Leave Britney alone!
I haven't done a theater post in quite a while. It's not because I've stopped attending. Far from it. We're in the heat of the spring season and I think I've got about five under my belt that I've not written about and I'm seeing two more this week. I got the notion in my head that, frankly, the theater posts aren't that interesting to most people. And that's fine. I get that.
Where it all goes horribly wrong is when I lie in bed at night and, instead of sleeping, stare at the ceiling and start to imagine that if I do one more post about the theater, I'll lose all my readers. Isn't that crazy?! But admit it; when you're in bed and on the threshold of sleep, you think a lot of crazy thoughts, too. Right?
Well, I decided that to hell with all of you! I'm going to continue doing my theater posts and if you don't like it, well, you can just...I don't know what but I'm going to do them anyway.
(If you thought that was sad and crazy, you should see what's going on inside my head that I'm not revealing to you.)
RED is Dr. Octopus—oh, excuse me—I mean Alfred Molina as egomaniac artist (is there any other kind?) Mark Rothko. I loved it but I think it's got very limited appeal. It makes you feel all smart and brainy if you've heard of the artists mentioned. They talk a lot about influences and the arc of contemporary art history. Do you like that stuff? Then go. You'll love it. Molina really is in top form. The play was a big hit at the Donmar Warehouse in London and Eddie Redmayne, who plays Rothko's studio assistant, won all sort of well-deserved awards. They might give him one here in New York, too. All the critics love him in New York. But be warned, it's pretty chatty.
Best moment? The two prepare a huge canvas with a base coat of paint. They blast some classical music and have worked out an intricate dance whereby Molina paints the top half of the canvas while Redmayne prepares the bottom. It's interesting from the standpoint that I've never seen a canvas prepared, but aside from that, it's just a ton of fun to watch. It's fast and live and real-time, and that's what the theater has over movies.
Where it all goes horribly wrong is when I lie in bed at night and, instead of sleeping, stare at the ceiling and start to imagine that if I do one more post about the theater, I'll lose all my readers. Isn't that crazy?! But admit it; when you're in bed and on the threshold of sleep, you think a lot of crazy thoughts, too. Right?
Well, I decided that to hell with all of you! I'm going to continue doing my theater posts and if you don't like it, well, you can just...I don't know what but I'm going to do them anyway.
(If you thought that was sad and crazy, you should see what's going on inside my head that I'm not revealing to you.)
* * *
RED is Dr. Octopus—oh, excuse me—I mean Alfred Molina as egomaniac artist (is there any other kind?) Mark Rothko. I loved it but I think it's got very limited appeal. It makes you feel all smart and brainy if you've heard of the artists mentioned. They talk a lot about influences and the arc of contemporary art history. Do you like that stuff? Then go. You'll love it. Molina really is in top form. The play was a big hit at the Donmar Warehouse in London and Eddie Redmayne, who plays Rothko's studio assistant, won all sort of well-deserved awards. They might give him one here in New York, too. All the critics love him in New York. But be warned, it's pretty chatty.
Best moment? The two prepare a huge canvas with a base coat of paint. They blast some classical music and have worked out an intricate dance whereby Molina paints the top half of the canvas while Redmayne prepares the bottom. It's interesting from the standpoint that I've never seen a canvas prepared, but aside from that, it's just a ton of fun to watch. It's fast and live and real-time, and that's what the theater has over movies.
Labels: The Play's the Thing
posted by The Unbearable Banishment at
8:03 AM
15 Comments:
I love it when you do a theatre post ... you should see what theatre looks like here in Cornwall. I miss Broadway and even though the London stage is about 4.5 hours away ... it is a bit of a haul. I can't think of the last time I saw a performance.
If you want to talk about sad and crazy reveals, you should see what I shared today over at my place.
I used to do amateur panto... I wonder what you would have made of that?!!
Sx
i love the theater reviews, sugar! y'all know i live vicariously through them. *sigh* as to crazy thoughts, y'all should see the number of posts that have been written and never POSTED at my place. it's cheap therapy that never gets posted to my insurance, i'm thinking. xoxoxox
ve: merto (which in some form of spanglish makes sense...)
GOTJ: Well, thanks, but the truth is that theater just isn't very popular. 4.5 hours IS too far! Movies are so much closer. And cheaper.
Scarlet: Do you have any videos lying about that you could post to YouTube? That'd be fun to see!
Savannah: We should have a crazy-off. See who has the most damaging and scary thoughts.
But if you don't post about the theatre, it won't be long before a whole horde of finches from the Galapagos show up and start doing it. This is how Twitter began.
what do they do with the canvas every night after it's painted on stage?
Hey. Enough already with the fretting about stats, and cold sweat moments where we don't approve of your theater posts. I've had boyfriends like you before - next thing you know you'll be repeatedly posting "I LOVE YOU" just to see if we say it back in the comments.
Your utter disregard for us is what we find attractive. Abuse us, ignore us. We love that.
I wish I could send my mom to see it. She'd love it. (I'd probably like it.)
Kykn: Hummm. Better me than the finches. They don't know anything about plot devices.
Daisy: That's a great question. I wonder. It's really big.
Sally: HOLY SHIT! You're RIGHT! Fishing for compliments is the worst. I'm such a puss sometimes. It sucks when someone holds up a mirror and you cringe, but I needed that. Thanks!!
Ellie: Is your mom a painter?
You should always post for yourself. :-)
I love your theatre posts UB
i like the theater (and art museum) posts. it's one of the few reasons i come back. no offense...but your blog is,at times,too "mommy blog" for my taste. i put up with "my kids are soooo awesome!" bits just to deal with the other posts.
saw fela most recently and was totally amazed by it! awesome show!
in ref. to your previous post about the obama=commie nutjob:
the reason most "republicans" have a problem with obama is plain and simple...
obama is the H.N.I.C now and they don't like taking orders from him. although they were powerful figure heads in office,at the end of the day, rice and powell weren't calling the shots. "the decider" was always bush. and that's the way they want things to stay colorwise.
it's stupid and barbaric and arrogant...but that's the party.
p.s.
•not sure why i inserted the phrase "at the end of the day..." in my previous post. totally unnecessary.
•i've been to australia. it's AMAZING! but people are (or can be) assholes EVERYWHERE! for example...
•YESTERDAY afternoon,walking past columbus circle, saw a muslim man kneeling on the steps of one of the fountain statues praying. his prayers were interrupted by someone who yelled at him to "go back to his country!" the muslim man quickly yelled back to the guy "i was fucking born here! you go back to YOUR country!" having detected his accent, the country this muslim man told the other guy to go back to was australia.
ashamed of humanity,i walked past the crowd of blood thirsty gawkers that began to form. a few steps later i saw a tired looking living statue/mime who's gaze was averted toward the commotion. the living statue was dressed like the statue of liberty. the irony of this cheered me up somewhat.
moments before that, before i even ran into all that nonsense at columbus circle, i saw ashton kutcher! which proves my theory that ashton kutcher is a walking harbinger of hatred.
and finally....
any interest in the new addams family musical starring nathan lane and bebe newirth???
Jason: I'm going to pass on The Addams Family. I actually don't go to many musicals and my friend saw it and said that Lane and Bebe are wasted. The story is focused on an 18-year old Wednesday. What a waste! Tickets aren't available, anyway.
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