Theatah
Does Mean Well and I are well into our New York City Theater Experience. On Saturday, we saw Thoroughly Modern Millie, and last night was Les Miserables. 'Millie' was fun, all that singin', all that dancin'. Les Miserables was pretty slow in parts (a lot of parts, blah-dee-blah-dee-blah-blah-blah-dee-blah), but it had that Longtime Companion ending (you get to see all your dead friends again) that I'm a total sucker for. I was able to keep it under control for the miserables, but Longtime Companion has me wailing and choking on sobs no matter how many times I subject myself to it.

Tonight we see Chicago. That should be fun. Tomorrow Does Mean Well is going to chance hypothermia by waiting in the line to get cancellation tickets for Hairspray. Now, this is all very new to me. I've never seen a Broadway show in my life. Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and hole-in-the-wall performance spaces on the Lower East Side where there are more people on stage than in the audience... yes.

These shows are fun, but not the way that I'd spend really big bucks. And y'know what's weird, Millie and the miserables were not so far beyond the productions put on my my college and high school. I mean, the sets were better than the set crew of either was capable of producing, and the singing was better, but in lots of ways, Alvernia College's 'Brigadoon' and 'Anything Goes' and the Central Bucks High School East productions of 'Once Upon A Mattress' and 'Carousel' were not quite out of the running. And that's kind of odd. By way of comparison, the best opera I've seen by amateur companies was tiers below the shabbiest performance by the New York City Opera (we're not even talkin' the Met). And, in the same way, in those hole-in-the-wall performance spaces on the Lower East Side, I've seen some really electrifying stuff that's stayed with me for weeks on end. I remember this adaptation of a Jean Genet thing that used all of these Malinowski approaches to performance that was absolutely riveting. And, these were way beyond stuff I've seen at the Bucks County Playhouse or whatever.

So what's up with Broadway that it's not a stratospheric kind of thing? Maybe it's just that shows sort of peak in the first weeks after they come out, and after that it's all about going through the motions. But who are all these people that are happy to plunk down $100 to see a bunch of kids going through the motions?

I guess I just don't get it.

Still, I feel as though I'm earning a Gay Merit Badge or something, so that now when people are discussing musical theater I won't have a totally blank look on my face.

Anyway, it's a hoot hanging out with Does Mean Well.