Zorro the Musical: Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Partsby Randi / May 6, 2022The Trump Play: The 47th is so much better than I expected
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s show is the new play about Trump, playing at London’s Old Vic.
Considering how violently ill the mere thought of the man makes me/every thinking and feeling person, I feel like I deserve a cookie for agreeing to see a 2 1/2 hour play about Trump. Not just about him, but with an actor imitating him. VOM. He looked like him too! Terrible! But The 47th exceeded my (admittedly basement-level) expectations. It’s incredibly upsetting, but for the right reasons — we’re on the same side recognizing how dangerous he is. A few things are infuriating, but it gets the tone right, and that’s the biggest achievement. Instead of 2 1/2 hours of wanting to scream and scream, I found myself pretty engaged and interested. SHOCK.
Since I’m American, and sane, I’m of the camp that knows that making fun of Trump isn’t funny, since there’s nothing funny about how he has ruined lives, possibly a country, definitely the rule of law. He’s not funny and nothing he did was funny. But Bertie Carvel is funny. And this show can be really funny. The Shakespearean feel of the metered verse its written in gives the mockery of him a gravitas that makes it seem okay. Importantly, the show recognizes how dangerous and evil he is, which is, I wanna say refreshing? Too many people disagree!
The 47th, written by Mike Bartlett, who also wrote King Charles III, depicts the expected Trump resurgence later this year as he attempts to gain a second term. Well, that’s after he sees the crowds pumped for presumptive nominee Ted Cruz (double the vom) (when the actor first came out man alive it looked just like him – mainly because I was sitting really far away and they got the facial hair right, but still, gasp) and in his expected manner DT decides he wants all that love for himself. Of course, the crowds are too eager to prove their allegiance to their hero; no one likes Ted Cruz.
The whole physical aversion to depictions of DT thing gets easier as the play wears on, mostly because Bertie is really so good. Between this and Miss Trunchbull, no one who sees West End theatre would ever know that Bertie Carvel is a normal-looking man. His portrayal is uncanny – the nasal sound, the cadence, the hand gestures, my god the hand gestures. It’s almost torturous since I despise DT so much, and love Bertie so much. TURMOIL.
So much feels too real, and it gets overwhelming at times. The way DT easily incites riots was scarily accurate. Scarily inaccurate: the map of riot hot spots that kept popping up in the Situation Room– LOL at whoever made this map where NOTHING was happening in Philly, New York, California, or Ohio, but 7 different riots were happening in like Wyoming and South Dakota, where 9 people live.
The portrayal of Biden wasn’t great, and the whole interaction between him and DT is left vague on purpose without a good reason. But I enjoyed most of Kamala’s portrayal (save the one line about needing a cookie, awks delivery). I got a little dramotional when Kamala gave her speech to the nation. I wish that could be real after the next election (not before please).
Like in King Charles III, Bartlett gives too much credit to the attractive girl in the mix and depicts them as overly clever evil masterminds playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers — Kate in KC3, Ivanka in this. This pattern kind of feels like he’s bending so far trying to not be misogynistic that it goes full circle and is completely patronizing. I don’t buy for 2 seconds that Ivanka is thinking deeply about anything, let alone taking over the reigns from her disgusting father. Painting her as cunning and eloquent is overly generous to this total c-word. I can say that now because I’m British. I also don’t buy that his troops would switch their allegiance so fully to her as was implied or at least as she expected. They hate women in charge! I much prefer the scenes with her idiot brothers. I’ll never get tired of people making fun of how stupid Eric is, although SNL does it 1000x better.
As for things that bothered me besides realizing how utterly forked the world is: The side plot of the brother and sister on opposite sides of the political spectrum started out weak, because the sister didn’t sound like any Trump supporter out there. She sounded like the New York Times wet dream version of a Trump supporter, one with reasons (although her reasoning of course still didn’t make any sense, and I’d like to see her defend how going out with the rioters to incite violence supports her thesis at all) but I guess that storyline comes around in the end.
The rioter dressed up as the shaman guy from the insurrection shows up way too much. I guess it’s accurate that he’s part of the zeitgeist now but I hated seeing him be immortalized in theatre when he should be rotting in jail.
ALSO — there were some whilsts in there. YET AGAIN, I volunteer as tribute to make sure your shows about e.g. America don’t say e.g. WHILST. mfgd.
Oh and husbo was suuuuper mad that the got the military uniform of the man who was clearly supposed to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs so very wrong. It was the uniform of like maybe a major or something much much lower than was intended. Speaking of him, there’s no way in hell he would be suggesting an assassination plot just out in front of a couple of civilians, come on!
The most effective and powerful part of the play was how it showed his idiosyncratic power to address and rally and control the masses. And it’s biggest blind spot is suggesting that Ivanka has that same power, LAUGH.
The real best part: his fate at the end. A wonderful image to have burned into my brain, despite the thin hospital gown. So cathartic.
VERDICT: TOO F-ING REAL.
INFORMATION
The refurbishment is finally complete, and it’s pretty nice, although the lobby entryway is still the same so that means cramped.
The cheap seats up in the balcony (I’m sorry, the ‘Bayliss Circle’) are actually pretty great, especially on the sides where there are less gross people breathing on you. The bathroom on the top floor of the building is pretty nice and it never had a bad line, because who is climbing all the way up there? They have an office-style water cooler that is FOOT pedal operated, which I love.
MASK COUNT: 27. None on staff, cooooool.
TIMES: 7:30 ish start, 8:38 Act I ends, 10:06 Act II ends
SURPRISE TREAT: The interval ice cream cart (oh London) has a vegan mint chocolate chip.
Related Posts
I Can’t Believe Back to the Future Won the Olivier
The omission of Einstein isn’t even the worst part.
A good musical justifies the use of music — it should be an important component of the show that helps to tell the story better. And the creators’ answer to the necessary question of ‘what purpose does the music serve?’ cannot be simply ‘to make the show a musical’. I feel like this fact is why UK musical theatre is not taken as seriously as it is in NYC – because if you’re adding music just for the sake of adding music, which seems to be sooo ofteeennn theee caaaase, and not so the music actually serves a purpose, it’s not going to be good, it’s not respecting the art form.
To justify musicalizing a movie, you need to answer the above AND be able to offer something to the question of ‘why don’t I just watch the movie instead?’ Even with ‘Mean Girls’ on Broadway, which was heavily not great and obviously unedited and needed at least 20 minutes cut from each act which were chock full of similar sounding songs…okay I’ll stop since this isn’t about Mean Girls but anyway, even there, it was able to justify its stage existence through some great characterizations (everything Kate Rockwell did, Taylor Louderman’s existence) and hilarious lines (everything Grey Henson said), and it justified being a musical with some actually good songs that served the story and characters well (World Burn, Meet the Plastics, a few more). Even though 7 songs were carbon copies that served no purpose, overall it justified its existence as a separate entity from the movie.
Why am I talking about ‘Mean Girls’? Because despite its flaws, it was able to answer the two questions above. ‘Back to the Future: The Musical’, which somehow (f-ing London) won the OLIVIER, was not. With its lackluster score full of cliched lyrics, it reminded me more of the stage adaptation of ‘Pretty Woman‘, and we all remember how that trainwreck was.
I really wanted to love this, and I waited so long, throughout many months away, to see Roger Bart, who I adore, as Doc. But I thought it was quite obviously unedited for a supposedly finished product. The score comprises hackneyed lyrics and no original melodies. And Roger is – I’m sure directed to be – going way too overboard in going overbroad. It’s the kind of performance that breaks the 4th wall for no good reason, where he’ll stick his tongue out to the audience and the drunk of their ass audience CHEERS for it, where he stops a song and asks the ensemble dancers who they are and tells them to get out of his house. I guess I just don’t get that kind of unearned hackneyed comedy. It feels very British and despite my passport that’s not me! He had some good moments but it’s all TOO MUCH. In that regard, most of the humor felt very lowest common denominator, which British audiences seem to always adore, possibly stemming from their expectations of panto-vibes at regular musicals.
While the rest of the audience was going gaga for it and everyone seems to absolutely ADORE it and that’s wonderful for y’all and so who cares what I think, I was disappointed. I felt BTTF really needed a run-through with a dramaturg, as so many shows do but for some reason never get. (As always, I volunteer as tribute to do this, as well as to catch things like when people say ‘asbest-TOSS’ when trying to do American accents. (We use a schwa on the ‘tos’.)) I’m sure that someone watching with a critical eye would have, on the very first run-through, cut Jennifer’s first song (did absolutely nothing and with only platitudes for lyrics) and the painful “my myopia is my utopia” song that George sings in the tree. Also it’s weird that George has more songs than Doc! Maybe if Doc had more genuine work to do, they wouldn’t have had to pad his part with super strange hamming for cheap audience laughs. The new thread of him feeling sad and emo about his dreams felt unearned and unnecessary. Guy KNOWS that he built a WORKING TIME MACHINE.
I’ll give it this: it looked amazing. The special effects and projections are great, as is the all-important car — indeed the best part is the car’s special little ending. Actually, the best part is that Olly Dobson sounds EXACTLY like Michael J. Fox. It’s truly uncanny. The cast is working hard and largely charming, led by Olly. The energy of the group numbers is great, and that energy lifts this show out of its drecky basement for a short bit, like in the hey mama welcome to the ’50s song. (We had the short-lived hope that that this song would commence a flip of the tone of the show to be more sardonic commentary in line with the lyrics, but alas, it was not to be. That would have been interesting!) The ’50s girl-group sounding songs Lorraine sings, and even Biff’s song, were decent, reflecting the sound of the era, which could have been a great way to steer and coalesce the score in general. Mayor Wilson’s song and Bart’s opening number for Act II were also fine, totally made by the performers’ energy, but still sounded like early drafts of songs that could/should have been better.
The rest of the songs were either full of hackneyed lines that made me cringe or were simply unnecessary to build the characters or propel the story. The book was equally painful, and that’s after you account for the fact that the source material is essentially about a “17-year-old high school student whose best friend is a disgraced nuclear physicist (“and they never explain it! and this guy’s either 40 or 80, even we don’t know how old this guy’s supposed to be!”) who goes back in time and (“and he stops the Kennedy assassination?” “oh that would have been a good idea!”) and tries to f*ck his mom. We thought that’d be fun for people! But he doesn’t get to, he doesn’t get to, because this family friend Biff tries to rape the mom in front of the son, then the dad’s gotta beat the rapist off of her, and also we’re gonna imply that a white man wrote Johnny Be Good so we’re gonna take that away from them!” Even aside from all that, and the idea of time travel, the musical book manages to do its own damage and show the awkwardness of the base story even more starkly, mostly via LCD humor and about 20 minutes of extraneous bloat in each act. (Seriously, it should not be this long.) And the placement of “Power of Love” vs. in the movie doesn’t work.
Overall, the only evident answer to the question of ‘why is this a musical?’ seems to be ‘to make a big spectacle musical that rakes in cash’ (seriously, the tickets are insanely priced, like Broadway-style insanity). With such a trite score and scene after scene that doesn’t pass the smell test and the best part being that Olly sounds just like Michael J. Fox, the answer to ‘why shouldn’t I just watch the movie instead?’ is, actually you should.
OH! I almost forgot the ‘best’ part, but never can because it’s seared into my memory along with the endless list of London shows with unnecessary Jewish jokes that had nothing to do with the story and where the audience laughed in a way that felt predatory: When Lorraine thought Marty’s name was Calvin Klein, one of her girlfriends said “is that Jewish?” as they walked offstage, and the audience laughed! Because that’s a funny joke! I honestly thought that maybe ONE show in this town wouldn’t have a discomfiting Jewish joke and even more discomfiting audience reaction but serves me right for thinking that.
INFORMATION
Start; 19:35
Act I ends: 20:46
Act II ends: 22:12
Actually that’s when the curtain call ended and I left to pee, but they sing more songs so that everyone is up and dancing and leaves happy, so who knows how long that went on for.
Literally the worst, drunkest, most on-their-phones-and-talking-to-each-other audience I’ve maybe ever encountered.
The Mastersingers of Nuremberg at the English National Opera: Richard Wagner was a Sumbitch
When the representative for the English National Opera took to the stage at 3pm on a recent Saturday and announced that one of the principal actors had a gastrointestinal infection, but would still be performing, and they were just asking for our understanding, well then you knew you were in for a treat of a day. When a prim and proper British woman who works in opera informs you just for the sake of informing you that an opera singer about to sing in front of you might crap his pants onstage, that’s worth the ticket price alone.
And when the people seated next to me were talking about the run time a few minutes before curtain, and one turned to me and asked, “Wait, is this really close to 4 hours?”, and I said “Actually it’s more like 5,” and then I was corrected that it was closer to 6 (with intermissions), well you knew the whole thing would be quite special.
And when the people seated next to me were talking about the run time a few minutes before curtain, and one turned to me and asked, “Wait, is this really close to 4 hours?”, and I said “Actually it’s more like 5,” and then I was corrected that it was closer to 6 (with intermissions), well you knew the whole thing would be quite special.
“The Mastersingers of Nuremberg” is one of Wagner’s supposed masterpieces, not that I think this anti-Semitic assrat really should be considered the creator of masterpieces. Regardless, I went to see for myself, and by god, it was sung in English instead of German. I mean. People. Do the operas in the language in which they were written. I don’t watch the dubbed over version of “Life is Beautiful” and I sure as hell don’t want to hear terribly translated lyrics plunked onto melodies they weren’t meant for. A few years ago, in Vienna, we saw “Rigoletto”, one of Verdi’s masterpieces (actual), and the bastards did it in German. It was HIDEO. I swore I’d only see operas performed in their original languages after that. But I got free tickets to “Mastersingers” and so whatever. It was worth it so I could see in the flesh how bonkers Wagner was. Did he have syphilis? That’s always the cause of ancient times people being craybies.
So “Mastersingers” is an opera in three acts, each one the length of a decent movie, or a regular opera. The show begins in a church with like 100 people who you never see again singing hymns. At the end of the church service, a knight just passing through sees this young girl Eva and falls in love with her (naturally) and she falls in love with him (naturally) and then he approaches her and says hello and what not. Her maid informs the knight that no, the girl isn’t yet engaged, but she’s about to be, because her father is the leader of the Mastersingers guild and has promised his daughter as the prize in the upcoming singing competition. What a cool dad! So the knight, Walther, you’re probably not supposed to pronounce the ‘h’ but I do, has the great idea to audition for the Mastersingers, be invited to join the guild, and then win the competition and be able to marry this young girl he just fell in love with when he saw her from across the room even though her dress is hideous and she wears it the entire show.
Walther goes to the guild meeting, where Eva’s father sings about how great their guild is and how pretty their costumes are. Before he enters, David (Han Sachs’s apprentice (Hans Sachs is the lead role but like is no one important??)) teaches Walther how to sing like a master. In a very confusing lecture, David apparently says that there must be birds, and flowers, but not trees, or some such absolute hilarious nonsense that no one would understand. Walther still tries to audition, with a song about love of course because he’s an expert in that biz now, but is laughed at because he doesn’t know how they do. The town clerk, Beckmesser, is a guild member who reeeeally wants to win the marriage prize and he is really mad that they let Walther audition at all. He makes fun of him a lot. He also is clearly Wagner’s Jewish character, as he’s rich and greedy and cheap and the villain and Wagner wants everyone to hate him, just like he wanted everyone to hate Jews. Wagner’s the worst. Beckmesser is like who let this amateur into our club? And Hans Sachs is like hey be nice, why can’t we give this guy a chance? And Beckmesser’s all “Shut up Hans Sachs and go finish making my shoes dammit why you taking so long to make my shoes?” Hans Sachs is a shoemaker p.s.
First intermission. We moved down to better seats. Then we made friends with old people and tried to identify all the famous German notables on the curtain. Oh yeah, the show curtain was a freaking mass of maybe 200 scary white faces, all famous Germans, including Goethe, Marlena Dietrich, prob lots of Nazis.
The beginning of Act Two is probably my favorite part. We open in the alley between Hans Sachs’s shop/house and Eva’s father’s house. David is informing Eva’s maid Magdalena, who is also David’s secretish lover, that Walther failed his Mastersinger audition. Magdalena becomes so upset for Eva’s future that she forgets to give David the food she brought for him, and then everyone in the vicinity makes fun of him before Hans Sachs saves him and ushers him back to the shop. Let’s go over that. The most terribly sad thing Wagner could think of having the maid do in her sadness was to forget to feed her boyfriend. And then the whole town mocks him because he didn’t get food gifts from his girlfriend that night. I’m obsessed.
Then we see Eva and her father talk about the audition. Her father expresses a little bit of doubt about hosting a singing competition as the means of finding his daughter’s husband. Good thinking, man. He gets over his 2-minute span of doubt right quick though and is all “nahhh whatevs this plan is great, not weird, totally normal for this time period.” He goes to sleep while Eva talks to Hans Sachs about Walther. Hans is like ugh he totally messed up even though we tried to teach him, so you’re probably gonna marry Beckmesser, sorry. And Eva’s like oh god dammit Hans, can’t you at least enter the competition? I’d be okay with marrying you. I mean, I love that new guy, what’s his name, Walther, but I’d be happy with you. Hans is like bitch you tripping.
Then Walther, who, remember, is a knight, and probably left a much cooler life wherever he came from, comes by in the middle of the knight and talks to Eva. They’re wondering whether they should elope but then Beckmesser that awful Jew (Wagner’s words) comes by to serenade his future bride. Since Eva is outside cavorting with Walther, her wonderful maid Magdalena pretends to be Eva at her bedroom window. So Beckmesser is singing to Magdalena, thinking it’s Eva, and Hans Sachs is sitting on his front stoop cobbling Beckmesser’s shoes. It’s all a big jumble of activity in the middle of the night because these people have no regard for their neighbors who are TRYING TO SLEEP DAMMIT. Beckmesser’s singing, Eva and Walther are trying to be quiet in the shadows, Hans Sachs is cobbling and hammering, and then David comes out of Hans Sachs’s house (they live together?) and sees Beckmesser serenading his girlfriend and so he attacks him. David and Beckmesser start fighting and then THE ENTIRE TOWN JOINS IN THE FIGHT. And then everyone is like left in their underwear! And all those people from the very first scene about 4 hours ago are finally given another part in the show and beat up the guys! And then Hans Sachs sends Eva home so she doesn’t elope and the riot sort of stops! And then! Omg and then! This awful scary figure in black holding a lantern comes out of the shadows singing a dirge-like tune – it’s the Night Watchman, and he’s dressed in Angie’s Maleficent costume, headgear and all. It is REDONK. End Act Two.
Intermission Number Two. We go outside and get dinner and ice cream. I am surprised at the number of people out on the streets still and then I realize it’s not even 7pm.
Act Three. There are noticeably fewer people in the theatre. This is a marathon, people. Commitment is half the battle. So we open in Hans Sachs’s shop and he is reading. I remember being bored. The guy playing Hans Sachs is a really good singer though. His name is Iain Paterson. Walther appears and Hans Sachs tries again to teach him how to sing in the Mastersingers style. This time is more successful, and Walther composes a pretty beautiful song. For the first time all day, I thought, oh wow, that’s lovely, I don’t feel like I am being bombarded by the noise of clanging pots, Richard.
This is where things got confusing. Walther leaves to get dressed for the festival, and Beckmesser arrives, still torn up and hurt from his beating the night before. Like, FFS Wagner, this guy really didn’t do anything. He’s mean and annoying but Wagner clearly wants the audience to delight in his misfortune and pain here because he’s so goddamn anti-Semitic. What an asstard. Beckmesser sees the new song on Hans’s desk, and it’s in Hans’s handwriting because he transcribed it while Walther was singing and composing it. But Beckmesser sees that it’s in Hans’s writing, Hans doesn’t correct him, and Beckmesser gets mad assuming that Hans is entering the competition. This is a big problem for Beck because the great Hans Sachs is the best singer or something and is serious competition. Beckmesser’s all “Aw come on Hans you’re breaking my barrrrs!” So Hans gives Beckmesser the song that Walther just wrote. He just gives it to him. And he warns him that it’s hard to sing so he better be careful. Like that’s Hans’s plan, to have Beckmesser sing Walther’s great song but not practice it enough so he ends up messing up and embarrassing himself. Whaaat a plan.
Then Eva arrives and weirdly so weirdly flirts with Hans. She clearly came looking for Walther, and when she didn’t see him, thought the next best idea was to trick Hans into thinking she came looking for him. She dumb. But then Walther comes downstairs and she like cries out in joy and Hans is like see, you love him, and she is like yeah sorry I played with your heart I got lost in the game oh baby baby. Then David and Magdalena appear, and Hans Sachs promotes David from apprentice to whatever is above that, and also is like hey you two should get married, you have my blessing, which apparently was necessary for a man’s sort-of boss to give back then even though both men are clearly over 50 years old. And then the only fantastic part of the entire thing occurs: All five of these characters sing a beautiful quintet with little to no accompaniment, and the opera should have ended there. It was gorgeous. During the applause after this movement, I actually started gathering my things because I thought it was the end. It should have been. But then there was another hour and a half.
But of course it couldn’t be over – we have to see the festival in its entirety! First, all the guilds in Nuremberg show off their skills and wares. It’s the most random procession. We see different art works on display, and like metalworks I think, and then all of a sudden there are five gigantic soft pretzels on display for judging and one gets a blue ribbon. WHAT IS THIS SHOW. I really wanted a pretzel.
Then the Mastersingers have their competition in front of the entire town. Beckmesser sings the song he got from Hans, but he didn’t practice and has no idea how it’s supposed to go so it’s a huge mess of a thing and it’s really awkward and everyone has fremdschamen which they actually know they have because it’s their word, the Germans.
Beckmesser tells everyone that he didn’t write this crap, that Hans Sachs did. Everyone gasps, they all actually gasp, because erma p, how could the great Hans Sachs’s have written this terrible song? Hans is like, people please, A) I didn’t write it, and B) it’s actually a good song so why not let the guy who wrote it sing it how it’s supposed to be sung? And then Walther sings and everyone realizes he should be a Master and so they make him one and announce him the winner of the competition/young girl and Eva is so happy that she can marry the guy she fell in love with yesterday.
BUT THEN, Walther steps back with Hans Sachs and is like…um…Hans…I changed my mind! I don’t want to be a Master NOR do I want to marry this rando! And Hans, oh my god, Hans gives a speech that actually had me rolling in my seat laughing, not believing what was happening in front of me. Hans Sachs, in an effort to convince Walther to accept his prize (a wife) and to become a member of the Masters guild, sings a prolonged speech about how important it is to be German, to continue German art, and how even art like Walther’s that is different and challenging still has to be performed within the existing culture and framework in order to, well, exist, and that he and everyone and all of Germany need “Germany” like their current system/government in order to make their art, be happy, and live good lives. In order to respect Germany and all the good things Germany has done, Walther needs to marry this girl. And then, just when you think this suddenly North Korean ending can’t get weirder, THE WHOLE CAST PULLS OUT LIFE SIZE CARDBOARD CUTOUTS OF THE FAMOUS GERMANS THAT WERE PICTURED ON THE SHOW CURTAIN, LIKE FROM BEHIND THE ACTORS COME HUGE STANDEES OF GOETHE AND VARIOUS GRIMMS AND OTTO VON BISMARCK AND WHO THE HELL KNOWS AND THAT’S HOW THIS SHOW ENDED AND OH MY GOD IT WAS THE CRAZIEST THING EVER.
There’s one more performance, Tuesday March 10. If you have seven free hours, you should go. Or just catch the ending. Worth it.
1 Comment
You should get a cookie buffet for buying a ticket, I almost declined to read your review bc of the topic. Love that this sounds measured and thoughtful and you didn’t walk out feeling gross. LOL to “whilst.” Also omg Trunchbull. Really appreciate you giving a mask count to your readers!!! Also YESSSS intermission ice cream cart!!!