What: BAM presents the world premiere of a new musical adaptation of the 2012 film, as part of their Next Wave 2024 & Emerging Visions series.
And? It's possible there's a good show underneath this. I can't tell right now. Even at just under two hours, the show feels overlong. I don't think it's currently well-staged, or particularly well-designed (except maybe Sarita Fellows's costume design), and whoever was in the booth the night I saw it rarely managed to turn performers' mics on in time for their dialog (granted, I saw the second preview, so hopefully this will improve). I also couldn't hear a lot of the lyrics over the the sound of the onstage band. Devotees of this blog will know how ornery I get about the misuse of a thrust stage. BAM Harvey has a lovely curving stage, with an equally curving audience hugging it. Why, then did I keep seeing crew members idling in the wings or pre-setting set pieces ten minutes before the next scene transition? Hide your crew, my dudes. No matter what kind of staging you're directing--proscenium, thrust, alley, arena, immersive--I think it is an absolute failure of directing craft to not spend rehearsals constantly moving through the entire range of where the audience will be, to make sure that everyone has a dynamic and interesting stage picture. If you sit dead center, you're ensuring a good view for fifteen people.
Also, I was under the impression this show was featuring an entirely new score by Ryan Miller (lead singer for the band Guster). So my jaw dropped when, at the eleven o' clock confrontation number, the two leads started belting out "Two Points For Honesty." My entire self flashed back to teenage me listening to a mixtape from my friend Malcolm.
Just. What?
9/20/24: Yellow Face
What: Roundabout's Broadway production of David Henry Hwang's semiautobiographical matryoshka doll of a play.
And? I think if it were just the riff on inadvertently casting a white character in an Asian role, and then that actor adopting that stolen identity to then become an activist, the play might have gotten tired, but DHH manages to spin some fascinating twist and foils within the play, confronting his own conflicted feelings about his own activism, as well as his imposter syndrome. Solid, great work all around, and a brilliant way to recover the lost work of his flop play, Face Value.
9/21/24: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show
What: A puppet show adaptation of several of Eric Carle's collage-illustrated books.
And? This was my inaugural outing as a theater auntie, going with my friend Andi and her cutie Maxx to see this show at The Duke on 42nd. It's truly a lovely experience: the lobby is full of interactive items for kids: books to read, murals to take pictures in front of, pages to color, and caterpillar stuffies to, well, those you have to buy. But Maxx brought his own, as did several other kiddies in the audience. The three performers are engaging and full of joy, and the puppet design is a gorgeous rendering of Carle's illustrations, transforming his work into the three-dimensional and kinetic. The stories as well are great. This is clearly a show aimed at kids (and one which doesn't mind how vocal the kids might be during the show), but I gotta say as someone who loves the magic of live theater, it was a good hour for me too.
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| Zelda, Maxx, and Andi. Photo by Andi Cohen-Rabiner. |
Also, I went to the BC/EFA Flea Market on Sunday with my friend Lauren! This was my big find of the day:
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| Venetian mask. Photo by Zelda Knapp. |
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