The Haystack at the Hampstead Theatre: What Modern Theatre Wants to Beby Randi / February 11, 2020How fun does it sound to see two of Puccini’s best operas performed in the same night? Okay it sounds long. But this new production of Opera Undone does just that – generally speaking. This new joint ticket of Tosca and La Boheme gives each classic work an hour max, sharing the gist and the highlights, and while that’s not the ideal way to enjoy classic opera, it is a whole lot of fun.
Perfect for short attention spans and newcomers to opera, this show was also hugely enjoyable for someone like me, who wrote a thesis on La Boheme and knows almost every word. Not that the words mattered here: both reimagined and reformed operas are performed in English, and especially in one case lots of liberties are taken with the ‘translation.’ Purists and those with sticks up their butts about opera might not appreciate it, but it’s a joy to see opera used in a flexible, fun way.
Tosca is performed first, so you know the warnings about loud gun shots are coming in this half, unless they seriously rewrote La Boheme (which they did but not in a murdery way). I’ve seen a traditional production of Tosca before but I don’t know it well enough to notice how much the story was changed here, if it was, aside from setting the scene during like a mob boss’s reign? I think? It was definitely not during Napoleon’s time, I know that much. Tosca is about an artist named Mario, who is keeping quiet the hiding place of his political prisoner friend Angelotti, and Mario’s girlfriend Tosca, a singer and a typical nagging annoying WOMAN that men in history have written thinking they’re being funny. Obviously, this means Tosca gets jealous easily too, because that’s how the women do. When she sees Mario’s latest painting, of a woman, she’s all WHO’S THAT WHY IS SHE SO PRETTY and you’re like girl, it’s a painting. I mean he’s an Italian man living in Rome you probably have realer problems to worry about. But the evil Scarpia, the chief of police, goads her to be jealous of the painting so you know he’s the bad guy straight away. He wants to bang Tosca and kill Mario, since he’s pretty sure the latter knows where Angelotti is hiding (it’s true though), so he has Mario arrested. Tosca goes to Scarpia to beg for Mario’s life and some shit goes down from there.
In this well-reduced version, the action begins with Mario painting, and oh my god, since there’s really no set (it’s in the tiny Studio 2 at Trafalgar Studios which is a tiny dark room) and this is in the round, he puts a painting’s frame around the neck of an AUDIENCE MEMBER. This chosen audience member is then pretty involved in the action for the next 20 minutes or so as Mario and Tosca and Scarpia examine and discuss the painting. IF YOU DO NOT WANT THIS TO BE YOU, do not sit in the front rows and be a woman. Our participant didn’t seem to mind but my god my face would have burnt off from mortification-induced redness.
My Tosca this evening (it’s a rotating cast like a proper opera does), Honey Rouhani, was superb, so it’s a shame she didn’t have as much as usual to do. It seemed like Scarpia had an aria too many, and while strong, his voice began to feel grating. Maybe because he’s the bad guy and I was itching for him to get all murdered. Okay so Mario gets arrested, and Tosca goes to Scarpia and he’s like ‘I’ll let him go if we do the no-pants dance’ and Tosca’s all ughhh really ugh I mean I guess okay I gotta save Mario. Scarpia shows her a gun that he says has blanks in it, so she will have to pretend to shoot Mario and he will have to pretend to die, and then the guards will let her escape (with the body?? mmkay). I mean OBVIOUSLY YOU SHOULD TEST THE GUN FIRST, TOSCA, like shoot someone in the foot or something. Or the hand so you can run if it’s real? Shit what’s the best thing to shoot to test a gun? I mean Scarpia clearly! But she doesn’t. Once Scarpia tells her his plan for saving Mario, he then is all ‘okay it’s party time’ and she pretends to be letting him enter the bone zone but then she STABS HIM IN THE HEAD and it’s the MOST SATISFYING murder maybe of all time.
After killing a guy nbd she then goes to save Mario and tells him the plan of ‘blanks in the gun’ and OBVIOUSLY that was a lie and she kills him and then realizes it and kills herself. Yeah so Tosca is a full on murder-sui sitch. I love a good murder-sui but I’ve never seen one happen literally at my feet before – Studio 2 is a tiny little living room of a theatre and it was eek I was like ‘call the cops!’ ‘no not the regular cops!’ Anyway I enjoyed this condensed version a whole lot. There’s a lot of filler in the standard version that gets boring so I’m all in for this one.
It helps that Tosca isn’t one of my most beloved things like La Boheme is. I was nervous that they’d cut my favorite parts, which was undeniable and unavoidable because the whole thing is my favorite part. Luckily, they decided to change the story so much that it was like a whole different work, making me feel much less precious about it but still enjoying all the familiar melodies. I loved being able to compare this version to the original and noticing what clever little changes they made to allude to the original (not surprising considering how much work I’ve done comparing it to Rent). So La Boheme is about two friends, Rodolfo and Marcello, who are both poor artists. Rodolfo falls in love with Mimi, a poor young lady who has TB and is dying. Marcello has a complicated relationship with his ex-girlfriend Musetta. Just think Rent and you get the story.
Here, it was rewritten to be present day London, and Rod hears the famous knock on his door not from a girl who needs a light for her candle but from a guy who is answering Rod’s GRINDR invitation! I mean, it’s forking hilarious. The lyrics had the audience in stitches. It’s not all funny because this guy, who calls himself Mimi to keep it simple, is a drug addict whose eventual demise is from that addiction, but man do they cram in the humor. My favorite little quirk was having Marcello and Musetta (now Melissa because nobody modern is named Musetta, which is a shame, it just means little baby muse) struggle with polyamory. That’s so good. Again, Rouhani’s Melissa was the standout (luckily they included Musetta’s Waltz in this short version). The rewrites made it a lot of fun, and it was a clever modernization. Rewritten for a tenor, Mimi’s music doesn’t scratch the full itch of familiarity you (I) expect from her parts, so I was looking forward to listening to my recordings to hear the Rodolfo-Mimi sections in all their soprano-having glory. But even so, it’s a fun, cheeky version that even the old men who didn’t know what they were getting into with this show seemed to fully enjoy. I definitely recommend Opera Undone both for newbies and opera aficionados.
INFORMATION
Each act/opera is one hour and there’s a 15-minute interval. With a 19:45 (NB!) curtain, Act 1 ended at 20:48. The show ended at 22:00 EXACTLY which deserves a medal. Studio 2 is tiny and on the same floor as the Trafalgar Studios bar, which means the ladies room is very convenient.
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Waitress Finally Hits London: So Good I Could Cry (Again)
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is Waitress, which opens today in London.
I feel like I’ve been bemoaning the sad state of musical theatre on the West End for years now. We’re getting too few new British works and too many lackluster disappointments. And while that’s all still true, Waitress has arrived, so I’m done complaining until the smile leaves my face, if that ever happens. Even though it’s an American transfer, this show is so FORKING wonderful that it is elevating the entirety of the West End. The Sara Bareilles musical, which opens officially today at the Adelphi Theatre, is exactly the show London needs right now: funny, heartbreaking, movingly acted, perfectly sung, and with an incredible score. It’s strange for me to give unqualified raves, but here I go, here I go, here I go again girls what’s my weakness? Um, musicals! pie? Dr. Pomatter?
Waitress, the first Broadway musical with an all-female creative team (it premiered in 2016 and that’s a true thing, so forked), opened the same season as Hamilton (and also the best musical revival season anyone could ever dream of I mean it omg each of the four nominees was the best thing ever le sigh and this year we don’t even have enough for a Tony award??? anyway) and so, while everyone enjoyed it, it didn’t get the acclaim or attention it deserved. Luckily, London’s musical theatre scene is, shall we say, not 2016 Broadway so fingers crossed that it gets the proper amount of love, because it’s a pretty goshdarn flawless show. Based on the 2007 Adrienne Shelly movie starring Keri Russell, Waitress the musical tells that story of how a small-town pie-making waitress in an abusive marriage gets pregnant and falls for her new ob/gyn. I remember the movie being pretty depressing but the show – though still rife with sad moments – is funnier and overall uplifting and heartwarming. With a sensational score from Sara Bareilles in her first musical theatre venture (and hopefully not last) and superb direction from Diane Paulus, the musical takes us intimately into the life of Jenna Hunterson and her friends. Her abusive husband, her inability to leave him, her feeling of not recognizing herself or knowing what to do, it all comes across realistically and believably while maintaining the entertaining, energetic thrill of classic musical theatre.
Even though I trust that you’ll see Waitress as soon as you can – whether on Broadway, in London, or on tour – I’ma tell you a little about it because it’s my new fave thing and I just simply can’t stop won’t stop talking about it (or singing it in the shower). So Jenna, as played by the remarkable Katharine McPhee, sings about her three favorite ingredients for pie baking – “sugar, butter, flour” – and making pies and how that helps her deal with her shirty life, working in a diner and having a shirty slob of a jerk husband who takes all the money she earns and is mean to her friends. And her friends, Dawn (Laura Baldwin, hilarious and adorable) and Becky (Marisha Wallace, the fire emoji), are wonderful so only a real jerk ass jackwagon would be mean to them. Jenna accidentally slept with her husband who she haaaates so Dawn and Becky are like ‘hey Jenna let’s all chill in the bathroom and watch you pee on a stick and we will SING ABOUT IT!!!’ and Jenna is like ‘ughhh I don’t wanna know if I’m pregnant I’d rather just ignore any alien growth and then in 9 months be like those people on the old show ‘I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant’ and be like ‘maaaa there’s a baby in the terlet!!!!’ so just let me be’ and they’re like ‘no we have fun lyrics about drinking enough to make sure you have to pee’ (and I’m like, do some people really not need to pee all the time?) so Jenna pees on the stick and is like SHIT and then sings the greatest song ever extolling the virtues of what baking can do as she hopes it can save her from her current messy sitch. Then she makes a great pie for her gynecologist who unknowingly retired and you’re like jfc how bad is the American healthcare system if when she called to make an appointment with Dr. Oldlady they didn’t tell her ‘oh she RETIRED’?? what a mess. Anyway her gyno is now this cute adorkable awkward lanky blond guy which is suuuupes awks in a gyno fyi anyway he doesn’t eat sugar and she’s like what kind of dork doesn’t eat sugar?? and he tries her pie (not a euph) and is like ‘OH DIP’ and she’s such a good baker that they fall in love and it’s AMAZING and SAD and she dreams of getting away from the jerky husband but he thwarts her plans and then she sings another BEST SONG EVER about what a mess her life is and McPhee is like ‘do you think you’ve heard anyone with better vocal control, because hear this, mufuckaaa’ and she should have awards thrown at her and you’re like TAYLOR HICKS, REALLY GUYS???
Meanwhile, the girls make our cute little Dawn try online dating because she is a sheltered lil bun who’s never dated and she matches on an app I’m assuming was Christian Mingle with a crazy guy in the form of JACK MCBRAYER, ladies and gentlemen, as Ogie and even though he sings a song that would be a giant red flag in real life about how he is virtually a stalker and even though Jack’s not the greatest singer and even though I wanted a friend of mine to get his part originally, Jack’s Ogie is REDONKULOUS AMAZING. His signature pure hearted dorky schtick is so perfect for Ogie and whoever thought to cast him deserves Olympic medals in casting. I honestly want to bake that person a pie. Jack makes every little movement and line of Ogie’s a laugh riot which is a phrase I don’t think I’ve ever used before but I need to use it now because it’s true and also dorky and pure enough of a phrase to fit this situation. The only thing I don’t get about this show is that Ogie gets the last named-character-bow when for male roles he really is second only to Dr. Pomatter and I don’t understand how he isn’t billed and bowed higher?? He gets more songs than almost anyone! Anyway it’s worth it to see him alone, yet everything else is just as great. Becky’s lil side story is amazingly moving too, as she’s in a difficult marriage for sad reasons and needs to get her groove back and does so with a SURPRISE man and she sings a fire emoji song about how ya know shit just happens sometimes and who are you to judge?? Her big song really was ugh so good. Even the old man diner owner gets amazing material that makes me cry, even though this actor wasn’t a great singer, because he gets my favorite poetic lyric at the end of his big song that just wrecks me and honestly everything in this show wrecks me so just forking see it so we can TALK ABOUT IT, okay?
The writing of this show, with a book from Jessie Nelson, is so strong that the show would be great still with just okay talent, so this stellar cast is lifting it to remarkable heights. Katharine McPhee’s Jenna is thoughtful and purposeful, finding the right line between vulnerability and inner strength. Fresh from the Broadway production, which was her first Broadway role, McPhee reminds you quickly of the douchebag director’s first words about her on “Smash”: “She may be green, but she’s certainly trained.” Her control over her voice is spell-binding, and her “She Used to be Mine” is the best vocal performance happening in London right now. David Hunter’s Pomatter is endearing and goofy yet also a believable leading man and a bit of a heartthrob. The scenes between the two of them feel like the end of the second season of a TV show when the two meant-for-each-other leads finally come to each other, and they accomplish that in less than an hour. It’s so important to get that emotional beat right, along with all the deeply personal revelations on display. Waitress is an unabashedly emotional show, the kind that could easily feel twee or seem amateur, but this show is anything but. The strong writing and the precisely directed performances keep it fresh and real. I fear that the old-white-male reviewers that make up London’s main critic pool will discount the female-centric story and emotional depth as cutesy or girly when really it’s surprisingly profound.
If nothing else, Bareilles has given us an extraordinary original score for the modern age, with nary a weak track in there, a rare accomplishment nowadays. With every other aspect of the show just as strong, with laugh out loud moments and truly wrenching emotion, the whole show is destined to be a favorite of many, if not a genuine classic.
INFORMATION
Waitress is playing at London’s Adelphi Theatre until at least the fall. They sell pie in the lobby and they pipe in freshly baked pie smell, which is lovely. They don’t have vegan pie though, which is b.s. The official merchandise stall in the lobby does not sell programmes – they are available from the podium by the entrance (so crowded, so dumb) and the pie man in the back. It’s a pretty terrible setup. The bathrooms are downstairs house right, so you have to like bolt out of the stalls to get all the way to the lobby and down. The staff left much to be desired. Also, during previews they had not yet set up barricades at stage door and it was a bonafide disaster of a mosh pit. According to my emails with the theatre, they’ve amended this situation, but I bet it is still a disaster. So the theatre staff and setup leaves much to be desired but the show is perfection.
Eugenius! in London: Silly Good Fun for a Necessary Break
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is Eugenius!, which ends its run at London’s The Other Palace on Sunday, October 21.
Amid all this dreariness, both from the weather getting grayer and Britain’s (slash the world’s) prospects looking bleaker, a goofy superhero musical is exactly what the doctor ordered. (Unless your doctor has actually prescribed you medicine, then take that. (Hooray for universal healthcare.)) Leaning heavily on the spoof side of things, Eugenius! is an easy to enjoy ‘80s-set romp of a familiar comic book story – dorky boy sketches out his feelings and desires in fantastical comic form, proves he has talent, is more than just a dork – but with a clever and, yes, ‘eunique’ (their word) take. From creators Chris Wilkins and Ben Adams, this amusing, cheerful musical needs work before its next incarnation, but what’s there now is happy, silly fun.
Amid all this dreariness, both from the weather getting grayer and Britain’s (slash the world’s) prospects looking bleaker, a goofy superhero musical is exactly what the doctor ordered. (Unless your doctor has actually prescribed you medicine, then take that. (Hooray for universal healthcare.)) Leaning heavily on the spoof side of things, Eugenius! is an easy to enjoy ‘80s-set romp of a familiar comic book story – dorky boy sketches out his feelings and desires in fantastical comic form, proves he has talent, is more than just a dork – but with a clever and, yes, ‘eunique’ (their word) take. From creators Chris Wilkins and Ben Adams, this amusing, cheerful musical needs work before its next incarnation, but what’s there now is happy, silly fun.
Eugenius! (must I use the exclamation point every time? I think it’s really the title so yes!) tells of teenage geek (not nerd; nerds like numbers, geeks like gadgets, we’re told (although ‘geeks like superhero stuff’ would have been more appropriate because they never used gadgets but go on)) Eugene, a supposedly nondescript boy living in 1980s Ohio, spending his days trying to hide from your typical high school bullies and getting out his feels by drawing original comics. Eugene (Rob Houchen), pale and skinny (at least he looks it in clothes – kudos to whoever costumed him and hid alla that til the surprise end), reeks of chronic teenage geek. He doesn’t think he’ll ever be good enough but aspires to greatness nonetheless. His friends believe in him though, and when an opportunity to bring his creative work to a big stage presents itself, they make sure Eugene takes his chance.
As friends/sidekicks/featured actors in musicals go, Eugene’s are pretty wonderful. Feris (Daniel Buckley) is a sweaty goofball with only one ‘r’ but with nonstop ‘80s references and an impeccable Yoda impression to match his Sloth one. Janey (Laura Baldwin) is a supportive, sweet girl who loves Eugene but is scared she’s stuck in the friend zone. I loved that they had the cliche story of a friend in love with another friend who is always complaining about being in the friend zone, but switched the typical pattern and made it a girl. It’s much sweeter than way and not gross like all guys complaining about the zone are.
When a Hollywood studio sends minions around America to find the next big thing, and they inexplicably go to high schools and beg students to just say something, Janey and Feris urge Eugene to present his work. The rep loves it and flies Eugene straight to Hollywood. I thought this part was going to be a dream but then the rest of the show is in Hollywood so it’s the kind of show you just roll with, okay. My least favorite part of the show was the intro to Hollywood song dedicated to the big studio executive (really the most annoying part of the show (well, tied for first; you’ll see)) about how you have to kiss his ass to get anywhere. It’s called “A Little Kiss Ass” and it does not work musically. I spent those five minutes wishing that they had paid for the rights to the most amazing Hollywood executive introduction song, Shaiman and Wittman’s one from Smash – “Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking” – and then I sang it in my head instead. And we liked it and we loved it.
As friends/sidekicks/featured actors in musicals go, Eugene’s are pretty wonderful. Feris (Daniel Buckley) is a sweaty goofball with only one ‘r’ but with nonstop ‘80s references and an impeccable Yoda impression to match his Sloth one. Janey (Laura Baldwin) is a supportive, sweet girl who loves Eugene but is scared she’s stuck in the friend zone. I loved that they had the cliche story of a friend in love with another friend who is always complaining about being in the friend zone, but switched the typical pattern and made it a girl. It’s much sweeter than way and not gross like all guys complaining about the zone are.
When a Hollywood studio sends minions around America to find the next big thing, and they inexplicably go to high schools and beg students to just say something, Janey and Feris urge Eugene to present his work. The rep loves it and flies Eugene straight to Hollywood. I thought this part was going to be a dream but then the rest of the show is in Hollywood so it’s the kind of show you just roll with, okay. My least favorite part of the show was the intro to Hollywood song dedicated to the big studio executive (really the most annoying part of the show (well, tied for first; you’ll see)) about how you have to kiss his ass to get anywhere. It’s called “A Little Kiss Ass” and it does not work musically. I spent those five minutes wishing that they had paid for the rights to the most amazing Hollywood executive introduction song, Shaiman and Wittman’s one from Smash – “Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking” – and then I sang it in my head instead. And we liked it and we loved it.
Honestly all future productions should cut this song or pay to use the Smash one. (It’s so damn good.) To have the executive then order that all the girls coming in for casting should be sent directly to his office was clearly supposed to be a topical joke, but it also really horribly does not work at all. If you are going to make jokes about that situation, you need to do better and actually have it be clever, not just exist for its own sake.
So they’re making a big movie about Eugene’s comic book story, which is about a superhero called Tough Man. On a faraway planet called Itsaballoon, the rulers were welcoming a new baby, but it turned out to be two, which was bad luck because a prophecy declared that twins would destroy their planet or something. So they sent the weaker one (determined during a truly hilarious bit), named Hector, out into space with a robot, but this kid would grow up with the sole aim of destroying his luckier twin brother, Tough Man. But Tough Man – ‘tough but fair’ – would make sure that justice always won out. And he would make sure that his sidekick Super Hot Lady (it IS a teenage boy’s work, after all) never touched him because that would weaken him.
But plot twist of all plot twists, as they’re making Eugene’s movie, Evil Lord Hector (Neil McDermott, amazing) hears the dumbest actor ever proclaim that he’s Tough Man on set, and he sets course for the Hollywood studio. Yes, Hector is real, and really looking for his brother. Dun dun dunnnn! I loved this twist (and the others to come!), but the book was messy in act two. The characters never showed any real realization or coming to terms with the fact that Hector was actually real, and it wasn’t clear that they realized Eugene had dreamt up a true story. Also, there is too much unnecessary stuff in the second half, and it drags whenever Hector isn’t around (he really is the best). And while it ended all well and good, I wish they made a bigger show of pointing out why Eugene had been dreaming of this story. Using his dad more effectively would help with Eugene’s arc, especially if clarified whether he was who we now assume he was.
That aforementioned ‘unnecessary stuff’ in act two is also the aforementioned ‘most annoying part of the show’. Feris, the stereotypical loony and kind of gross sidekick, has a love song with the actress cast as Super Hot Lady in the movie, and it’s called ‘The No Pants Dance’, and they need to completely cut the song and everything mentioned about the two of them together. It’s infuriating to have a clever show fall back on THE MOST annoying, tired trope there is – the messy overweight boy catching the eye of a, well, a super hot lady. First of all, he is a HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT, so probably underage so COME ON. Second, Kevin James has already tired out all variations on this theme and we’re all tired of it so everyone from now on please cut it out and stop feeling the need to ‘gift’ a hot woman onto a non-hot boy like he deserves it for being not cool or something. It’s beyond irritating, and it’s actually offensive I think to every kind of person, hot or not.
Other than my two big gripes, it’s a pleasant, amiable show. While there’s no real need to set it in America, I was impressed by all the leads’ solid mid-Western accents. Of course there were some wonky accents. The school bully was doing a full-on New York mobster one, while Eugene’s father was a southerner? It was distracting. And they clearly didn’t have an American go over the book, because everyone kept saying ‘whilst’ instead of ‘while’ and using plural verbs for mass nouns (ugh). Just let me go over all books, guys. But anyway, I love that it’s set in the ‘80s, and they really make it clear with the great lighting and the music. Some of the music was very catchy, but I am concerned that several songs are direct copies of famous ‘80s power ballads. Janey and Eugene’s 11 o’clock number was hundo p Celine’s “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”, while the big Act I ender used the exact instrumentals of “King of Wishful Thinking”. It’s unclear if this was accidental infringement from trying to achieve classic ‘80s sounds, or if these were purposeful ‘homages’. Whichever it is, they need to be clearer about it, because with the line so blurry I’d be worried about people getting the wrong idea (*cough* like lawyers who used to do IP *cough*).
The best numbers go to Janey and Eugene, as they should. Both actors are perfectly cast, and while I wish their nerd personalities, voices, and overall affects were more pronounced so that their transformations stood out more drastically, they were great. I was ready to complain about Janey’s too-sincere Act One ballad not fitting with the mood of the work, but then it turned into a hilarious and perfect ‘80s power ballad, complete with wind machine treatment. Nailing the right tone of the piece with a move like that helps this show succeed, and fixing all the parts where the tone is off would make it amazing.
Hmm, I feel like I’ve complained a lot, but you know what I (and Coach from ‘Love and Basketball’) say. With a few fixes, I think this show could be really great, and it should be a staple in high schools and colleges. As it is, it’s tons of fun and I’m so happy I saw it. They are using that small stage so well, and having something so fresh and exciting in London theatre is a treat.
So they’re making a big movie about Eugene’s comic book story, which is about a superhero called Tough Man. On a faraway planet called Itsaballoon, the rulers were welcoming a new baby, but it turned out to be two, which was bad luck because a prophecy declared that twins would destroy their planet or something. So they sent the weaker one (determined during a truly hilarious bit), named Hector, out into space with a robot, but this kid would grow up with the sole aim of destroying his luckier twin brother, Tough Man. But Tough Man – ‘tough but fair’ – would make sure that justice always won out. And he would make sure that his sidekick Super Hot Lady (it IS a teenage boy’s work, after all) never touched him because that would weaken him.
But plot twist of all plot twists, as they’re making Eugene’s movie, Evil Lord Hector (Neil McDermott, amazing) hears the dumbest actor ever proclaim that he’s Tough Man on set, and he sets course for the Hollywood studio. Yes, Hector is real, and really looking for his brother. Dun dun dunnnn! I loved this twist (and the others to come!), but the book was messy in act two. The characters never showed any real realization or coming to terms with the fact that Hector was actually real, and it wasn’t clear that they realized Eugene had dreamt up a true story. Also, there is too much unnecessary stuff in the second half, and it drags whenever Hector isn’t around (he really is the best). And while it ended all well and good, I wish they made a bigger show of pointing out why Eugene had been dreaming of this story. Using his dad more effectively would help with Eugene’s arc, especially if clarified whether he was who we now assume he was.
That aforementioned ‘unnecessary stuff’ in act two is also the aforementioned ‘most annoying part of the show’. Feris, the stereotypical loony and kind of gross sidekick, has a love song with the actress cast as Super Hot Lady in the movie, and it’s called ‘The No Pants Dance’, and they need to completely cut the song and everything mentioned about the two of them together. It’s infuriating to have a clever show fall back on THE MOST annoying, tired trope there is – the messy overweight boy catching the eye of a, well, a super hot lady. First of all, he is a HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT, so probably underage so COME ON. Second, Kevin James has already tired out all variations on this theme and we’re all tired of it so everyone from now on please cut it out and stop feeling the need to ‘gift’ a hot woman onto a non-hot boy like he deserves it for being not cool or something. It’s beyond irritating, and it’s actually offensive I think to every kind of person, hot or not.
Other than my two big gripes, it’s a pleasant, amiable show. While there’s no real need to set it in America, I was impressed by all the leads’ solid mid-Western accents. Of course there were some wonky accents. The school bully was doing a full-on New York mobster one, while Eugene’s father was a southerner? It was distracting. And they clearly didn’t have an American go over the book, because everyone kept saying ‘whilst’ instead of ‘while’ and using plural verbs for mass nouns (ugh). Just let me go over all books, guys. But anyway, I love that it’s set in the ‘80s, and they really make it clear with the great lighting and the music. Some of the music was very catchy, but I am concerned that several songs are direct copies of famous ‘80s power ballads. Janey and Eugene’s 11 o’clock number was hundo p Celine’s “Where Does My Heart Beat Now”, while the big Act I ender used the exact instrumentals of “King of Wishful Thinking”. It’s unclear if this was accidental infringement from trying to achieve classic ‘80s sounds, or if these were purposeful ‘homages’. Whichever it is, they need to be clearer about it, because with the line so blurry I’d be worried about people getting the wrong idea (*cough* like lawyers who used to do IP *cough*).
The best numbers go to Janey and Eugene, as they should. Both actors are perfectly cast, and while I wish their nerd personalities, voices, and overall affects were more pronounced so that their transformations stood out more drastically, they were great. I was ready to complain about Janey’s too-sincere Act One ballad not fitting with the mood of the work, but then it turned into a hilarious and perfect ‘80s power ballad, complete with wind machine treatment. Nailing the right tone of the piece with a move like that helps this show succeed, and fixing all the parts where the tone is off would make it amazing.
Hmm, I feel like I’ve complained a lot, but you know what I (and Coach from ‘Love and Basketball’) say. With a few fixes, I think this show could be really great, and it should be a staple in high schools and colleges. As it is, it’s tons of fun and I’m so happy I saw it. They are using that small stage so well, and having something so fresh and exciting in London theatre is a treat.
INFORMATION
Eugenius! closes at The Other Palace on Sunday, so if you are in London go quick. It was supposed to transfer to the West End, but they just announced that that fell through due to an investor pulling out (so it won’t get preeeeeegnannnnnnnnnnnnt). I hope they get another chance to hit the West End in the future – maybe after taking the above suggestions into account.
