Veganizing "Friends": The One With 5 Steaks & An Eggplant by Randi / September 28, 2013|
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Hollywood studios love, and I mean looove, releasing similar movies at the same time to try to thwart their competition. Soon we’ll have ‘Captain Phillips’ and ‘All Is Lost’, both about a ship captain stranded at sea in some way. And who could ever forget the two First Daughter movies, one starring Katie Holmes and one Mandy Moore, that came out at about the same time?
When I first heard about the two new movies discussing sex addiction, I figured it was another studio battle royale in this vein. But having seen ‘Don Jon’ and ‘Thanks For Sharing’, I discovered that the shared topic is the only thing shared, as the two films discuss and view addiction in wildly different ways. And both are worth watching in their own right.
When I first heard about the two new movies discussing sex addiction, I figured it was another studio battle royale in this vein. But having seen ‘Don Jon’ and ‘Thanks For Sharing’, I discovered that the shared topic is the only thing shared, as the two films discuss and view addiction in wildly different ways. And both are worth watching in their own right.
Both films focus on the sexual behaviors of two male protagonists. In ‘Don Jon’, that man is Jon, a cool Jersey dude/bro played by Joey Gordon-Levitt (always Joey), who also wrote and directed the film. Jon is the guy who gets whatever girls he wants, does what he wants, parties in the club all he wants, and is kind of a douche when we meet him. He’s like Barney Stinson with a ridiculous New Jersey accent. (It’s not a bad accent, but during the very talky voiceovers, it can start to sound like Peter Griffin.) He tells us straight away, in a cute bit (which you can see in the trailer), that all he cares about in the world is his body, ride, family, church, boys, girls, and porn. And while we see a bit of all of these things, we see a lot of porn. It’s often funnily spliced together in almost cartoon fashion, evoking more laughs than discomfort, but it’s still pretty awkward.
Everything changes when Jon meets Scarlet Johansson’s character, who has the ridiculously unbelievable name of Barbara Sugarman. Just, no, that doesn’t work. It’s the name of a Florida grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine, not Scarlett Johansson as a hottie. Anyway, Jon decides that Barbara is so hot that he’ll change whatever she wants him to change about himself. And boy, does she want to change him. Note: this is not a positive way to start a relationship. We learn that, as Jon is deluded by his porn, Barbara is deluded by her romantic comedies, thinking that she can mold real life into that sort of tale. Blinded by her hotness, Jon obeys for a while, not sensing that she’s not worth the trouble. She forbids him from cleaning his apartment himself, and orders him to use a cleaning service. She sends him to night classes so he would have a degree, ostensibly so he’d be a more appropriate match for her.
Some of the most effective scenes come from Jon’s interactions with his family, with Tony Danza as his a-hole father and a fantastic Brie Larson as his mostly-silent sister, and with his minister, cloaked in darkness in the confessional. Both types of interactions brilliantly show the various facets of Jon’s life, and serve as clever (and hilarious) backdrops for his emotional and intellectual awakening.
At school, he meets Julianne Moore’s character, an honest, no-bullshit woman with a tragic history. She helps Jon realize that he shouldn’t have to change who he is to make a woman happy, because this kind of unfulfilling relationship is what causes him to still rely on porn to meet some nebulous emotional need. This is where his obsession with porn comes from, and it’s an obsession that can easily be cured if he lets himself be vulnerable in a real relationship.
Not so easily fixed is the addiction in ‘Thanks For Sharing’, a drama, as opposed to the comedy of ‘Don Jon’, about true sexual addiction, helped but never cured by group therapy sessions in the style of Alcoholics Anonymous. Mark Ruffalo plays Adam, who when we meet him is 5 years sober – from sex, masturbation, porn, and all kinds of other things he needs to keep himself from. He knows the tricks behind staying clean by now, and he teaches new members like the always good and hilarious Josh Gad. When he travels, he has the TV removed from his room. He never takes the subway, as it’s full of unknown obstacles.
Despite his regimen of control, Adam meets and falls for Gwyneth Paltrow’s Phoebe, bringing up a new slew of issues for him to deal with. On their first date, Phoebe says she used to date an alcoholic, and asks Adam, “You’re not an addict, right?” to which Adam responds, “I am not an alcoholic.” It’s a tricky conversation to have so early, but you know that this untruth is going to come back to bite him in the ass. But how does a person tell someone he barely knows that he has this incredibly stigmatized and misunderstood kind of addiction?
Like Scarlett’s Barbara, Phoebe is not very likeable, not very accepting of Adam, whose judgment, like Jon’s, is probably clouded by Phoebe’s looks. Consumed by the effort to make his addiction less of a problem, Adam even overlooks hints of Phoebe’s own serious behavioral issues. Unlike Don Jon, Adam learns that the best thing to control his addiction is not an eye-opening and paradigm-shifting relationship, but the community provided by his mentor and other addicts in the group. Along with Josh Gad, a standout in this group is, actually, Pink, in a good, energetic, and amiable performance. The blossoming friendship between Gad and Pink becomes the most interesting relationship in the movie, and it proves that you need to have a solid support system to get through any hardship.
This seems to be the message of ‘Thanks For Sharing’, that a person needs the help and camaraderie of friends and loved ones in order to overcome serious problems. In contrast, ‘Don Jon’ seems to say that, like in romantic comedies, sometimes things can be solved by one lovely, caring person. Both messages are valid, since they are dealing with discrete kinds of problems, but it’s interesting to note the difference.
If you can only see one film that shows copious amounts of porn, make it ‘Don Jon’. While ‘Thanks For Sharing’ is well done and helps convey the severity of this often-mocked addiction, ‘Don Jon’ is fun, funny, and an incredibly well-edited triumph from Joey Gordon-Levitt. Also, there’s nothing better than seeing Joey driving while singing aloud to ‘Good Vibrations’ (the Marky Mark version, not the Beach Boys).
Everything changes when Jon meets Scarlet Johansson’s character, who has the ridiculously unbelievable name of Barbara Sugarman. Just, no, that doesn’t work. It’s the name of a Florida grandmother, played by Shirley MacLaine, not Scarlett Johansson as a hottie. Anyway, Jon decides that Barbara is so hot that he’ll change whatever she wants him to change about himself. And boy, does she want to change him. Note: this is not a positive way to start a relationship. We learn that, as Jon is deluded by his porn, Barbara is deluded by her romantic comedies, thinking that she can mold real life into that sort of tale. Blinded by her hotness, Jon obeys for a while, not sensing that she’s not worth the trouble. She forbids him from cleaning his apartment himself, and orders him to use a cleaning service. She sends him to night classes so he would have a degree, ostensibly so he’d be a more appropriate match for her.
Some of the most effective scenes come from Jon’s interactions with his family, with Tony Danza as his a-hole father and a fantastic Brie Larson as his mostly-silent sister, and with his minister, cloaked in darkness in the confessional. Both types of interactions brilliantly show the various facets of Jon’s life, and serve as clever (and hilarious) backdrops for his emotional and intellectual awakening.
At school, he meets Julianne Moore’s character, an honest, no-bullshit woman with a tragic history. She helps Jon realize that he shouldn’t have to change who he is to make a woman happy, because this kind of unfulfilling relationship is what causes him to still rely on porn to meet some nebulous emotional need. This is where his obsession with porn comes from, and it’s an obsession that can easily be cured if he lets himself be vulnerable in a real relationship.
Not so easily fixed is the addiction in ‘Thanks For Sharing’, a drama, as opposed to the comedy of ‘Don Jon’, about true sexual addiction, helped but never cured by group therapy sessions in the style of Alcoholics Anonymous. Mark Ruffalo plays Adam, who when we meet him is 5 years sober – from sex, masturbation, porn, and all kinds of other things he needs to keep himself from. He knows the tricks behind staying clean by now, and he teaches new members like the always good and hilarious Josh Gad. When he travels, he has the TV removed from his room. He never takes the subway, as it’s full of unknown obstacles.
Despite his regimen of control, Adam meets and falls for Gwyneth Paltrow’s Phoebe, bringing up a new slew of issues for him to deal with. On their first date, Phoebe says she used to date an alcoholic, and asks Adam, “You’re not an addict, right?” to which Adam responds, “I am not an alcoholic.” It’s a tricky conversation to have so early, but you know that this untruth is going to come back to bite him in the ass. But how does a person tell someone he barely knows that he has this incredibly stigmatized and misunderstood kind of addiction?
Like Scarlett’s Barbara, Phoebe is not very likeable, not very accepting of Adam, whose judgment, like Jon’s, is probably clouded by Phoebe’s looks. Consumed by the effort to make his addiction less of a problem, Adam even overlooks hints of Phoebe’s own serious behavioral issues. Unlike Don Jon, Adam learns that the best thing to control his addiction is not an eye-opening and paradigm-shifting relationship, but the community provided by his mentor and other addicts in the group. Along with Josh Gad, a standout in this group is, actually, Pink, in a good, energetic, and amiable performance. The blossoming friendship between Gad and Pink becomes the most interesting relationship in the movie, and it proves that you need to have a solid support system to get through any hardship.
This seems to be the message of ‘Thanks For Sharing’, that a person needs the help and camaraderie of friends and loved ones in order to overcome serious problems. In contrast, ‘Don Jon’ seems to say that, like in romantic comedies, sometimes things can be solved by one lovely, caring person. Both messages are valid, since they are dealing with discrete kinds of problems, but it’s interesting to note the difference.
If you can only see one film that shows copious amounts of porn, make it ‘Don Jon’. While ‘Thanks For Sharing’ is well done and helps convey the severity of this often-mocked addiction, ‘Don Jon’ is fun, funny, and an incredibly well-edited triumph from Joey Gordon-Levitt. Also, there’s nothing better than seeing Joey driving while singing aloud to ‘Good Vibrations’ (the Marky Mark version, not the Beach Boys).
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Six the Musical: Divorced! Beheaded! Live! And Here to Save British Musical Theatre
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is the new musical Six, playing at London’s Arts Theatre.
Longtime Laughfrodisiac readers (or people who have spoken to me in real life for more than five minutes) have heard me bitch and moan about the sorry state of British musical theatre before, and often. The only great shows for literally decades came courtesy of Andrew Lloyd Webber (and he wasn’t immune to some straight-up horseshit), and a random few from Elton John (Billy Elliot) and Tim Minchin (Matilda). Matilda premiered in 2010, so that’s almost a decade without a great new British musical. And people wonder why I always say musical theatre is better on Broadway. While that’s still true, finally, forking g-d FINALLY, a new, original, fantastic musical written by Brits has arrived. It seems what the world of British musicals needed wasn’t another old white man (honestly when has that ever been the answer), but two young Cambridge students ready to make their mark before even graduating (I know, I hate them too). Six the Musical is a girl-power retelling of the stories of Henry VIII’s six wives, a concert-style show that is fast and furious in its remarkable ability to share history through modern pop music that is funny, inspired, and absurdly catchy.
From just the tagline – “Divorced, Beheaded, Live!” playing on the famous rhyme for remembering how the wives died – I knew this was going to be fun, but I was not ready to be blown away by the brilliant music. The six wives, onstage with their all-female band, are outfitted in the coolest of costumes, a shiny modern slant on medieval garb, kind of like it’s Halloween and they decided on ‘sexy Tudor.’ They’ve gathered now to have a sort of contest, to see which of them suffered the most and ‘wins’ that dubious title of most unfortunate of the six wives, kind of like how Monica won the title of giving the best bad massages. As soon as they begin singing “Welcome to the show, to the histor-remix” I was like OH DIP (because I speak like Jason Mendoza as a rule now), WORDPLAY, this is going to be spectacular. And from that opening number, “Ex-Wives”, I was enthralled and honestly elated at how good the music was.
From the opening onward, the lyrics are clever and the music is fun and memorable. Throughout all of it, there are amazing nerdy history jokes peppered in, which, as nerds, we adored, and straight up historical lessons on things we never knew. Since English people are super nerdy about knowing and loving their history (would be cool, America!), there’s an immediate sense that everyone is sharing inside jokes, which is a surefire way to solidify audience engagement and enjoyment, and guarantee positive word of mouth. In fact, this is the first show in a while where the audience was so engaged that there wasn’t much extraneous chatter or phone use, which is a g-d miracle.
Pretty much every musical number – and since it is a concert-style show, it’s a series of musical numbers with limited dialogue in between – delivers, with the badass energy of “Ex-Wives” continuing into the first solo, Catherine of Aragon’s (Jarneia Richard-Noel) “No Way”, about how she was not about to give this jackass the annulment he wanted. “No Way” is one of the catchier songs, one I could see being played on the radio (it’s even on my running playlist). It is a forking great time and Richard-Noel has a blast with it. The girl-power vibe remains into the second wife’s solo, but in a much different way. If you know your history, you know that second wife is the most famous one, Anne Boleyn. Where Catherine #1 had self-assurance, Anne goes for cheeky and trades in on innocent-seeming adorableness to gloss over anything she may have done wrong in the funny “Don’t Lose UR Head”. Definitely the millennial character of the bunch, Boleyn (Millie O’Connell) sings how she’s “sorry not sorry bout what I said…I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, lol.” It’s a bold move to show Boleyn as a naughty young girl trying to make her actions seem cute, and I liked that even though she’s the most famous wife, she doesn’t get the most attention or development. We have more interesting wives to learn about.
Like Wife #3, Jane Seymour, or as the other wives mock her, “the only one he really loved.” To have a needed break from all the loud fast songs so far, Jane gets the slow Adele-like power ballad about her “Heart of Stone”. Natalie Paris does a fantastic job with this well-placed song and gets to really show off, while selling a convincing and honestly heartbreaking take on why she wasn’t lucky just because Henry loved her. I love that this show makes you reconsider all of your assumptions about these women. Like Wife #4, Anna of Cleves. First of all, I always thought it was Anne. Second of all, obviously liberties were taken, but I adore thinking of her as having made out like a g-d bandit after Henry divorced her. In her hilarious song, “Get Down”, Anna (a great Alexia McIntosh) says since Henry divorced her rather quickly because she wasn’t actually as hot as she looked in her profile pic (erm, oil painting), she put up with a few months of his crap until he divorced her and then she got to live like a queen for the rest of her life. Not a bad deal at all, she admits, taking herself out of the competition with her proud acknowledgement that her life post-Henry was theeee shit. And nothing is funnier and more perfect than the group number introducing Anna – “Haus Of Holbein”. In it, we learn how Henry turned to Germany for his next wife, and what better way to tell us than in a spot-on spoof of a German club anthem, absolutely hysterical and perfect.
Of course, Anna was the lucky one, and after he divorced her he was right back to treating his wives horribly. Next came Katherine Howard, my favorite of the bunch, with her incredible number “All You Wanna Do”, which has her channeling Ariana Grande while bragging about her promiscuous past in the beginning and then turning it into a devastating post-mortem on how her whole life was about being used and abused by men. Aimee Atkinson, with this show since the beginning, was the standout for me, and in one song she achieved the kind of character development most shows dream about. It doesn’t hurt that this song has some of the cleverest lyrics, and the greatest use of the phrase ‘birds and the bees’ maybe ever.
With all these truly amazing songs, it was inevitable that there would be a slight dip in quality, and that happened when we got to the sixth wife, Catherine Parr (Courtney Stapleton, on as alternate). She didn’t get to really shine as the others did, because her song is the weakest. It also ends abruptly as she decides to change their focus, so it’s not as crucial to have strengthened since it segues into a group number. And that group number is pretty moving, as the wives decide to change their perspective, and ours. Maybe instead of regarding them as being famous just because they were married to Henry, they say, maybe we should consider that hewas only famous because he was married to them. Whenever you have a show that sets out to be ‘girl-power’, it runs the risk of pandering for applause, and while they came close to that line, the way they presented this discussion saved it.
The downsides are few: For one, the sound in the Arts Theatre isn’t great. It’s a tiny almost-black box of a theatre, with acoustics that do not measure up to what a West End theatre should have. It was often hard to make out the extraordinarily clever lyrics, which is a shame, because they are extraordinarily clever. Whether it was solely due to the sound engineering or a mix of sound issues plus enunciation needs, I don’t know, but it would be wise to shore up the clarity on either front. My only other issue is that, because it is so strong, it’s a shame it’s not a full-fledged book musical. With equal focus on six different characters, you’d think they would have had trouble cutting it to a suitable length for modern audience’s attention spans. Instead, it presents the opposite situation, with an adoring audience eager for more. At 75 minutes, it’s great that it never overstays its welcome – always leave them wanting more, I guess – but it could easily take another 15 minutes, flesh out a few of the more superficial characters, and still be a breezy show. But I guess it’s best to count our lucky stars that there is nary a weak moment in this show, and that the audience was fully rapt (and off their phones, praise be) the whole time, so who am I to dare risk all that magic? Six is a joyous, provocative, inspired show and I will gladly see it again and again, which is something I have never said about a British musical.
INFORMATION
The Arts Theatre is tiny, so it is a madhouse in the lobby. The bathrooms are tiny so get in line early. This is one show where it’s fun to be super close.
“Pippin” On Broadway Does More Than Magic
If your first introduction to the classic musical “Pippin” was a high school production, as mine was, then you probably have no desire to see it again. I know that’s how most people who saw our subpar production felt, and it’s also how I felt for a while, before I listened to the recording and learned what a spellbinding and deep show this is. If you haven’t had your opinion changed yet, man alive you need to high-step it to Broadway ASAP and get your mind blown. Because the current revival of the Stephen Schwartz/Bob Fosse is truly producing magic far beyond what I could have hoped for. With Diane Paulus’s concise direction and inspired reimagination in a circus setting, the show is more enjoyable and more entertaining than ever.
“Pippin” is a weird show. Let’s just get that out right off the bat. Honestly, when I was IN it I had no idea what was happening. The show follows the post-academic trials and tribulations of the main character, Pippin (played by the adorable Matthew James Thomas), as he tries to find fulfillment upon entering the real world. That’s totally the shared human experience in the first world, right? Well, Pippin is also the son and heir of King Charlemagne. Yeah, it’s like the Middle Ages and these two characters are based on real people (at least in name). But historical accuracy is thankfully tossed aside. Our hero is led by the Leading Player (Tony-winner Patina Miller all Fosseed up) of a troupe through various shenanigans, both trifling and tragic, in his quest for happiness.
“Pippin” is a weird show. Let’s just get that out right off the bat. Honestly, when I was IN it I had no idea what was happening. The show follows the post-academic trials and tribulations of the main character, Pippin (played by the adorable Matthew James Thomas), as he tries to find fulfillment upon entering the real world. That’s totally the shared human experience in the first world, right? Well, Pippin is also the son and heir of King Charlemagne. Yeah, it’s like the Middle Ages and these two characters are based on real people (at least in name). But historical accuracy is thankfully tossed aside. Our hero is led by the Leading Player (Tony-winner Patina Miller all Fosseed up) of a troupe through various shenanigans, both trifling and tragic, in his quest for happiness.
As a high school student, I didn’t really give the plot much thought; I was too busy trying not to forget blocking and make a fool of myself. But the Broadway production clarifies all of the issues that we kind of glossed over. The troupe of players finally makes sense, because Pippin is an actor in the show as well, a member of the circus troupe presenting the story of Pippin for its audience. We learn in the beginning of the show that the actor playing the character Pippin in the production-within-the-show is playing the role for the very first time, allowing for some humorous and telling missteps and changes throughout the show. He has some trouble remembering cues and, more importantly, some trouble following the demands of the increasingly scary Leading Player. To help Pipster find his calling, she leads him to war, to sex, to murder, to the throne, and to a simple country life with a fine woman (Catherine, played by Rachel Bay Jones), which his script says he’s supposed to leave in order to achieve one final, blazing moment of glory, a suicidal idealization that the disturbing Leading Player and her minions crave. But the actress playing Catherine has trouble following the script as well, and the two actors thwart their troupe in favor of a semblance of happiness together. It’s a remarkably complex book that I never fully appreciated until this production.
Matthew James Thomas, Pippin
Matthew James Thomas is a lovely Pippin, and Patina Miller – fantastic, charming and yet totally frightening – is sensational as the Leading Player. But the supporting players steal every scene. Terrance Mann as Charlemagne is a riot, landing more jokes that a normal person would find within his lines and evoking the proper balance between powerful monster and witless kook. Mann’s real-life wife, Charlotte d’Amboise, plays Charlemagne’s conniving, evil wife Fastrada, determined to make her son Lewis the next king, even if it means manipulating her husband and her stepson (Pippin) into terrible deeds, including murder. Fastrada also has the most unbelievable costume changes I’ve seen since “Cinderella”, accomplished literally in seconds with no possible explanation (magic).
As Pippin’s hilariously inappropriate grandmother Berthe, Tovah Feldshuh gets tons of laughs, gasps, and people to sing along with her. I saw one of her first performances after taking over the role from Andrea Martin. She was wonderful, but I can’t help regretting that I didn’t see the much more vivacious comic Martin in her Tony-winning turn. Though Berthe’s onstage time is short, it’s an incredibly physically demanding role (in this high-flying production), especially for an older person, so Martin’s short stint is understood. And Feldshuh’s take is very impressive, especially her trapeze skills. You won’t believe what she is capable of at age 63, and it will probably make you feel bad about your inferior biceps.
As Pippin’s hilariously inappropriate grandmother Berthe, Tovah Feldshuh gets tons of laughs, gasps, and people to sing along with her. I saw one of her first performances after taking over the role from Andrea Martin. She was wonderful, but I can’t help regretting that I didn’t see the much more vivacious comic Martin in her Tony-winning turn. Though Berthe’s onstage time is short, it’s an incredibly physically demanding role (in this high-flying production), especially for an older person, so Martin’s short stint is understood. And Feldshuh’s take is very impressive, especially her trapeze skills. You won’t believe what she is capable of at age 63, and it will probably make you feel bad about your inferior biceps.
Rachel Bay Jones
But my favorite supporting player by far was Rachel Bay Jones as Catherine. This is usually such a thankless role, but she brought it to new life with exceedingly smart timing, varied but meaningful voices, and a heightened clarity with which she and Patina, as her character’s director, make their disagreements about the script known. She deepened Catherine into a complex player rather than the humdrum, nice lady usually seen. And she absolutely killllled every line. She was hysterical. I really was in shock at how funny she made the role, and how heartbreaking at the same time. I want to see it again primarily because of her.
Well, I also want to see it again in large part because of the acrobatics. They are ASTOUNDING. Coming to Broadway mostly from the French acrobatic troupe Les 7 Doigts De La Main, the acrobats in the ensemble are constantly performing the most incredible gymnastic acts left and right that will leave you breathless. I gasped several times, and the woman next to me often exclaimed “No!! Ahh!!” as she watched them do what human bodies should not be able to do. They are truly magical.
Speaking of magic, there’s a reason the opening number is called “Magic To Do”. Crazy illusions (not tricks; tricks are something whores do for money) pepper the entire show, from two-second costume changes to a magic box that several characters somehow emerge from to an Act I wonder involving Charlemagne’s body that I still cannot stop wondering about. How on earth did they accomplish these feats?!
“Pippin” in its current incarnation is one of the most magical productions I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen everything). The excellent score by Stephen Schwartz is sung to perfection. I only had a few issues with this show. Firstly, in the chorus of “Glory”, the ensemble sings “Shout it out, from the highest tower, shout it out, in the darkest hour”…but they whisper it most of the time! It’s like reading the word of a color in a different color. Like YELLOW. See? It messes with your mind! Shout it out! Also, for some reason “War is a Science”, Charlemagne’s big number, wasn’t as much fun as it should have been. Despite the increasingly fast pace (to the point where it’s so fast you can’t understand the words), it didn’t feel nearly as boisterous as it should have.
Honestly, those are the only gripes I had with this production. It was incredible, and if you have the chance to see it, SEE IT. And take me, because I need to see it as many times as possible. It’s that good.
Well, I also want to see it again in large part because of the acrobatics. They are ASTOUNDING. Coming to Broadway mostly from the French acrobatic troupe Les 7 Doigts De La Main, the acrobats in the ensemble are constantly performing the most incredible gymnastic acts left and right that will leave you breathless. I gasped several times, and the woman next to me often exclaimed “No!! Ahh!!” as she watched them do what human bodies should not be able to do. They are truly magical.
Speaking of magic, there’s a reason the opening number is called “Magic To Do”. Crazy illusions (not tricks; tricks are something whores do for money) pepper the entire show, from two-second costume changes to a magic box that several characters somehow emerge from to an Act I wonder involving Charlemagne’s body that I still cannot stop wondering about. How on earth did they accomplish these feats?!
“Pippin” in its current incarnation is one of the most magical productions I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen everything). The excellent score by Stephen Schwartz is sung to perfection. I only had a few issues with this show. Firstly, in the chorus of “Glory”, the ensemble sings “Shout it out, from the highest tower, shout it out, in the darkest hour”…but they whisper it most of the time! It’s like reading the word of a color in a different color. Like YELLOW. See? It messes with your mind! Shout it out! Also, for some reason “War is a Science”, Charlemagne’s big number, wasn’t as much fun as it should have been. Despite the increasingly fast pace (to the point where it’s so fast you can’t understand the words), it didn’t feel nearly as boisterous as it should have.
Honestly, those are the only gripes I had with this production. It was incredible, and if you have the chance to see it, SEE IT. And take me, because I need to see it as many times as possible. It’s that good.
