"Mother Courage And Her Children" in London: War is Terrible, Theatre is Fantasticby Randi / December 7, 2017
When I told people I was seeing The Band’s Visit on Broadway, they asked what it’s about, and I’d say “remember that little Israeli film from like 9 years ago about a group of musicians that gets stuck in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere and then, like, they have to leave?” The answers would invariably be ‘no’ or ‘um…what, no’. Then they’d ask me what else happens in the movie, maybe to jog their memory, and I would say, ‘um…I don’t remember…I don’t think anything.” Having seen the final preview (the last performance before official opening night) of the new musical version of this work, I am pretty sure the same conversation will happen for it too. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, this show so unbelievably makes ‘pretty much nothing’ seem like the most beautiful thing about life that it’s going to win Best Musical this year. And so far, it should. The Band’s Visit can sometimes be a bit boring – some people near me were sleeping – but like, in a glorious, magical way.
Based on the 2007 Israeli movie of the same name, TBV is about Israelis and Egyptians with boring lives but it will resonate with most people today about their own lives and whether or not they are also boring. Even non-boring people with non-boring lives will have experienced at least some light anguish or fun-sized depression at some point, and so will connect with what’s happening on the stage. And what’s happening is a kind of special, fragile magic that is rare on Broadway. It’s about normal people in the 1990s, living quiet lives, just everyday people, no one special like in any other show. These everyday people are Israelis living in a little town, it’s a quiet village, called Beit Hatikva in the middle of the Negev desert. Beit Hatikva is not to be confused with Petah Tikva, a town with an Arab Cultural Center where a group of Egyptian military band musicians were supposed to perform, but, considering there’s no ‘p’ sound in Arabic and they naturally substitute the ‘b’, you can see how the musicians did indeed confuse the two and ended up getting bus tickets to Beit Hatikva by accident. In the middle of the dusty Negev, in a village with maybe dozens of people, instead of at an official performance, the musicians are stuck for the night until they can catch a rare bus out of town the next day. While there, they befriend the locals and connect deeply with some despite the hindrance of time.
We meet the Israelis, kind of dawdling through their long, humdrum days, when the sing the opener literally about how they are waiting, just waiting, whether for something new and strange (they all want some strange) to come along, or just for the sky to go about changing its color. About how they stare into the distance expecting what they see to change but knowing that it never will. Luckily, the something new they dream about does come around to jolt their routine, and they are happy to feed and house the lost Egyptian musicians in their homes. Were people still nice and hospitable in the ‘90s? Maybe Israelis were? This show is so good it will make everyone love Jews! Anyway the villagers sing a few funny-sad-sarcastic songs about how nothing happens there and how time just passes and isn’t that sooo great. I love the line “Sometimes time is an ocean/This sofa is my boat and I’m just drifting right along.” I mean sure this might be happening in the Negev but show me one person in America who hasn’t had that exact thought, albeit much less poetic I’m sure, at some point? That’s why this show is so good and so beloved already – it doesn’t matter that it’s about specific people in a specific place; it’s genuinely just reflecting basic humanity, as most theatre tries to do but rarely so poignantly.
And that basic humanity includes the yearning to connect with others, in any way – romantically, with friends, with family, as a parent, everything. The visitors want to find this connection, the villagers want to find this connection. John Cariani, that lovable nerd from Something Rotten, plays an unhappy husband and new father who wants his marriage to be happier so they can raise their child better. He is adorably goofy, like with his parts in “Welcome to Nowhere”, but also brings such sad hope in “Itzik’s Lullaby”. Adam Kantor plays a guy who literally spends the entire show standing at a payphone, pathetically and pitifully waiting for his girlfriend to call. He finally gets to show off with the closer “Answer Me”, which is one of the songs that will stay with you probably forever. I love both these guys and though they have a small amount to do (it’s a 90 minute show! and nothing happens!) they manage to do it so well it breaks your heart. So will Ari’el Stachel as one of the musicians, making friends with the yoots in the town and teaching one hapless one in particular, Papi (the adorbs Etai Benson), about love. His song “Haled’s Song About Love” had me absolutely riveted, because his voice is out of this world. (It’s unfortunate that his is the only song on the cast recording that doesn’t show just how wonderful he is, but he still sounds great.)
But no one will break your heart like Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk. I know, SHALHOUB! Monk! He plays the king of the Egyptians, okay that’s not really a thing, he’s the band leader and a general I think but king of the Egyptians is a bonkers amazing title. His name is Tewfiq, which has replaced ‘toe-pick!’ as a fun thing my brother and I like to shout now. He’s polite enough, and reserved, which is hard to maintain when faced with the unabashed, relentless flowing energy of Katrina Lenk as the local café owner Dina. Lenk is spellbinding in this role, where she doesn’t have much to do in a traditional musical theatre sense but she makes every moment feel like it’s a universe condensed into a movement or a sound. One of the most mesmerizing performers in every aspect, she moves like a dancer while she sings, and sometimes you are more riveted by how she gestures with one graceful arm moving like a ribbon than by what she’s saying. But what she’s saying also feels like the most vital words ever put to music, like you need them in order to breathe. It’s a revelatory performance, completely mesmerizing. If you don’t believe me, go below and listen to ‘Omar Sharif’ and try not to repeat it 50 times in a row.
Dina and Tewfiq both recognize what the other presents – a complete stranger, sure, but someone they didn’t think they’d have the opportunity to meet. It’s not like it’s love at first sight or something, it’s literally just like ‘hey you are…of age…and seem nice…and I have zero options.’ But it’s a beautiful kind of forlorn hope you feel arise. Dina, the unstoppable energy force, takes Tewfiq out to dinner and they eat and then they sit in a park and that’s the extent of what they do for most of the show, just sit and talk and it’s not right how moving it is, it doesn’t make any sense that it can be so heartbreaking and exquisite but it is. They’re all trying to get through life, get through their day, and maybe find someone who cares that they’re getting through it. It’s all kind of sad and wonderful and at several points you’ll do what I did, which is look around and say, ‘this is happening on Broadway??!!’ Fragile magic.
Not just the short amount of time hinders the budding relationships – in friendships, mentorships, and maybe romantic ones – from flourishing. The reality that makes this show so special is also what hinders the characters from hoping for anything more than mediocre: they know that nothing really happens in life like you see in the movies. This is most evident in the song ‘Omar Sharif’, which will send chills down your spine the entire time Katrina sings it, or more accurately, the entire time the force of this music uses Lenk as a vessel to convey its message in an otherworldly sort of way. ‘Omar Sharif’ is an outstanding song and Katrina’s performance during it may win her the Tony, so far away but almost a certainty. She and Tewfiq create pure magic in the park with ‘Something Different’, and despite seeing this opportunity they’ve gotten, we all know and they know that nothing in their lives is really ever going to change. Katrina really steals the show, but it’s in this scene where Shalhoub shows you why he so famous. I really almost went onstage to give him a hug when he shared what keeps him from trying or hoping for anything great, and I didn’t even watch Monk.
I wanted more music, because what there is is truly wonderful and different – it is SO Israeli with that middle eastern rhythm and tones of klezmer music – but I realize that anything more would harm the delicate thing happening onstage. David Yazbek has created a masterpiece. And David Cromer’s masterful direction lets the play happen, seemingly on its own, unfolding so naturally that it feels like a giant body of water, moving ever so slowly with no way of stopping it, slowing it down, or speeding it up. It just happens. There’s so much restraint on everyone’s part to keep the show small and subtle and natural, and that’s what makes the result so special and somehow enormous. It’s like it’s happening in spite of itself, in spite of audience expectations, in spite of being in a Broadway theatre. (I bet this was even more magical when it was downtown in a small theatre, but apparently it still works.) That the unfolding of the action (what little there is) and the monotonous pace of these characters’ lives seems unfettered and unfussed and so natural is really a tribute to everyone involved, letting there be such a subtle result. Like they sing in the show, “nothing is as beautiful as something that you don’t expect.”
This show will stay with you after you’ve seen it, staking permanent space in your mind so you think about it constantly. There’s more silence happening on this stage than in any other theatrical experience I’ve ever seen or heard of. Pure silence. That’s weird right? An often silent, quiet and still show? And yet that silence is a revelation. It’s not the kind that’s filled with unease, that makes you think okay can someone just do something? No, you’re content to just sit with them in that silence, to let it wash over you so you enjoy it all together, and to think with them about their nothing town and their predictable lives, and just, be. Just be in that space with these characters. With such a realistic portrayal of regular people in an unspecial town, silence and boredom and nothing is required. Normal life has those moments, and since realism and honesty are honored here, the experience reflects real life. And that never really gets to happen in musical theatre. I’ll admit at some of those moments I was itching for a song to begin, but that wouldn’t have had the same effect. The restraint evident here is part of why it works. It languishes, it flows like a lazy river, and to tamper with that would throw off the sense of realism, the sense that we are just getting a peek into actual people’s lives. And honestly I feel so lucky that I got to see into these people’s lives, and that this little show for grown-ups with absolutely zero commercial promise on paper is so wonderful.
STAGEDOOR
I went to the very last preview before opening night, so the cast may have just been extra excited to share the love, but everyone came out and took pictures and happily talked to everyone waiting. The crowd is different from usual, because it’s a lot of Israelis and Jews and Arabs who want to talk and it’s so freaking awesome. The title of this post has HABIBI!! in it because that’s the first thing I think of when I think about this show – the Israeli woman in the crowd at stagedoor who I think every time a cast member came out would scream HABIBI! in excitement. It was the best. It’s telling such an important story and it’s rare to get Middle Eastern people presented in a show where they are just average people with regular lives. So everyone is excited about that and you should be too.
INFORMATION
It’s a short 90 minutes with no intermission. If you’re like me and you already have to pee just reading that, don’t run to the toilets as soon as it ends because the musicians play a little amazing concert at curtain call.
The most important information? The cast recording is now finished, and it’s streaming on soundcloud. Entertainment Weekly has it here for you to listen to for free RIGHT NOW. Like I said above, try not to repeat “Omar Sharif” over and over and over and over…
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Talking Bout That Big Black Queer-Ass American Broadway Show: We Saw ‘A Strange Loop’
It’s Theatre Thursday! Today we are finally talking about ‘A Strange Loop’, this year’s Best New Musical Tony Winner and all-around contender for BDE BME!
What a season for Michael Jacksons! Michael R. Jackson, Tony-winning phenom (remember that show? anyone? about tennis?) and creator of brave new worlds of musical theatre, has given modern MT a gift of a new show, new in every conceivable way, and reminded everyone in the scene how important it is support new works and artists. Because it could produce THIS! His intimate and clever and unique show follows Usher, a Black queer man working as an usher at The Lion King, who’s writing a musical…about a Black queer writer writing a musical…about a Black queer writer writing a musical.
I feel like a big book of cliches talking about how original this show is, but it’s true, and I’m not even talking about the hysterical jabs at Lion King and its audiences. We have a self-identified fat queer Black man being open and honest about his family and how unsupportive and sometimes cruel their treatment of him is; about his dreams and his demons, personified by the rest of the ensemble cast as his Thoughts; and about his sexuality, like full on not holding anything back. There’s sex between two men on a Broadway stage! The ancient old lady near me busted out a ‘well I never!’ but she loved it!
Usher quickly establishes himself as a sympathetic character. We’ve heard great things about Jacquel Spivey but he was out, and his understudy Edwin Bates was ridiculously good and a gorgeous singer. You can’t not love the guy for laying bare literally everything he could possible lay bare, including his bottom. As he struggles through living in New York with a dream that hasn’t yet come true, his interactions with his Greek chorus of Thoughts often trying to drag him down are incredibly easy to identify with by anyone human. Surely everyone has had similar experiences with self-doubt, maybe self-hatred, but wowie zowie has anyone so openly put them on literal display like this? It’s so intimate and raw.
You get right up inside Usher’s emotional life, his fears and self-doubts, and self-loathing, and his family struggles. It feels like eavesdropping, like you should be apologizing and turning around being like ‘don’t worry I didn’t see anything you’re fine!’ instead of paying hundos of dollars to watch. The intensity of the intimacy is astounding, and I think it’s one of the main reasons it caused such a storm.
The score is so much fun, hilarious and joyous at times, heartbreaking and soulful at others. Why was the most beautiful melody in the show, the one that stuck in my brain the most after hearing it only once, given to the lyric “the second-wave feminist in me is at war with the dick-sucking Black gay man”? Because this MJ is a genius who says ‘why tf not!’
The gloriously bold writing doesn’t just focus its power on the character, but of course turns the tables on the audience – but subtly. One of Usher’s Thoughts at some point says point blank how the topics they’re discussing makes it harder to allies to feel easily supportive, as the issues are less obviously things allies attach themselves to, not about slavery or Jim Crow or ‘intersectional issues like police violence’. It’s so blatant and ballsy, how it calls out the pitfalls of the people who fancy themselves decent allies, to show how they need to do more and care about actual people and not just issues that are easy to care about. The whole show very much feels like a ‘oh you want to support Black talent and art? How about this’ kind of thing to the stereotypical rich white audiences. Almost daring the audience to like it, or not, and think about why. And we liked it, and we loved it.
INFORMATION
The Lyceum Theatre belongs in an abandoned farm in rural Alabama, not on Broadway. It needs to close down and get refurbed like YESTERDAY. Move this show to a better theatre and take the needed time to build bathrooms that human-sized humans can use. And for the love of god get rid of the mens room in the balcony that opens FROM THE AISLE, wtaf? Who built that?
Also the Lyceum balcony is falling apart already — our row was on a slant, like we were falling towards one side and one buttcheek was higher than the other. literally what. And people are paying so much money for that.
Leaving the theatre, we saw The Real Michael R. Jackson! We got to talk to him and I said some stupid things as I do! What a treat!
“Once: The Musical” Is Still A Triumph Away From Broadway
Steve Kazee, from the Original Broadway Cast
Many new project announcements for Broadway shows make me raise my eyebrows in doubt or surprise. No project has ever made me angry, expect when I heard that “Once”, one of my favorite movies about the music of one of my favorite bands, was getting the musical treatment. I felt personal attachment and ownership over the material, as I often do, but this time I had no hope that a stage show could capture the personal feel and beauty of the movie. I of course was wrong, because Once: The Musical is so incredibly lovely and pure. Some aspects are improved in the stage show, and the various added characters round out a superb experience of the power of beautiful music.
I was lucky to see the original production on Broadway, with Tony-winner Steve Kazee and (the Mother on “HIMYM”) Cristin Milioti. Within a few minutes, I felt with my entire being that this was a magical experience. I’m so relieved that the first national tour, which recently played Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, is equally enthralling. If you have the chance to catch the tour, go see it. Even though the space is huge, the perfectly directed show still achieves the required level of intimacy. And the wonderful tour cast fully sells every aspect of the difficult show.
I was lucky to see the original production on Broadway, with Tony-winner Steve Kazee and (the Mother on “HIMYM”) Cristin Milioti. Within a few minutes, I felt with my entire being that this was a magical experience. I’m so relieved that the first national tour, which recently played Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, is equally enthralling. If you have the chance to catch the tour, go see it. Even though the space is huge, the perfectly directed show still achieves the required level of intimacy. And the wonderful tour cast fully sells every aspect of the difficult show.
Stuart Ward, ‘Guy’ on the national tour
I say it’s a difficult show because we’ve all come to expect everything in this world, from art to politics to personal relationships, to be covered with a protective layer of cynicism, or bitterness, or at least some of kind of edge. “Once” has absolutely no edge. It has no artifice. It is a simple show presenting insanely gorgeous music for its own sake, and showing how the music affects people it touches. It’s a bold and brave move to not couch its message in anything at all but instead to nakedly display it, leaving it vulnerable to attacks of being too twee. I think a lot of the people who think the show twee or corny feel uncomfortable in dealing with such pure emotion straight on, because we’re rarely asked to do that.
The show takes place in Dublin, mainly in a bar where the area musicians meet to share their music. (Every cast member plays an instrument; they are the orchestra.) One of the best parts is that, as on Broadway, the bar set features an actual working bar, and audience members can go on stage and buy a drink before the show and during intermission. During the pre-show section, the entire cast is onstage, playing their music and encouraging each other to join in. It’s a fantastic way to highlight the talent of the cast members who don’t get solos during the actual show. This set up also allows for one of the most magical ways to open a show I’ve ever seen: As the music continues and the audience members slowly get ushered off the stage, Guy, our unnamed hero, starts playing his first song. The lights fully dim during this song, “Leave”, one of Glen Hansard’s many powerful, heart-breaking songs, and before you know it the show has officially started. It’s pretty fantastic (as long as the people around you know to shut up even though the lights are on…seriously people.)
Girl, our Czech heroine who is even more honest and open than the show, hears Guy’s song and knows that he has something special. She pushes him to keep playing even though his broken heart wants him to quit, and her faith in him brings new depth to his music. It’s one of the most romantic relationships ever, with a couple that doesn’t end up together or ever even kiss. It’s all about the music. And it’s amazing.
The Girl is a really complex role. She has to be so optimistic that she verges on chipper, and so honest and open that it veers into cartoony. The actress playing her has to keep her from getting too cartoony while also showing her maturity and intelligence. Cristin Milioti did this perfectly, somehow. The Girl on tour does a respectable job. Some of her early lines (the funniest ones) in Act I got a little hammy, but in the more serious Act II scenes, she was great. Although it’s still a bit strange to hear the unnamed Guy sing a lot of the songs, instead of the wondrous Glen Hansard, the tour’s Guy was very likable and demonstrated emotion well. However, a lot of his lyrics were swallowed. Surprisingly, one of my favorite characters on tour was Andrej, one of Girl’s roommates, whom I don’t even remember from Broadway. He has few lines and a tiny substory of about 30 seconds, but it was heartbreaking on tour. It shows what a good actor can do with very little.
My absolute favorite part of the stage show is funnily enough my least favorite part of the movie. The song “Gold”, by the Irish band Interference is sung in the movie during a ‘Sing for your supper’ kind of dinner party. In the show, Guy sings it at an open mic night at the bar, to a very cynical crowd (when he says “This is a song…that I wrote” everyone groans; it’s pretty great). But soon, every single person at the bar picks up an instrument and joins in, completely moved by his music and almost without realizing it. Here’s the cast performing it at the Tony Awards. The stomp is my favorite part of the entire show, seriously. (They changed the intro for the Tonys, so you’ll have to see the show for the hilarious lines.)
Girl, our Czech heroine who is even more honest and open than the show, hears Guy’s song and knows that he has something special. She pushes him to keep playing even though his broken heart wants him to quit, and her faith in him brings new depth to his music. It’s one of the most romantic relationships ever, with a couple that doesn’t end up together or ever even kiss. It’s all about the music. And it’s amazing.
The Girl is a really complex role. She has to be so optimistic that she verges on chipper, and so honest and open that it veers into cartoony. The actress playing her has to keep her from getting too cartoony while also showing her maturity and intelligence. Cristin Milioti did this perfectly, somehow. The Girl on tour does a respectable job. Some of her early lines (the funniest ones) in Act I got a little hammy, but in the more serious Act II scenes, she was great. Although it’s still a bit strange to hear the unnamed Guy sing a lot of the songs, instead of the wondrous Glen Hansard, the tour’s Guy was very likable and demonstrated emotion well. However, a lot of his lyrics were swallowed. Surprisingly, one of my favorite characters on tour was Andrej, one of Girl’s roommates, whom I don’t even remember from Broadway. He has few lines and a tiny substory of about 30 seconds, but it was heartbreaking on tour. It shows what a good actor can do with very little.
My absolute favorite part of the stage show is funnily enough my least favorite part of the movie. The song “Gold”, by the Irish band Interference is sung in the movie during a ‘Sing for your supper’ kind of dinner party. In the show, Guy sings it at an open mic night at the bar, to a very cynical crowd (when he says “This is a song…that I wrote” everyone groans; it’s pretty great). But soon, every single person at the bar picks up an instrument and joins in, completely moved by his music and almost without realizing it. Here’s the cast performing it at the Tony Awards. The stomp is my favorite part of the entire show, seriously. (They changed the intro for the Tonys, so you’ll have to see the show for the hilarious lines.)
I’m glad to report that the choreography is the pretty similar on the tour. However, in other parts of the show, the choppy, modern choreography is a little less “Spring Awakening” and a little more “Hail Hitler”, with strange jerky arm movements and awkward steps. It’s interesting on the whole, how the movements reflect the characters’ awkward and new emotions, but sometimes it’s just too awkward.
Overall, “Once” is really a magical show. There are a few new songs that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova wrote for the show, like the wonderfully sad but soothing “Sleeping”, but they replace some favorites like “Lies”, “All The Way Down”, and “Once”. But the choices are smart, and the book, though different from the movie, has all the necessary charm and intelligence to successfully translate this small but powerful story to the stage. I’m so happy to have been wrong about this show.
Overall, “Once” is really a magical show. There are a few new songs that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova wrote for the show, like the wonderfully sad but soothing “Sleeping”, but they replace some favorites like “Lies”, “All The Way Down”, and “Once”. But the choices are smart, and the book, though different from the movie, has all the necessary charm and intelligence to successfully translate this small but powerful story to the stage. I’m so happy to have been wrong about this show.
