goes...

Thoughts on Waiting for Godot and Macbeth

I'm taking my cough on the road, infecting audiences all over Broadway!  Woo hoo!  :)  Actually, a friend gave me a ticket to an early preview of Waiting for Godot, starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, so I couldn't not go; and I had purchased my TDF ticket for Macbeth a long time ago.  So, sick or no, I was heading out to the theater.  In my humble opinion, I was a good audience member, always having extra cough drops unwrapped and my bottle of water at the ready.  I am totally worn out, though, so I'm going to try to lay low before my big trip to Los Angeles next week (well, except for my greatly-anticipated trip to the ballet on Sunday afternoon, but that will energize me and make me feel better).  Because both of these shows are really early in previews, I won't get into too many details, since things could change.  If you take me out for drinks, though, I could perhaps expand on my thoughts...

photo by Sasha Gusov

Wednesday night, I saw maybe the third or fourth preview of Waiting for Godot, part of a double bill starring Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart (they're also doing Pinter's No Man's Land, which I also must see).  As I expected, they were theatrically spectacular.  The long-time relationship between these two men is so apparent in their characterizations, and so apropos.  Having been together for 50 years, Gogo and Didi must have a relationship that seems real and longstanding.  Patrick Stewart is Didi and he is wonderfully verbose, yet so physically nimble.  But when his anguish at the non-arrival of Godot AGAIN comes, you are torn apart.  At least, I was.  And Ian McKellen is genius as Gogo.  The audience was cracking up at all of his line readings, but there was also such poignancy and lurking mortality underneath.  I found them both sublime.  If I found Shuler Hensley and Billy Crudup less sublime, well, there it is.  They have a month to sublime themselves up.  And, seriously, how can people even compete with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen?!  Good on them for even trying!  Billy Crudup's gibberish monologue was pretty spectacular, though.  He looks like a cross of the Elephant Man, Smike from Nicholas Nickleby and Johnny Depp.  His abject pitiableness is so apparent, I had to look away at times.  And I just think Shuler Hensley needs time.  I'm pretty sure he has an amazing Pozzo in him.

My seat was horrible, probably the worst in the house, all the way far right, by the door to the boxes.  I couldn't see any entrances on stage left, nor could I see the tree.  Um, the tree is important.  I wish I could've seen it.  I also didn't get a real sense of how the production worked in the space.  I think the set was good - it looked like the crumbled ruins of an old theater, which is fascinating, but from my seat, I just couldn't tell.  They should probably make my seat obstructed view, but, for free, I shouldn't complain.  The guy next to me felt sorry for me, which was funny.  I guess I wish I had seen the show later in the run, but I'm awfully glad I got to see it at all.  I can't really describe the pleasure I got from seeing Stewart and McKellen - it's as if their generous good hearts, affection for each other, along with their total respect for and commitment to the play, permeated everywhere.  You should go.



I had thought that seeing Macbeth on Halloween would be a fun idea.  It's got witches.  :)  Actually, I think we've previously established how much I love the play.  I greatly enjoyed Alan Cumming's version that played last season; I also enjoyed Patrick Stewart in the role a few years ago.  So when a TDF ticket appeared, I pounced.  I admit to having suspicions about Ethan Hawke as Macbeth.  Preconceived notions, if you will.  Now, again, I only saw the third or fourth preview, but my suspicions were correct.  Of course, he has a month to fine tune, but his slacker/underplaying persona didn't really work for me in this role.  I will say that he had a wonderful rapport with his Lady Macbeth, and his text was generally clear throughout, but I needed a little something more.  A little something heightened, perhaps, especially in the monologues.  I thought Brian d'Arcy James was a fantastic Banquo, and I loved John Glover, Byron Jennings and Malcolm Gets as the witches.  I also loved how the witches were integrated throughout the evening.  I thought Anne-Marie Duff was a fantastic Lady M, with some very interesting line readings.  I'm generally a purist when it comes to Shakespeare, but she made her text work because it was steeped in characterization and not 'hey, look how I can change up Shakespeare.'  Richard Easton was a wonderful Duncan.

I found this online.  I'm sorry I don't know the photographer.

Unsurprisingly, in such a big cast, some cast members fared better than others.  Again, they have a long way to go before opening, so I won't say any more about that.  I will say that I liked a lot of the directorial concept and I thought the physical production was amazing.  There is one spectacular effect that I will remember for a long time.  But I will also say I strongly disagreed with several directorial choices.  So it made my viewing experience uneven.  On the whole, it was a worthy effort and I wouldn't be opposed to checking it out again later in the run.  Of course, I just love the play.  The people next to me?  Not so much.  I had to tell the gentleman to sit still.  He was so distracting.  The guy behind him thanked me at intermission.  I may have given him whooping cough, but I also restored his sightline.  :)   I was surprised that the house was not full, but I'm sure attendance will pick up as the run continues.  So I'd say grab a discount ticket and go.  There's one spectacular effect you'll probably never forget, either...