The Musical Theater Junkie Takes in a Straight Play - and Loves It!

          I have a confession to make: it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a straight play.  The last one I saw was Twelfth Night over a year ago!  The last non-Shakespeare play I saw was Shaw’s Major Barbara several years ago at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC.  I’m not sure why it’s been so long.  I mean, clearly my passion is in musicals, but I love theater in all its forms.  For crying out loud, my senior seminar as an English major in college was restoration and 18^th century British drama.  It had been far too long sing I partook of a straight play.

                Cut to yesterday, and me at the Sunday matinee of the Triad Stage’s production of Educating Rita.  There are three reasons why I decided to see this production:

1)      The Triad Stage was recently named by the American Theatre Wing as one of America’s top ten most promising regional theaters.  That’s no small feat!

2)      When I went to the Triad Stage website, there was a discount code on the front page for $10 of tickets to Educating Rita.  For someone in constant search of thrifty theater, that was the golden ticket.

3)      There was a talk-back after this performance with a professor from Wake Forest University, and I really miss the academic side of theater.

Not to mention, my best friend lives in Greensboro, so dinner with her would make the 90-minute drive each way all the more worthwhile.

                To quote Janice from Friends, “Oh. My. God.”  The play was brilliant!  I loved it!  Upon entering the theater, there’s a sign that warns patrons that this production contains adult language and many books.  I’ve found heaven.  At first, I was a little worried that the books they referenced would be books I hadn’t read and didn’t know anything about.  Luckily, it just so happens that all of the books they discussed at length were ones I had been assigned as an undergrad, even Rubyfruit Jungle, believe it or not!

                I don’t think I’ve ever before seen a play which only had two actors, and these two were phenomenal.  I was engaged for every single second they were onstage.  I cared so much about the characters, and even more, I was developing all kinds of ideas and theories about the characters and the story as the play went on.  I was in full-on “English major mode” and loving it!  I don’t want to ruin the plot for anyone, but I will say that I have some well-developed theories about the role of Rubyfruit Jungle in the play and why I think that literary allusion is, in fact, far more significant than any of the high-brow English literature which Rita studies.  Especially since Frank, her tutor, reads (and enjoys) the Rita Mae Brown novel.  I’d love to just sit down over a cup of tea and just talk about the play for hours.

                That’s why I’m so glad that I attended the talk-back afterward.  It was so wonderful to be around people who cared as much about the play as I did and had the chance to talk about it!  Needless to say, I’m buying a season pass for the rest of the season, and I’m getting all my tickets on the day of the talk-backs!  If you’ve never attended an event like that, do it now!  It was so rewarding.

                I’ve been rambling.  But amazing theater does that to me.  I think the American Theatre Wing was right on the money picking the Triad Stage as one of America’s most promising theaters!

 The Triad Stage Website

Going Outside My Comfort Zone

                I have a confession to make: I’m not much of a risk-taker when it comes to theater.  Especially with a budget like mine, I tend to buy tickets to shows I know I’m going to like.  I tend to stick to musicals that have been on Broadway or theaters which I know produce awesome stuff.  However, given the right invitation and the right price, I have been known to venture out of my comfort zone.  Usually, it’s a good decision.  The time I ventured outside of my comfort zone to see a death-metal rock production of Titus Andronicus was the only time I think leaving my zone of familiarity was a terrible decision.

                So, a friend of mine from school asked me if I would be interested in a Bollywood-themed musical stage show thing.  Exactly where it fits in the genre is a little vague, but whatevs.  The clincher was that the theater wasn’t selling many tickets ahead of time, and the student rush policy was that an hour before the show, whatever seats were left were $20.  Score, I’m in.  Our seats were in row D.  $20 for row D?  That kind of opportunity doesn’t come along every day!

                So, the basic gist of Merchants of Bollywood is that a girl leaves home to pursue a career in Bollywood, and there’s lots of dancing.  I mean lots of dancing.  The dancing was by far the best part of the show.  I’m not going to skirt around this – the plot sucked and the acting sucked.  There’s just no more eloquent way to put it.  The dancing did not suck.  Whatever the opposite of sucking is, that’s how good the dancing was.  The costumes were fabulous.  The set was basic, but whatever.  It did have some things which made a musical theater junkie like myself feel right at home: big dance numbers, a man in drag, a ridiculously over-the-top gay character, and enough glitter to put even the most lavish production of La Cage Aux Folles to shame.  However, as a stickler for musical theater authenticity, I was disappointed by the fact that the music wasn’t live and that the actors didn’t actually sing.  I do realize that a lot of that last bit was because most of the show was a spoof on Bollywood films, in which lip-synching is the norm.

                There was also a cultural gap between me and a deep understanding of what was going on.  There were countless occasions when the audience would burst into applause or laughter and I had absolutely no clue what they were reacting to.

                All in all, I’m definitely glad I went.  I was able to experience a culture other than my own, and I was reminded of the power of live performance.  There was a middle-aged man in front of me who was cheering and clapping and so unbelievably enthusiastic about the show.  There’s something about sitting in a darkened theater with live people doing what they do best right there, in the moment, which is almost always exhilarating (death metal Titus Andronicus obviously not included).

 Merchants of Bollywood Wikipedia page

Even Theater Fanatics Won't Like EVERY Show!

                I have a confession to make: I don’t think I like Little Shop of Horrors.  Hopefully this blog article will give both you and I some more insight into this personal anomaly.  As someone who fancies myself a musical theater fanatic, it’s a little alarming when I realize that there are shows I don’t like.  I mean, there aren’t a whole lot of shows on that list.  But I thought I liked Little Shop.  It had been awhile since I saw it.

                Okay, so a few weeks ago I went to the NC Theatre’s production of Little Shop of Horrors.  I mentioned in a “Thrifty Theater” post that I had bought the ticket on Groupon.  I got a half price (just $23!) front mezzanine ticket.  The theater is pretty big, and the orchestra section was about 1/3 full.  The mezzanines weren’t much better.  I should have taken BroadwayGirlNYC's Advice and gotten myself a free upgrade.  Oh, well.  Nonetheless, the production itself was actually pretty good.  The actor playing Seymour is a Raleigh native, but the other actors were pretty seasoned.  The man playing Mushnik had a New York resume a mile long.  The actress playing Audrey was in Les Miserables on Broadway, an understudy who went on for Eponine.  Not too shabby.  The actor who voiced the plant actually did that on Broadway.  One of the girls on the street was in Avenue Q when it transferred from Broadway back to off-Broadway.  The sets were good.  The music was good.  The sound could have been better – the microphones were occasionally overpowered by the orchestra.  But that’s really neither here nor there.  Let’s get to the meat of this.

                I know I’ve seen Little Shop before.  I don’t really remember when or where, but it must have been some time in adolescence.  I know I’ve seen the movie with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin.  I remembered the sadistic dentist quite clearly.  I personally think going to the dentist is one of the most miserable ways to spend time, so that certainly resonated with me.  I thought I remembered the story really well.  Yet, somehow, I managed to completely forget that the plant eats people.  That’s pretty fundamental to the plot, but for some reason, I did not remember that at all.  And I didn’t find it amusing.

                It’s not that I don’t think eating people is appropriate for theater – I saw Sweeney Todd, and I absolutely loved it.  However, Sweeney Todd is not lighthearted – it doesn’t pretend that the subject matter isn’t heavy.  I think that’s what bothered me about Little Shop – what was the point of it?  Why would Seymour and Audrey fall in love if they’re just going to be eaten by the plant anyway?  And why would there be a comedy number at the end?  I guess I just don’t like the lighthearted death.  Perhaps I’m way overanalyzing Little Shop.  But plain and simple, I’m not amused by it.

                This is a critical point in the life of every musical theater fanatic – the realization that not all shows (not even all Tony nominated shows) are going to be our cup of tea.  Just because it’s a musical doesn’t mean I have to love it.  I think it’s great that there are people who love this show.  But in the same way that I don’t understand how any human being could be anything but floored by the awesomeness of Spring Awakening, I know that there are people who cannot fathom why I’m not in love with Little Shop of Horrors.  That’s just what makes the world go round.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way.