January 19, 2023
I LOVE CONTENT! All the Thoughts/Things/Theatre I've Been Having/Doing/Watchingby Randi / May 22, 2020At the time when everyone is (hopefully) sharing information on how to support black voices, I thought it might be nice to celebrate black artists and stories in the theatre. People much more knowledgeable than I am have shared lists of books to read, shows to watch, documentaries to find, places to donate, and I’ve tried to absorb all of that and do what I can, and I hope you have too. So what do I have to recommend except theatre. I thought I’d share some great shows we can watch to maybe open our minds and show some support. The theatre community has always prided itself on including and welcoming everyone from every background, and it really is a special place, especially compared to other communities. But it has a long way to go before the range of voices heard in the theatre reflect the world around us, and before true equality exists in the representation of stories and voices and talent in the theatre.
So I thought I would offer you a list of some shows that promote black voices, actors, and stories that we can all watch this weekend. We have time now that Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Show Must Go On” YouTube series took this opportunity to cancel this weekend’s planned stream! (I don’t know what it was intended to be, but I bet it wasn’t an ALW joint since he stopped sharing his work and instead started sharing…NBC live musicals, woof.) The YouTube channel’s statement said they weren’t sharing a show this weekend in ‘support of Black Lives Matter’. It’s not for me to say whether this is an effective show of support or an empty statement that lets them be lazy and uncreative while maybe saving face, but I would rather the channel share theatre with, say, black creative teams or all-black casts, something to support black voices and stories in theatre and promote them instead of keeping silent. Enormous platforms failing to support such voices when they have the ability to amplify them to millions isssss not my favorite.
Last week’s release was actually a fitting one (albeit a version that’s mediocre) – the NBC live version of the musical Hairspray! Okay, I know, it’s a very white-centered show that treats racism like a lil plot twist and is very, very guilty of the white-savior trope. But it’s bubbly and fun and with a clear message that handles racism in a way that’s accessible to e.g. young kids or impressionable (republican) adults. It’s one of my faves and it happens to be important. Come at me all you want but the Nikki Blonsky (oh she cray)-John Travolta-Queen Latifah-endless amazing names movie version from 2007 is the best. Anyway, ALDubs could have just extended the release window for this one! It also has a mostly impressive cast (Jennifer Hudson singing “I Know Where I’ve Been”?? yes please!) providing the messaging.
Another ‘easy’ but powerful and enjoyable show – and another Best New Musical Tony winner – that deals with racism in America is Memphis, the 2010 show starring Montego Glover, an amazing singer playing an amazing singer, and Chad Kimball as a fictionalized character inspired by Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music on the radio in the 1950s. Fun fact, one day after the matinee of the 2015 revival of ‘The Color Purple’ (see below) I left the theatre speaking with actor Isaiah Johnson about the incredible 104% perfect show and all kinds of things and we were talking and walking down 8th Ave. and we bumped into Montego Glover and they hugged and were catching up and I was just there because we were still talking so that was the gd coolest. (After a few minutes I politely said I would take my leave so they could catch up properly but they were like oh okay cool bye, not like ‘wtf get out of here’ it was awesome.) You can find Memphis on Amazon Prime and BroadwayHD.
A problem with these shows is that their creators are white, so the stories are made palatable and play into white people’s ideals of how to solve racism. As time moves forward, I believe, and hope, that creators and audiences alike realize and accept the need for representation on- and offstage of those whose stories are being told, to make sure the right voices have input. (This was the problem with London’s Falsettos fiasco.)
A wonderfully different show springing from the brilliance of one black man is the 2008 musical Passing Strange, written by the artist Stew (who also starred in it). This unique musical was sort of like a rock concert, sort of like performance art, and a completely different feel from everything around it on Broadway. It tells the story of a young man from LA who tries to figure himself out in Europe, where he encounters all sorts of characters but is often the token black guy. It’s a more personal journey and story than the all-encompassing ‘let’s discuss racism’ shows, and that’s what makes it so effective and moving – especially since so much of it comes from Stew himself. Stew won a Tony for the book, beating In the Heights, and I’m like very happy for him. The show is on YouTube for a small fee.
A Raisin in the Sun, the seminal play about a black family’s experiences, might be a cliche to include on such a list as its the pinnacle of black theatre, but cliches exist because they’re true. You all know this play, right, like you wouldn’t be reading my shit if you hadn’t already read A Raisin in the Sun, right? To watch: the Sidney Poitier/Ruby Dee movie is on Amazon, while the movie version of the 2008 Broadway revival production is on YouTube, with the same Broadway cast including Phylicia Rashad (who won a Tony for it), Audra McDonald (who won a Tony for it), and Sean Combs (that’s right).
Another important play with an accessible movie version is Fences, with stars Denzel Washington and Viola Davis recreating their Tony-winning Broadway roles. I like this one because honestly Denzel’s character seems kind of awful, and it’s necessary that white audiences don’t just get to enjoy happy charming black characters and that black actors get to portray the full expanse of humanity.
For a newer play that more directly reflects the current situation, Pass Over is currently streaming on Amazon. This film version, directed by Spike Lee, of Antoinette Nwandu’s superb, tragic 2018 play, will probably have the same emotional impact as the stage version, which means you will feel awful. The play was written as a sort-of response to the killing of Trayvon Martin, so it feels awfully, depressingly relevant now. Of all the ones on this list, this is the one that we should all watch if we are trying to learn about what is happening.
There’s also the 2017 Lincoln Center Theatre production of the play Pipeline, about inequality in education. The mother of a black inner-city teenager works at a public school, but she decides to send her son to private school, and thus has to grapple with this decision as well as the realization that a whiter school won’t protect him. We are planning to watch it this weekend; it sounds great…and upsetting (given how education is indeed unbelievably unequal) which is fine because we all should be upset right now! especially white people! It’s currently on BroadwayHd for free so hurry up.
After those plays, you’re going to need some more musical spirit-lifting. I know I just said white people all should be upset but if you educate yourself on Black Lives Matter and talk to white friends about it and stand up for injustice and challenge the ideas we’re fed about police being helpful and donate if you can then maybe you can have a musical, as a treat.
If you want a fun one to watch with kids, you can’t go wrong with The Wiz, the classic reimagining of The Wizard of Oz with an all-black cast. You can rent the original film on YouTube, Google play, and I’m sure lots of other places, since it’s old and awesome. Starring Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, forking Lena Horne and Richard Pryor?? I mean drop what you are doing and watch it now if you’ve never seen it. For goodness sake, I just realized this was another recent NBC live musical production! WTF! Given that ALW and his “The Show Must Go On” have turned to showing NBC live musicals, it’s kind of ridiculous that they aren’t showing this one. I wonder if it was supposed to be this weekend’s offering; if so, that’s pretty shirty to cancel. If not, why not! It’s easy to acquire and share given that it’s morphed into a platform solely for American televised live stuff. This one had Mary J. Blige! It was awesome! Promote black artists Andrew!
On Netflix, there’s the movie musical Been So Long, starring UK fave Michaela Coel, about a black single mother and a man she falls for. It’s based on a 2009 Young Vic musical, but that’s before my time so I can’t say how it compares. I can say it has 92% on the old tomato meter, so it probably did a good job.
I wish I could find the Broadway musical version of The Color Purple, any version of it, and share it like I had wanted to. This show is so forking good. LIKE A BLAAAADE OF COOOORN, like a hooooooneyyy beeeeee. like a waaaater falllll, all a part of meeee! LIKE THE COLOR PURPLE! omg I FORKING LOVE THIS SHOW. It’s so good. Listen to the 2015 Broadway revival recording with the unmatched Cynthia Erivo, watch the Oprah movie, read Alice Walker’s novel. Do all three. Luckily, there’s a movie version of this musical in the works, so we can enjoy that sometime in the future, if there’s a future, and enjoy the fun of a book-to-movie-to-musical-to-movie musical journey.
I also can’t find any trace of the 2016 Broadway musical Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, or even the original 1921 sensation of the same name (well the first two words). The original Shuffle Along was musical by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake that enjoyed a surprising long run in New York in 1921 and introduced the world to Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, Paul Robeson, and more. In 2016, George C. Wolfe helmed a new show telling the tale of that original event, with the most exciting cast of stellar black luminaries imaginable, including Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, and more. It was a flawed retelling but its importance and heart were undeniable. It’s worth listening to the cast recording for Audra’s, well, being Audra, and for Adrienne Warren’s take on Florence Mills. You can also take a half hour and watch this interview with Wolfe and stars about the show.
Is it bad that I want a production of Fiddler on the Roof (one of the best and most enduring classics for dern good reason) that amplifies its message of prejudice by having black actors play the Jews while keeping the Russians white? WOULD BE INTERESTING.
Anyway, there are lots of black stories to appreciate and black talent to celebrate – there’s the Dreamgirls movie (with J-Hud in top form, Beyonce killing it, and Tony-winner Anika Noni Rose) which is I believe is on Netflix; there’s Audra’s exquisite Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill on BroadwayHD. And yet there’s obviously not enough, since I am just shooting out a quick list like this. And while of course this list is way incomplete, clearly if such a list can even be made, it means these sorts of works are the exceptions and not the rule. The fact that I can specifically point to all of these examples, leaving off maybe a dozen or so, proves in itself what a dearth there is. Theatre, like all institutions and areas and arts and parts of the universe, has a long way to go before inclusion, colorblind casting, and promotion of minority voices is the norm and not the lauded exception. Make demand for this heard, and maybe start by enjoying some of what we already have.
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An Electric, Exuberant Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre
It’s Theatre Tuesday! Today’s show is A Midsummer Night’s Dream at London’s Bridge Theatre, playing until August 31.
If there are any doubters that Shakespeare’s comedies can be just as hilarious as anything modern (and yeah I mean Mike Schur television shows too! I KNOW!), send them to the Bridge Theatre. Their (what’s appearing to be) annual immersive Billy Shakes production (after last year’s crowd-storming Julius Caesar) this summer is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of my two favorites (prize for whoever guesses the other one!) but one that often gets dismissed for not being as substantial as the others. Well fork off to anyone who says that, because it’s the greatest. Sure it has a few flaws, as does Nicholas Hytner’s forking hilarious production, but I defy anyone not to have a jolly good time.
A big part of the cheer and party atmosphere is the immersive nature of it. Giving its version of the groundlings standing area at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Bridge has taken out the stalls seats and replaced it with a pit (OF DESPAIR no) where audience members who are able can stand the whole time among the action and the actors. Well-directed staff usher the pit-standers around the space as needed, to avoid being in the way of actors or set pieces (lots of moving platforms coming up from the ground and bedframes hanging from the ceiling!). Standing tickets are cheaper (as they should be), yet it’s the best spot in the house for experiencing this incredibly entertaining show. (I assume it’s weird for people in the seats above to be forced to stare at tons of civilians milling about too, so you definitely want to be in the pit (I FELL IN THE PITTTTT, YOU FELL IN THE PITTTTT, WE ALL FELL IN THAT PITTTTT)). At first glance, with the cast beginning preshow by singing hymns in the drabbest costumes and all looking like farm witches (“um, they were MENNONITES?”), you can’t begin to predict how uproarious shit’s gonna get.
The main draw of this production, besides the immersive nature and the crowd of civilians in the pit, is Gwendoline Christie, from TV’s (yay TV!) Game of Thrones, which you people can STILL NOT SPOIL, OKAY? She plays Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. The doubling up (Oliver Chris (excellent) plays Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Theseus, the Duke of Athens) of these smaller roles added a great deal of mystery and mysticism to these characters, who have not-huge roles otherwise. They clearly wanted the big name draw to have more to do (does Hippolyta have more than two lines? Discuss) while also clearly wanting her to play the queen of the Amazons because helloooo she tall as hell. Anyway, I loved the move, but that wasn’t even the most important or my favorite move concerning these characters. If you know your Billy Shakes, you know that Titania has a changeling boy (so weird guys) that Oberon wants, so they’re in a fight, and Oberon sends Puck, the best little fairy elf and mischief-maker in all of fairyville, to cast a spell on Titania so she falls in love with the first thing she sees – which happens to be the ridiculous goofball Athenian ‘actor’ named Bottom, whom Puck has transformed into a donkey. IT’S ALL VERY GOOD. Well, instead of having men trick a woman into a love affair with an animal and having us think that’s all fun and games and fine, they switched it up so Oberon has the changeling and Titania orders the spell on him, and HE falls in love with Bottom and IT’S THE FUNNIEST THING EVER. It’s a good change, it’s a gooood chaaaange. It’s so much better to have two men tricked and avoid the power imbalance and ickiness that would come with a male-female relationship. Oliver Chris as Oberon and Hammed Animashaun as Bottom are given the best scenes and most hysterical direction, and they are worth the admission price alone. I’m still laughing thinking about them, how the other fairies react to them, and the modern music choices used to augment their scenes. Usually I’m like “ugh can we just cut the acting troupe and all the Bottom crap and get back to the four lovers” but Hammed convinced me that Bottom is probably the best, and definitely the funniest, role in the play. Perfection.
I might have been biased before anyway, because AMND was the first Shakes I ever read and then performed, and I was Helena, so I’ve always been partial to the scenes (and the incredible verse!) with Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius, and all their magicked and regular troubles. This production made me realize I still remember ALL her forking lines and most of everyone else’s too, which is like a fun party trick but I need room in there for other stuff. The foursome was wonderful, but for the first time they didn’t feel like the main characters to me. It definitely felt more of an ensemble piece, with everyone getting a chance to shine (but really Oberon and Bottom stealing the forking show (and that one ensemble member who did a forking human flag)). And Puck (David Moorst), the glue that often holds the show together, was goddamn fabulous. God I remembered all his lines too WTF I can’t remember what I was supposed to do at work but ENDLESS IAMBIC PENTAMETER sticks.
Apparently there’s a production of AMND happening concurrently at the actual Globe just down the road from the Bridge, but I’ve heard honestly terrible things! I’d be sad, but when there’s a production this fun and funny and wonderful happening, you can’t be too sad. The final scene, with the acting troupe’s performance, goes on for way too long (and if you read this blog, you know I’m the expert at things that go on too long, like this!), but each and everyone one of those actors does such a great job that I imagine Hytner just didn’t want to stop anyone from shining. It’s too bad to end such a fabulous experience thinking that it should have ended 15 minutes ago, but overall it’s a gem.
INFORMATION
The production is running at the Bridge Theatre (just on the south bank side of Tower Bridge (which is the one you probably think is London Bridge but isn’t)) until August 31. If you can’t make it, NT Live will broadcast it in theatres on October 17, throwing a bit of a wrench into their whole ‘live’ conceit. If you go and you’re in the pit (WE ALL WERE IN THE PITTTT), you must check all coats and bags (for free) so they don’t get in the way. Fun fact, they let pitgoers have drinks (of course they do this is London), so they let me keep my reusable water bottle with me, which is bigger than most people’s pocketbooks. Flouting that system y’all! The crowd in the pit wasn’t great – lottttts of talking with their friends, at full volume, I guess because they thought since they were standing that no one could hear them??!! I don’t know how idiots think – but the best part is that you can just WALK AWAY FROM THEM!
STAGE DOOR
The stage door for the Bridge is around the corner (turn right and right again when you exit the theatre), past The Ivy restaurant and down the block on the right till you see the red STAGE DOOR lighted sign. Fun fact, it’s next to the restaurant we learned last week not to patronage so you can do what I did and stare at everyone inside while you wait and shout “SHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME! SHAAAAAME!” like from the show you probably watch if you’re a fan of Gwendoline.
For a weekend night, the stage door was quite tame (especially considering the one we tried the following night (more on that bullshirt on the next THEATRE THURSDAY)), less than a dozen people. Because most people are there for Gwendoline to talk about GoT, the rest of the cast bounced like FAST, without looking at the crowd. That was a shame because I was there for everyone and they didn’t even know it! But Gwendoline came out after only a short while, maybe 15 minutes tops, and signed programmes and took pictures with whoever wanted. Most people mentioned GoT and she seemed to expect that, so when I told her how well I thought the swaps worked for Oberon and Titania she seemed genuinely pleased. ONE POINT FOR ME.
“It’s Only A Play” on Broadway: You Should Still Try Though
I hate using the word ‘starry’ to describe something that uses a lot of recognizable actors, but hell if this isn’t the starriest thing I’ve seen since those shitty “Valentine’s Day” movies. I’m okay here with making the main descriptor of “It’s Only A Play” ‘starry’ (as every other piece about the show does) because it is indeed its main selling point. And, more than that, if I don’t go with starry I’ll have to go with ‘uninspired’, or ‘disappointing’, or ‘lame’. So, yeah, starry.
Reviewing this show is a little difficult, because while it is a revival of Terrence McNally’s 1982 play, it’s chock-full of ‘culturally relevant’ updates. So which part is more responsible for the crappiness, the old stuff or the new? I guess both! Also, while I’m sure the original work was seen as cutting and important for the theatre scene, this revival feels so tired and lame and ugh too often painful.
Okay, so it’s about an opening night party after the premiere of a new play as all the integral players wait for the reviews to come out. This premise forces all the action to happen in one room, specifically the bedroom of the producer, played by Megan Mullally. Bottling everyone claustrophobically inside this room as so much goes to shit and people start fighting and turning on each other and ugh just talking too much, it will make you want to shout from your seat “JUST LEAVE! JUST WALK OUT THE DOOR AND LEAVE WTF!” As I’m sure all audience members do, I felt like Bunuel in “Midnight in Paris” when Owen Wilson explains his future film to him, and Bunuel is like “But why don’t they just leave? I don’t understand.” This show.
Megan Mullally (I’m not going to use character names because these actors were not able to escape their public personae) is the sole producer of a show for the first time, so she is nervous about the reviews, and thus spends the entire opening night party (which she’s having at her HOME, which is LUDICROUS) upstairs in her bedroom. Pseudo-friends start popping in and never leaving, including:
- Nathan Lane, a television actor who gave up the lead in this play for his now-cancelled series even though the playwright is his ‘best friend’;
- the playwright Matthew Broderick, who is the most boring milquetoast man you have ever seen and I shudder to think of poor SJP;
- the director Rupert Grint, who is saddled with the worst costume and the worst bit (infra) and will have to deal with everyone saying how his Broadway debut did not measure up to Daniel Radcliffe’s but that’s not really his fault because this show;
- the theatre critic F. Murray Abraham, who somehow works his way into the inner circle despite, um, being a critic, and is just super miscast;
- the lead of the Play, Stockard Channing, who is trying to overcome her serious drug addictions (haha so funny?) by doing many drugs onstage while wearing her ankle monitor (which she couldn’t remove during the play within the play);
- and the best part of this show, Micah Stock, stealing all his scenes as the hopeful actor working this party as the coat-check guy.
I mean. That’s a great cast. It’s just too bad the play isn’t better. But I guess that doesn’t matter, because their collective star power is allowing this pile of whatnot to break box office records left and right. Good job, producers, proving that our current society values celebrity over quality. It’s just true. Even I went to see all these actors even though I had already heard how dumb it was. I judge me too.
I don’t want to be super mean; it’s not like this is the worst show ever or even right now. It’s just that it has so much freaking potential and that makes it even worse, (like “American Hustle”). As you know, it makes me angrier when something so easily could be better than when something just sucks. It reeks of laziness and negligence when a little more attention and effort could make something great. Hence why I’m so angry about this and I didn’t say anything about “Holler If Ya Hear Me”.
Nathan Lane, bless his heart, tries so freaking hard in everything he does. You can almost see a cloud of smoke (not farts) following him around as his effort outweighs every single person ever inspired by any small engine that ever thought it could, combined. Even during my vote for #1 worst part of the show – when Nathan Lane’s character has to refer to ACTUAL PERSON NATHAN LANE/himself as a super-gay famous actor whom he would have understood being cast in something, without cursing out the entire production team for including this awful update and without throwing glass vases at all the laughing audience members who think this is somehow funny – Lane gives his all to deliver every line with all his acting prowess as though it’s the most important play ever. Bravo to him, seriously, because his giving 200% is surprisingly what lets him retain his dignity after this mess ends.
So okay, plot. Oh wait, you got it. These characters wait for the reviews to come in. And not just any reviews, but most importantly the New York Times review from Ben Brantley. This is my vote for Worst Shit #1 (tied), because Ben Brantley is a real person who actually had to review this show. And despite it being terrible, he loved it and gave it a positive review – maybe…juuuuust maybe, because the show exalts him as the most important voice in all of theatre??? You think he liked that?
Breathe. So the characters assemble, and as they wait, they kind of fight, they bicker, they drop so many names. Nathan and Matthew have a big fight because Nathan admits that he didn’t take the part because the play sucks (real Nathan wishes he followed his character’s path?), and Broderick makes big lofty speeches about how commercialized the theatre has become. Listen, I saw this show in previews, so these speeches may have been mercifully cut by opening night (though as far as I can find, they haven’t been), but Broderick’s speeches stopped the show faster and more drastically than a ton of bricks falling from the ceiling could have. It was beyond boring. His delivery copied Ben Stein doing “Bueller…Bueller?”. The actual words mirrored Bob Balaban’s end monologue in “The Lady in the Water”, just replacing ‘movies’ with ‘theatre’. I wonder if M. Night has seen this yet and been alternately thrilled and pissed.
F. Murray Abraham, that fantastic serious actor, plays a total jackwagon of a theatre critic who, despite being stuck in this room with these people, tells them how much they suck and how dumb they are. He also acts kind of like a clown, laughing maniacally and creepily, and you’re just like…how did they cast you, fearsome Dar Adal &c., in this role? I feel bad for him.
Rupert Grint gets the shit end of the stick by far when he has to act out a confrontation with his father…in front of all his work colleagues (not to mention the audience)…with…wait for it…hand puppets. That he had in his pockets. I think it was supposed to be funny, but it was sad, and embarrassing.
Stockard Channing is another Serious Actor whom I felt intense levels of fremdschamen for the entire time. Important note to producers if they find a time machine: Stockard and Mullally should have switched roles. Stockard mostly talks about drugs and drinking while doing drugs and drinking in front of us, and it’s supposed to be funny because haha addition, but it’s not funny because it’s freaking Stockard Channing and you’re like…hey…hey girl…what are ya doing? Meanwhile, Mullally found success and became super famous because of how good she is at making drugs and drinking somehow freaking hilarious. Why on earth was she playing the uber-wealthy producer instead of the crazy actress? Why?
The saving grace of the entire shebang is Micah Stock, long-lost little brother of Billy Eichner. Micah’s coat-check guy comments on all the celebrities partying downstairs with absolutely no cynicism or really knowledge, just pure sincerity, and he’s hilarious and perfect. My favorite part of the show is when he comes up with coats and says a jumble of sounds that somehow you (if you are a theatre aficionado) know is supposed to be ‘Tovah Feldshuh’. Jokes about the Kardashians and Lady Gaga are less welcome, but he does his damnedest to make you laugh. His heavier presence in the beginning is what lets this show start off with a bang, but his diminished presence later on is what lets all the air out.
Despite all this crap it’s kind of fun? I have a feeling people would compare this ‘it’s bad but you still want to watch it’ feeling to “Grease 2”, but G2 is amazing and that would be too high praise. It’s more like “Never Been Kissed”, I’d say. You cringe the entire time and you cover your eyes at most everything that comes out of Drew Barrymore’s mouth, but Michael Vartan is in it and you love him. So…see it? Maybe?
