The Best Wedding Ever, slash How to Plan a Vegan Wedding in Less Than Two Monthsby Randi / August 15, 2015Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” Is So Much Better Than All The Hype You Can’t Even Begin to Fathom
I know that’s a bold headline but it’s true. If you don’t live under a rock and/or you go outside every once in a while and talk to people, then you know that “Hamilton” is the biggest and bestest thing in pop culture right now. It’s a new hip-hop musical about the founding fathers and the beginning of America, and it’s the most brilliant freaking thing I have ever freaking encountered in my entire freaking life. I mean brilliant in both the U.S. and U.K. ways, guys. And unlike every other time I’ve said something as hyperbolic as this, I’m not exaggerating.
While yes, it is about first treasury secretary and master scribe Alexander Hamilton (durr…sir), the best thing (okay one of the many best things) about writer/creator/genius* Lin-Manuel Miranda is that his shows are true ensemble pieces. It’s just as much about Aaron Burr as it is about Hamilton – especially because Burr is the wisely made the narrator. It’s just as much about Thomas Jefferson as it is about George Washington. We learn more about John Laurens and Hercules Mulligan than any history textbook has ever bothered to impart. Everyone now knows that Eliza Hamilton founded the first orphanage in NYC and spent her later years as a remarkable philanthropist. And don’t get me started on Marquis de Lafayette. LAFAYETTE! We effectively and efficiently learn so much information about all these people and more in a (relatively) short amount of time because Lin grew up doing school theatre, where the best shows have lots of great parts for all your friends. Thus, all his shows have lots of amazing parts for men and women, not just one lead and a lot of chorus roles. Yay school theatre! GENIUS*.
People who didn’t know any better doubted its brilliance at first hearing about it and were like, “Why are you using rap and hip-hop to do a musical about the founding fathers?” and “Why are you using black and Latino actors to play the very white Washington and Jefferson and Madison &c?” Answers: because it makes so much sense. As to the latter, Lin has repeatedly explained that this story of how America was in the beginning is being told (and should be told) by how America looks now. It’s a story about the immigrants that founded our country so why not tell it with today’s immigrants (or at least those that Trump would assume were immigrants). Also, it adds a lot of depth to have unrepentant slavers like Thomas Jefferson portrayed by black actors, while other black and Latino actors argue that, in the words of John Laurens, none of them will be free until they end slavery. This clever casting also has King George of England, the universally accepted villain early on, played by a white actor, the only white actor in a named part, turning the too common trope of a villain being dark-skinned on its head. (That kind of shit is over, right? No more Jafar movies?). As king, Jonathan Groff also comes across the youngest onstage, adding to the idea that he has no hold over these men. Groff’s brief scenes are played as a silly foppish fancy man and it’s hilarious; he has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand before he figuratively slaps them across the face with it.
As for the music, hip-hop (inclusive of rap) is the most purely American type of music, our lingua franca. (Well, for a large portion of our country. And it tells stories and represents problems and current issues better than any other.) Hip-hop tells stories just like Hamilton’s and those of all the founding fathers, really. Alexander was orphaned young on a small island and worked his way out by reading and writing and becoming brilliant, scrappily fighting his way to the top of a new nation and its government. So hip hop. It also makes perfect sense to frame a Cabinet debate as a rap battle – both have lots of words and passion and the winner might not have the best argument (unless it’s Hamilton arguing because he usually does) but they definitely looked or sounded the best.
That’s all really interesting and thought-provoking, but why is everyone from Busta Rhymes to President Obama to Meryl Streep losing their shit over this show, you might wonder? Even with the inspired casting and genre choices, how can it be repeatedly called the greatest piece of theatre in modern history (and possibly the greatest rap album of the year as well)? This is because every detail, every single word is meticulously chosen and in a short burst of perfectly metered rap you can learn more than an entire year’s worth of school history. I have almost the entire score memorized and even so, every listen brings a new revelation and lesson about early American history. That’s why it’s genius. The sold-out audiences every night are actually learning, about the revolution, the struggle to form a stable nation, as well as how all of those lessons apply to modern political times.
One such brilliant bit comes courtesy of Hercules Mulligan (Okieriete Onaodowan), who has my favorite delivery of any character and is inspired by and supposed to remind you of Busta Rhymes. In “My Shot” he says:
Yo, I’m a tailor’s apprentice
And I got y’all knuckleheads in loco parentis
I’m joining the rebellion cuz I know it’s my chance
To socially advance instead of sewin’ some pants
This verse, while amazing and adorable (Hercules’s insider-tailor jokes never disappoint), sneaks in a history lesson: Hamilton actually lived in Mulligan’s house while Ham attended King’s College (Columbia) because the school required him to have lodging with some sort of guardian. So Mulligan really ended up acting in loco parentis. This is like a NOTHING line compared with the rest of the show and look how much we’re learning.
One more. In the song “Right Hand Man”, when we first meet George Washington (in a scene that will guaranteed make you feel patriotic, no matter if you aren’t American), Washington sings:
Boom! goes the cannon, watch the blood and the shit spray, and
Boom! goes the cannon, we’re abandoning Kips Bay, and
Boom there’s another ship and
We just lost the southern tip and
We gotta run to Harlem quick
We can’t afford another slip
Guns and horses giddyup
I decide to divvy up
My forces, they’re skittish as the British cut the city up
This close to giving up, facing mad scrutiny,
I scream in the face of this mass mutiny:
Are these the men with which I am to defend America?
These lines come from “Right Hand Man”, chronicling the 1776 Landing of Kips Bay, when thousands of British soldiers forced American militia back from lower Manhattan and allowed more British ships and troops to enter Manhattan unopposed, starting British occupation of Manhattan for pretty much the entirety of the war. Most of Washington’s men fled quickly despite his frustrated attempts to keep them from retreating. Washington and the continental army had to flee all the way to Harlem Heights to get out of what became British occupied territory. That last line is an actual quote Washington shouted when he realized what was happening and was like ‘are you shitting me guys.’ And it just blends perfectly into the rhyme. For those enjoying the cast album, the record scratches on ‘guns and horses giddyup’ are meant to – and successfully do – resemble a horse neighing AND kind of sound like a car engine starting.
With almost every line as full as these, the show is an effective history lesson. But more importantly, every song is actually great. The melodies produced here are as perfectly constructed and impressive as the lyrics. Some of the best songs produced in recent times are in this show, many sung by our narrator, Aaron Burr. Instead of being cast aside as the villain who shot and killed a guy who was sort of important but never president – pretty much how you learn about them in school – Burr is seen as regretful, for years and years falling behind Hamilton’s rapid ascent to political and public glory despite his best efforts to match or best him. Comparisons of the two men start early on, with both orphaned political and military upstarts becoming involved in the revolution and government, but with Hamilton always loudly speaking exactly what he believed and with Burr always thinking it’s better to stay reserved so as not to ruffle any feathers. Burr repeatedly tells Hamilton to talk less, and warns that fools who run their mouths off wind up dead, while Hamilton admonishes “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what’ll you fall for?” They’re each other’s most honest judge of character.
Burr as narrator begins the show laying bare his regret at killing his one-time friend and often-times colleague, and at the end laments how history will remember him and how mistaken he was. Yet through Leslie Odom Jr.’s off-the-charts fantastic portrayal of Burr, sir, this show gives us a chance to see Burr as much more than a dull 2D figure in a history book. The complexities to his character never stop astonishing, and while the same can be said for Hamilton, it’s Burr trajectory and choices that are much more interesting and that haunt you for a long time after seeing it played out on stage.
Somehow, Lin wrote every character in this show just as captivatingly as he did Burr and Hamilton. Much of this comes to life courtesy of Daveed Diggs, a magical actor and rapper who plays my man Lafayette in the first act as the most fun Frenchman EVER, and Thomas Jefferson in the second act, as a pedantic fancypants (literally, velvet pants) pro-slavery anti-federalism asshat. I’m not sure which portrayal is more impressive, but his Jefferson – all pretty accurate too – will make you rethink why we consider this guy a hero. Especially in his Cabinet Battles with Hamilton, you’ll be like, get this dude out of my country’s founding yo. In the first Battle, he argues for states rights against Hamilton’s promotion of a federal government and, mainly, financial system. When Thomas asks why should Virginia, thriving with no debt, be responsible to pay for the flailing NYC’s debts, Hamilton answers, “Your debts are paid cuz you don’t pay for labor.” BURN. Hashtag endslavery. I want Leslie Odom Jr. to win a Tony for Best Actor very, very badly, but I want Daveed to win for Featured Actor just as badly.
My main man Okieriete “Oak” Onaodowan kills it KILLS IT as Hercules Mulligan (BRAHH BRAHH), a man I thought was a made-up half-mythical creature half-golf pro character or something, but no. He was really a hero in the revolution, a tailor (a great one at that, husband!) who had fancy British military clients in New York and spied on them and passed the information to the rebels. We learn about his secret dealings in my FAVORITE rap part of Act 1, when he sings insanely rapidly: “I take their measurements, information, and then I smuggle it up/to my brothers’ revolutionary covenant/I’m running with the Sons of Liberty and I am LOVIN it.” He spits this line so fast it just sounds like one word and it’s my favorite thing. Oak Smash! He also has the unstoppable line “Hercules Mulligan, I need no introduction/when you knock me down I get the fuck back up again”. OMG I LOVE IT. In Act II, he plays a mostly ill James Madison, ill in the health sense and ill for being Jefferson’s buddy. See I am so hip-hop too. Oak also was the first celebrity to eat my vegan cookies so hayyyy. Anthony Ramos somehow portrays John Laurens perfectly in Act I and then plays a 9-year-old in Act II (Hamilton’s son Phillip). It’s a pretty remarkable transformation, and his scenes in Act II will crush your heart like they do in “Once Upon A Time”. Side note, how beautiful is “It’s Quiet Uptown”? That will also crush you.
One of the most genius* aspects of “Hamilton” is that Lin injected some incredible female characters into the history of America’s founding, and not merely Betsy Ross (though she does get a quick mention). Ham married Elizabeth Schuyler, a wealthy gal from a very important family. He also had an emotional affair with her older sister Angelica. Lin turns these two characters, plus their younger sister Peggy, into a colonial Destiny’s Child, spouting rhymes about feminism and revolution and all-around awesomeness. While Eliza is the lovely, sweet, trusting and kind one who gets the most beautiful ballads, Angelica is the tough, witty, and super-intelligent one that is the only match for Ham’s wits. When we first meet the sisters in the appropriately named “The Schuyler Sisters”, a legit Destiny’s Child tune, Angelica sings:
“I’ve been reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine”
So men say that I’m intense or I’m insane.
You want a revolution? I want a revelation,
So listen to my declaration:
We hold these truths to be self evident
That all men are created equal.
And when I meet Thomas Jefferson?
I’ma compel him to include women in the sequel!
WERK!”
The repeated shouts of “work/werk” are amazing, as is everything that comes out of Renee Elise Goldsberry’s mouth. As Angelica, she makes a supporting female character the most charismatic and compelling on stage, and she sings and raps with the best of them. As Eliza, Phillippa Soo is lovely and lovable and you just want her to smile but life was hard back then and Ham messes up a lot. As Peggy, Jasmine Cephas Jones has literally one line and is so unimportant that in Act II she plays a different character. Werk?
Eliza and Angelica’s one-two punch of “Helpless”, when Eliza meets and falls in love (and married) Ham, into “Satisfied”, when Angelica rewinds the scene (literally…one of the most incredible technical scenes I’ve ever seen) to give her perspective of that fateful night, efficient develops these two important characters in such a relatively short time and in such a remarkable way. We learn so, so much in those two songs, and they are fantastic songs. Angelica’s rapping in “Satisfied” is some of the most impressive in the show, and they provide so much depth and insight into her mindset and her understanding of her duties to her family. It’s amazing.
I could go on and on. There is so much to this show, so much to the score, that people will be studying it for years, I’m sure. I know tons of school classes are already studying it, because Lin makes sure students and schools have access to see it. (Teachers have said that it’s a more effective teaching tool than their entire year of AP history. Good/bad?) It’ll teach you things you never knew about early American history and our founding fathers and it will change the way you think about them. The lessons the characters learn are applicable to today’s political atmosphere and even to our non-political lives; they are universal human struggles and desires set to sublime music. It’s exactly what a musical should be: it teachers, it challenges you, it uses vibrant and vital music to further a complex but easily understandable story, and it leaves you with so much to think about. SO MUCH. To find one or two of these songs in a regular piece of theatre would be remarkable; you’d be like that show is good and x or y is the best song in it. That’s normal. In “Hamilton”, EVERY song is like that. Almost any of the 40-odd movements would be the best part of any other regular show. And they are ALL in “Hamilton”. Now that is amazing.
A few pieces of musical reference Genius to share with you that aren’t spoilers just because I literally cannot stop talking or thinking about it and I’m sure we will be getting a regular thinkpiece on it every so often here:
When we first meet Marquis de Lafayette (called Lafayette throughout, none of that Gilbert nonsense), he introduces himself thusly:
Oui oui, mon ami, je m’appelle Lafayette,
The Lancelot of the revolutionary set
I came from afar just to say bon soir
Tell the king casse toi
Who’s the best? C’est moi
This verse is rapped so hilariously by Daveed Diggs in a thick French accent, but what makes it even better is knowing that one of Lin’s childhood musical influences was “Camelot”, which has a song called “C’est Moi”. What happens in “Camelot” during that song? Lancelot is introduced. I KNOW!!
In the aforementioned “Right Hand Man”, the chorus raps “Here comes the General!” and Washington spits a few lines and then says:
Now I’m the model of a modern major general
The venerated Virginian veteran whose men are all
Lining up, to put me up on a pedestal.
I’m sure you all know that Gilbert & Sullivan’s famous “Pirates of Penzance” has a very famous song called “Modern Major-General”, which begins:
“I am the very model of a modern Major-General
I’ve information animal, vegetable, and mineral.”
Lin said he knew he could come up with a better rhyme than ‘mineral.’
Another GENIUS move in “My Shot” comes after John Laurens, one of the first and best fighters against slavery, raps about how despite their being in the middle of the Revolution, they’ll never be free until slavery is over. Aaron Burr replies:
I’m with you, but the situation is fraught
You’ve got to be carefully taught:
If you talk, you’re gonna get shot.
So, obviously, “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” is the title of the great song in “South Pacific”. Aaand, it’s about teaching kids racism while they’re young. While this line has Burr tell the others not to be so upfront with their views, it’s ALSO responding to the verse Laurens says about slavery and thus racism with the title of a song about racism. Erma.
And finally, a few references (out of many more, I’m sure) to Lin’s first big hit, “In The Heights”. The best song from that show is “96,000”, about what all the different characters would hypothetically do with lottery winnings that big.
In “Hamilton”, in the opening of “Right Hand Man”, the ensemble quietly sings “32,000 troops in New York Harbor.” And you know what? They sing that line exactly three times. 32,000 x 3 = 96,000. (Dollahs? Hollah.) whoa.
In “My Shot”, when detailing all the reasons for the Revolution, Hamilton raps:
We are meant to be a colony
That runs independently
Meanwhile, Britain keeps shittin’ on us endlessly
Essentially, they tax us relentlessly
Then King George turns around, runs a spending spree…
In the beginning of “96,000”, Benny (originally played by Chris Jackson, who plays George Washington in “Hamilton”), sings
“If I won the lotto tomorrow well I know
I wouldn’t bother going on no spending spree”
Erma.
Also, we learn at the end that Eliza founds the first orphanage in NYC (which is beautiful in so many ways, not least because her husband was an orphan). What we don’t learn in the show is that that she also founds the first school in Washington Heights. Lin decided not to include that piece of info because there’s no other way to say but in those exact words, “in Washington Heights”, and that’s just too on-the-nose for “In The Heights” famous lasting lines. But so interesting right! Just go see the show, go buy tickets for next summer (that’s like first available) or buy the album and listen to it all day and you will learn SO GODDAMN MUCH.
*I know I say genius a lot here but seriously, he won a MacArthur genius grant for this shiz. He is a genius.
Now do yourself a favor and listen to one of the best songs written in a decade, “Wait For It”, which beautifully explains why Burr acts as he does.
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“Follies” at London’s National Theatre: All the Middle-Aged Crises Plus Lots of Feathers and Sequins
Woot it’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s review is of the Sondheim classic “Follies”, playing at London’s National Theatre until January 3.
Every musical is supposed to teach you something or share some important life truth with you. At least that’s how I think about them. The lesson of “Follies” is that after you stop being a showgirl, life suuuuuucks and people suuuuuuck and you’ll never be happy again and you’ll just trudge through life counting time units in a deep dark depression. But with sequins! The new production of “Follies” at the National Theatre in London did what few productions of “Follies” are able to do: make me feel something besides boredom. Sure I felt a LOT of that – it’s not my favorite musical – but I also got EMOTIONAL. At SEVERAL points. Okay those of you who know me are probably saying to their screens ‘um you cry at car commercials tho’ and yes that’s true and valid but I don’t mean I cried, I mean like, I felt for these supremely unlikable characters instead of hoping that they all go to the bad place.
Right off the bat, let me share the very worst thing about this production. I saw the 2011 Broadway Revival of Follies (which I’m going to reference a lot because THAT CAST), and I don’t remember getting a kidney infection afterwards, so I’m going to guess that it was two acts with a 15 minute intermission LIKE NORMAL HUMANS DO. I have a great memory (with lists of the names of all who’ve wronged me) (just kidding) (am I?) so if I don’t remember being tortured, I assume an experience was nontorturous and that Broadway gave an intermission (New Yorkers drink their water). But this West End production apparently wants to render Brexit insignificant and stop anyone from wanting to enter the UK ever again because it HAS NO INTERMISSION BUT IT’S OVER TWO HOURS LONG I MEAN I CAN’T HOW YOU CAN POSSIBLY THINK THAT’S A GOOD IDEA.
You think I’m done yelling but my neighbors can tell you that’s simply not true.
So you may have gathered by now that there’s no intermission, despite other productions of the show being two acts, and though they say the run time is 2 hours 15 minutes, it was closer to 2 hours 25 minutes till I got to go to the bathroom again. But even so, two hours without intermission is usually unheard of! The average act is an hour anyway so like stick in an intermission ya jackwagons! If I could punch a show in the face, I would. I guess I could punch whoever’s idea this was (it would not have messed up the narrative at all) but I don’t like violence. Unless whoever’s idea this was also happened to vote for Brexit, then we can talk. with fists.
Okay, let’s get back to the show itself. “Follies” is the beloved tragic musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman from 1971, about a bunch of old people who reunite at the NYC ‘Ziegfeld Follies’-type theatre where they once danced in the skimpiest yet sparkliest costumes with lots and lots of feathers on their heads, to say goodbye before it’s torn down. It’s thus a lot of reminiscing and the interpersonal drama that comes from a lifetime of memories, whether they’re accurately remembered or fabricated by time. Sounds like it’s for the “Best Little Old Foreign Marigold Hotel” crowd or whatever it’s called minus whoever Dev Patel brings in, right? Right. Story: When we were about to leave for the theatre, it was suddenly wintry and I had to pull my winter coat out of storage – where it had been vacuum-packed with BOY coats which means it smelled like boys’ college dorm floors. I know, horrid. I worried that it would smell so bad for whoever I’d be sitting next to, and Husband said “don’t worry they’ll probably smell worse from overdosing perfume [get it we’re making fun of old biddies]; it’s that kind of show, right?” “Actually,” I said, “it might be from the people onstage too.” Get it because it’s not only a show that attracts older audiences, it’s also a show about and starring old ladies and they wear too much perfume. At least the very waspy ones do. We’re mean I know but you know what’s even worse? Wearing perfume.
Unclear why the show art features David Bowie
Now, going in, I knew that I don’t loooove this show, but it’s SONDHEIM. So I do love some of the music and what it achieves dramatically. “Too Many Mornings” is one of my all-times, probably because my mom always played the Mandy Patinkin version in the car when I was little and it was beyond. Actually it’s so good I want you to listen to it here while you read the rest of this (it starts with the song “Pleasant Little Kingdom” which was cut from the original production; “Too Many Mornings” as it’s used in the show now starts at about the 2:00 mark but you know what just listen to the whole thing it’s RG). And with a cast this stellar, I had to see what they did with it. That’s why we bought tickets – Sally in this production is played by Imelda Staunton, my favorite Shakespearean maid from the ‘90s and now all of a sudden Britain’s foremost musical theatre actress. Another London theatre ledge, Janie Dee, stars as the acerbic Phyllis, and another, Tracie Bennett (last seen on Broadway as Judy Garland) would have the supporting but often scene-stealing role of Carlotta, who sings the musical theatre standard “I’m Still Here”. Though there are plenty (too many) of other supporting characters who get their chance to shine (too many shines), it’s mainly about a quartet of people – Sally, frumpy, depressed, and heartsick over a former love; Phyllis, cold and hardened to the world by what her life became; Ben, all-important, famous, unfulfilled and self-hating; and Buddy, the kind of guy who tells really dumb jokes to strangers and then shakes their hand while saying ‘Buddy Plummer, glad to meet ya!’ or some shit like that. Like I said, I saw it on Broadway about six years ago, and that cast was stellar too – Ron Raines, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein (my fave), Jayne Houdyshell, Mary Beth Peil, and the biggest draw for most people, Bernadette Peters as Sally. The cast was superb, but despite the parts working well, I didn’t connect with the show as a whole back then. It left me cold, like something important was missing but is present now. Maybe it’s the direction (pretty flawless here), maybe it’s that the grasp of the intent of the material was undeniable, maybe it’s the fact that I had to pee the whole time so I was on high alert, but I connected this time. I still don’t love the show – it has some shitbits (not to be confused with Fitbits, which can also be shit) – but it worked so much better for me here.
But not for the first 20 minutes or so. The opening is still mind-numbingly slow, as all the former Weisman girls arrive and marvel at how the theatre has changed and aged along with them. The National Theatre’s enormous size helps here, because the old theatre set rotates so you’re like ooh ahh and all the gorgeous showgirls of yesteryear prance about in their feathers and jewels. So “Follies” famously has the young versions of its core quartet onstage with their modern-day counterparts, showing what their history encompassed and what their relationships were really like back in the day. It enhances what we know about these connections and makes it all even sadder when you see how happy they once were. The rest of the ensemble comprises the young ghosts for all the other ladies too, but less conspicuously. In fact, I don’t even remember that the other women had ghosts follow them around in past productions, but here they undeniably were, decked out in their former glittery costumes and headdresses and heels while observing what they’ve become. But it was hard to miss here because it works so well. Some of the tiniest moments, not even front and center, that arose from this were the most moving in the show. Like as each lady arrives, her younger-self-ghost (I mean it’s not a ghost it’s a memory…ghost) finds her and shadows her and stuff. The oldest lady sings her old operatic number from the show with the help of her younger self (whose voice is stronger and can hit the high notes still), which was a very nice touch although it was part of the really boring section that gives too much time to unnecessary characters. My favorite ensembleghost moment was right at the beginning when one heard her name realizing that her current self has arrived and she moves up through the crowd to start ghostin on her and sees that she is now dowdy and stout and her face FALLS. You weren’t even supposed to be looking at that actress playing the younger self of this minor character and it was everything, so I hope whoever is in that ensemble track gets a cookie or something. So good.
And then the characters we’ve been waiting for arrive and at an applause break (the only time it’s okay to make short whispers in a theatre) Husband said to me “is that Imelda?!” I thought he just couldn’t figure out which one she was because she’s sporting a superfrump makeover for this role but he later clarified that he didn’t know she was in the show at all. Dude that’s why we bought tickets! Anyway we meet Imelda’s Sally, who is so damaged that she made me super uncomfortable, in an appropriate way. She talks too fast and talks over herself somehow and is clearly not in a good state of mind and you just want to shake her and be like take a breeeeath. She married Buddy, her sweetheart (actually they call the boys who wait for the girls after the show their ‘stage door Jonny’ I am crying) from during her time in the theatre, who became some sort of overly friendly but kind of oily salesman while she raised their kids, kept house as they moved from place to place, and wasted lots of time thinking about her former love from the same time gasp Ben, who at the time was dating Sally’s bff Phyllis and now those two are married. I knowww. So Sally married Buddy but is still in love with Ben, Buddy has a long-time affair with a woman who loves him but he still loves his wife even though he doesn’t want to, Ben has affairs allatime and doesn’t know what he wants or who he loves because he hates himself (‘you cannot share real love until you love yourself’ –Rent), and Phyllis has lost all sense of joy because she hates Ben and hates what they have become and pretty much hates everything except super chic clothes and killer putdowns. Phyllis is the type of person that sharp-edged girls would be like ‘she’s my hero’ but she’s supes broken so like pick a different hero.
The whole first half hour or so is like a less fun version of the “Beautiful Girls” scene from “Singin’ in the Rain” which is the most useless thing ever, so you get that I was eager for it to end. Finally it gave way to some good music and some intrigue, as we learn the intricacies of their relationships, both in the past and present. And then Carlotta (Tracie Bennett) gives the best performance of the big song “I’m Still Here”, in which she shares how despite all the shit she’s endured throughout her long career she still clawed her way through and is, in fact, still here and still doing her thang and until I see something top her in the next few months I’m going to say that Tracie is going to win an Olivier for this. She was FLAAAAMES. I was so there with her. I LOVED how they changed up the usual staging of this number, from the usual plant-and-shout spotlight solo to having her begin seated, lounging, surrounded by seated ensemble members like she was a celebrity sharing stories with a group of adoring fans, and then having the ensemble disappear while she stood up and began to, well, plant and shout but it was amazeballs.
Carlotta’s fierce drive and determination to overcome whatever challenges she has faced in life contrasts with our main characters, who kind of flail about in misery and self-hatred. Especially Sally, who is really an extra sad sack in this one. She has a lot of lines about how she’s going to kill herself and how she’s going to die but for the first time I actually thought she might. Imelda is great as usual and made me feel sadder than ever for Sally – not because she can’t be with the man she loves (or thinks she loves or fondly remembers loving) but because she can’t snap out of it. Her duet of “Too Many Mornings” with Ben was not as enjoyable as I like it to be because her anxiety and discomfort made me uncomfortable, but that’s a valid choice. I didn’t like how she made some of the lines a little more comical than usual (her “I should have worn green” was like played for laughs but it’s sad!) but still she conveyed the necessary lovelorn damage. Ben shocked me, because I’m still not completely in on British theatre, so I didn’t know that the actor, Philip Quast, was kind of a big deal. Guys, he won the Olivier for best actor in a musical three times. How did I not know about him? And not only three times, but for the three BEST male roles in classic musical theatre – George Seurat, Javert, and Emil de Becque. I know. If I were a cop I would be asked to turn in my gun and badge right now. But yeah he was wonderful, in strong booming voice, as all Bens should be, that hides that he’s falling apart inside.
Peter Forbes’s Buddy was very good, but I am partial to Danny Burstein in all ways and I think his Buddy just can’t be beat – it made you feel for him in more complex ways than just ‘oh he’s funny and cheerful but also an ass but we still want him to be happy.” He made Buddy so real and damaged and lovable too, and while I didn’t wish Peter’s Buddy harm, I didn’t really care about him. Husband thought he was great so I think I’m just biased. Janie Dee’s Phyllis was perfection, dropping one liners like Obama drops mics. Even though she didn’t seem to be in good voice (a lot of breaking at times when it wouldn’t be an acting choice), her “Could I Leave You” was, again, flames. It’s a difficult song, as she’s pretty much sarcastically shouting to Ben, making it seem like she couldn’t leave him and their wonderful life but it’s sarcastic and it’s hard to sing sarcasm! But it was incredible.
Even harder to do is Phyllis’s “The Story of Lucy and Jessie”, but that’s because it’s kind of annoying and the lyrics are amateur for Sondheim. It’s a thinly veiled tale of how Phyllis and Sally always wanted what the other had and were jealous of each other but it has lyrics like ‘Lucy is juicy and Jessie is dressy’ erma gerd I feel like he wrote these lyrics on a dare and was like ‘watch they’ll still say it’s all genius!’ This song comes in the “Loveland” section of the show, which is always tricky. In Loveland, each of the four mains are forced to deal with what’s plaguing them in a follies (like vaudeville) performance. Phyllis’s, as above, is usually my least favorite and once you get the general concept of her song, they try to distract you with a big dance number. Janie did a great job dancing her ass off but I still feel blah about it. Buddy’s folly was better, in which he explains in a super cheerful clownish manner how he has “those god-why-don’t-you-love-me-oh-you-do-I’ll-see-you-later blues”. The lyrics in this one are so clever and they present Buddy’s issues clearly, but after the first so-clever verse you’re like okay I get it, he wants what he can’t have and when he gets it he doesn’t want it. Ben’s and Sally’s follies won the show for me, though. Sally sings the famous “Losing My Mind” and Imelda put to bed all those haters who say that she’s not really so much of a singer. Her beautiful, heartbreaking rendition was what made me think to myself okay this is overall a great production. And Ben continued to surprise me with his “Live, Laugh, Love”, which was so perfectly done that his spiral and forgetting of the lyrics seemed real. The first break, I think a lot of the audience just thought he forgot the words and got frustrated (Husband did). That’s incredible! Ugh so good. I hate the whole Loveland conceit in theory but it’s always good once it gets started, especially if the actors follow through like these did.
Will you leave the theatre joyous and uplifted after seeing this production (any production) of “Follies”? Fuck no. It’s pretty much saying ‘you’ll never be as happy as you were in your youth and everything is terrible and then you’re old and you missed your chance.’ So not exactly a feel-good show. But this pretty flawless production will make you consider all the existential troubles of life that any good drama should leave you frantically worrying about. Plus sooo many feathers.
INFO
The Olivier Theatre at the National is a freaking barn so there’s really no bad seat. It’s so big that you can see no matter what. There are toilets in the hallways after your ticket is checked so that’s better than some of the theatres in this complex. There were several signs that any bags bigger than like a sheet of computer paper would have to be checked so I took my coat off and held it over my bag so no one would see and I wouldn’t have to comply with that noise. I like rules and regulations but not when they exist for no good reason.
STAGE DOOR
Didn’t for several reasons – this complex is super confusing and it’s never worth it, and after seeing how mean these old ledges can be to each other I didn’t want them to yell at me for taking up their time ah so scary.
Strong London Transfer of Sorkin’s To Kill A Mockingbird
It’s Theatre Thursday! Opening night of this production is tonight! I saw it a few weeks ago so here we are! Have fun tonight to everyone who didn’t get into fights with people that rhyme with Belfont Crackintosh and get blacklisted from press lists!
What a treat for London! Aaron Sorkin’s very-Aaron-Sorkin adaptation of the classic Harper Lee novel To Kill A Mockingbird has successfully made the jump from Broadway to add some heavy heavy drama, depth, and intelligence to current West End offerings. With the familiar portrayal of the novel’s events, some great performances, and subtle improvements on the source material, this production is a must. And I’m not just saying that because I got to stand next to my fave male theatre director OF ALL TIME, Bartlett Sher, for a few minutes as he tweaked his work. (“T-W-E-A-K tweaking. It sounds like…he’s…married. Married 3 kids.”)
As an American, my DNA comprises the book To Kill A Mockingbird like it does peanut butter and apple pie (not together ew gross! wait, actually… (I truly just made the two faces of that girl in the gif, you know the one)). I assumed that British folk did not have to read the book in their version of middle school as commonly as we did (every single American schoolchild reads it) and according to some of my British friends that is correct, since they didn’t have to. The draw, then, to this show and the cultural importance of it might not be as compelling as it was in NYC. But hopefully it still makes its mark.
TKAM tells the story, as you know (unless you’re a British schoolchild), of nice-man lawyer Atticus Finch, his children Scout (tough girl!) and Jem (boy of middling toughness!), their new friend Dill (based on Truman Capote!), and the Alabama town they live in and all its eek-face-making goings-on. Atticus is tasked to represent a black man accused of raping a young white girl, Atticus being one of the few non-super-racist whites of the town and thus the accused’s only chance at justice. Even though everyone and their dog knows the man, Tom Robinson, is innocent, the politics of the town and time mean that getting justice for the man will be a longshot.
The courtroom drama scenes are so well done. So much time is devoted to Mayella’s and Bob Ewell’s testimony and you want to scream the whole time but it is mfing gripping drama. I haven’t been that nervous and breathless watching cross examinations since I was an intern in a real courtroom for a trial of this very nature, although the attorneys there could have really used some Sorkin writing on their side (and that IRL defense attorney was actually more offensive, racist, and bigoted than the prosecution here! hooray America!).
Rafe Spall’s Atticus carries the show fine, and is strong in the scenes with the children. He’s good in the court scenes too, although his surprisingly loud screaming at the end felt like a shocking misfire for a character always shown as level-headed. Yes, it’s to show he’s losing his famous patience with this miscarriage of justice, but even so, a little too much to be believable. Scout, our narrator, is playedth by Gwyneth Keyworth, who has some amazing moments (“go right for the eyes!” being literally the hardest I’ve laughed in the theatre in years) but needs to work on her uneven accent. My fave performance of the whole shibang comes from David Moorst as a spindly and sprightly Dill, who is gottam HILARIOUS 70% of the time and completely heartbreaking 40% of the time (that’s right) with no lag time. I could cry again thinking of him. HE’S NOT REAL, I have to keep telling myself otherwise it’s unbearable. (Moorst played Puck in that beyond perfection production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge so I guess he joins my list of favorite UK actors, cool cool cool.)
What I really loved about this production was how Atticus, long heralded in American culture as the faultless hero white man who helped solve racism, was called out for trying to be nice to everyone, even to bad racist people. His long-time black maid, Calpurnia (Pamela Nomvete), does the calling out over time and then all at once, in a satisfying and believable way, though the bigness of that moment’s portrayal feels a bit forced Atticus was rightly revealed as being neutral towards offenders, like a modern person still trying to be friends with Republicans who vote others’ rights away, and finally having that stated as unequivocally wrong-headed. This is what I meant as some of the “subtle improvements on the source material”, although it has been so long since I read the book that maybe it’s in there. But I very much appreciated Sorkin’s making it clear that trying to be nice to everyone means you are nice to people who aren’t nice to some, who are evil in fact, who don’t deserve it. Being Switzerland to everyone means you’re also Switzerland to the Jews. (Look it up!)
Despite the length of the show (see infra), it moved well (like so many musical theatre actors on their resumes). Well, for the most part — hopefully by tonight the final 20 minutes will have been tightened, because it was like a belt on its biggest beltloop when it needed to be on maybe its second-to-smallest. The whole part with the sheriff and the judge and Atticus being CONVINCED for no good reason that his skinny lil son killed a man?? (Brick killed a guy!) felt like I was being draggggeduh physically through molasses. It was not believable that Atticus wouldn’t get the picture for that f-ing long. I kept wanting to shout “he ran into my knife! he ran into my knife ten times!” Would’ve livened that scene up (although omg when Boo appears, my heart!! it’s so good!). BUT ANYWAY. TKAM is an always timely reminder that the justice system does not work for everyone, and that the same general issue — vital decisions made without the burden of facts — have opposite results for different people (i.e., it destroyed Tom’s life, and it saved Boo’s). It’s an important-feeling, high-quality production that benefits from Sorkin at his West Wing best and not at his Molly’s Game worst (it was just on TV, it is all voiceover narration? so annoying. Congrats to Chasty though, love her).
INFORMATION
My performance began at 19:35, Act I ended at 20:56 (WOOF that’s a lot to ask of my bladder, I am aware that’s not normal don’t worry), and the show ended at about 22:30. long! but great! It might have been (hopefully) tightened up by tonight but I can’t say because of the aforementioned yet-another shit list I’m on for being honest/not taking other people’s shit.
AUDIENCE
Masks on about 10% of people, 80% of unmasked coughing like it was their gottam job. COOOOOL.
TIP
If you sit in the stalls house left, there’s a little hidden ladies toilet that you can run to and beat the queue, what a treat.
1 Comment
I just learned SO MUCH MORE from this post, THANK YOUUU for the extra tid bits of genius!!! (But excuse me how did you not mention the “nobody needs to know” L5Y reference that gives you an extra gut punch?!) ahhh this post was great