Groundhog Day at London's Old Vic: What a Wonderful and Horrifying Storyby Randi / August 11, 2016
Lol I used the phrase ‘top-notch’ that proves that this is a) a really old show I’m gonna talk about and b) in England.
Here’s a confession for you. I didn’t really know “Show Boat” before I saw this production in London. Of course I knew it was an old classic show; this is my jam after all. And of course I knew the song “Bill” was from it, because I have everything Audra McDonald ever sang in my DNA (it’s on her album How Glory Goes). And of course I knew it was about an acting troupe on a boat and they put on shows because I read the title. But really, I never saw it before, and never listened to non-Audra recordings of the music. I’m sure I knew at one point that both “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “Old Man River”, super famous songs that I’m sure all of you are familiar with, are also in this show; I guess I just forgot. What an idiot! Such great songs!
Here’s a confession for you. I didn’t really know “Show Boat” before I saw this production in London. Of course I knew it was an old classic show; this is my jam after all. And of course I knew the song “Bill” was from it, because I have everything Audra McDonald ever sang in my DNA (it’s on her album How Glory Goes). And of course I knew it was about an acting troupe on a boat and they put on shows because I read the title. But really, I never saw it before, and never listened to non-Audra recordings of the music. I’m sure I knew at one point that both “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “Old Man River”, super famous songs that I’m sure all of you are familiar with, are also in this show; I guess I just forgot. What an idiot! Such great songs!
“Show Boat” is a very good show, a fantastic show if you account for the fact that it first opened on Broadway in 1927 and still plays well. NOT A TYPO. 1927. That is insanely long ago, so the fact that this show keeps playing today and drawing loving audiences is a huge achievement and testament to its quality. However, yeah, it is 90 years old and so I have some big issues with the book, mostly because women are painted as just needing a man. But like that’s still common in art today, like 90% of it is about that, so really, I guess “Show Boat” was 90 years ahead of its time.
So it tells the story of a troupe of performers on a riverboat down south called the Cotton Blossom, which is an absolutely smashing name for a boat down south. The captain of the boat, the jovial Santa of a man Captain Andy (Malcolm Sinclair, great), runs everything – the boat, the show, the troupe – with his domineering stern wife Parthy Ann (oof with that name) (oy with the poodles). Actually I think it has to be Cap’n Andy. Their daughter Magnolia (Gina Beck) yearns to be an actress but is not allowed because she is too innocent and lovely and young to be in acting, said while fanning themselves. Her best friend in the whole world is Julie La Verne (Rebecca Trehearn), the leading lady in the troupe, whose husband is the leading man. You know that Julie has a past and a disreputable character because Magnolia’s parents don’t like her spending time with Julie, scared she’ll become ruined or get her clothes dirty or something. The rest of the acting troupe is solid, with the cheeky blonde comedienne (I hate that gendered word but it is appropriate here because she was totally old-fashioned ‘20s-style ‘comedienne’, and she’s told many, many times that that is what she was) Ellie May and her nimble suitor Frank (Danny Collins, a dead ringer for Ethan Embry in that graduation party movie) making me like them more than I expected. Alex Young’s Ellie seemed over the top at first but she quickly grew on me and like, that’s how the character is. While the troupe troupes it up onboard, the black dock workers do literally backbreaking work, never resting, getting underpaid to say the least. With Queenie, the cook, and Joe, her husband and one of the workers, the cast is pretty large and full of interesting characters who could each have a show about them. We don’t know much about Joe, but he is the one who sings “Old Man River”, which was a truly magical moment, hearing that in the theatre. I was really eager to see Emmanuel Kojo as Joe, but he was out (as was Sandra Marvin as Queenie), so I was disappointed at first. But both of those understudies were fabulous, and I really can’t imagine Old Man River being more moving. Pretty great actors all around, which you know I rarely say.
While docked in Southern Town, a mysterious stranger approaches the deck while Magnolia is like standing around or something in the moonlight. Naturally they fall in love because Magnolia is like ‘oh boy there’s a boy on my deck!’ and this super shadowy but intriguing figure is like ‘oh my there’s a girl who is young and pretty’ and they sing lovely soaring songs about how much they love each other before he has to go. I am pretty sure they don’t say his name yet? That’s love. Magnolia goes into the kitchen to hang with her friends, Julie and the black servants, and they have a gay old time singing “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and it was swonderful. Truly.
Then, in the middle of a rehearsal, the sheriff or some other fake drunk-with-power armed law enforcement comes into the room and shouts about how there’s rumors of illegal miscegenation floating around and hoo boy we can’t have that. The alleged criminal is Julie La Verne herself, the leading lady and ostensibly white lady married to a white man. It’s a pretty brutal scene with everyone crying as Julie admits that she is actually mixed, but then her husband says that he is too, so it’s fine. He’s obviously not, but everyone in the company lies for him/them and the sheriff lets them go if they leave town, which sucks but beats being shot. The scene is distressing for everyone, especially America, and especially for Julie and Magnolia, whose sisterly bond was one of the few things the other had to count on. Luckily for Magnolia, mysterious stranger shows up to be the new leading man! and Magnolia is going to take Julie’s place since she already knows all the lines, so it’s like a tragedy became a fairy tale for her! No more tears because the handsome stranger you have a crush on is here, so who cares about your old friend and institutionalized racism! I mean she is a teenager, Magnolia, so you expect flightiness but freal, there are 5 seconds between her crying and her flirting. Oh child.
So Julie’s gone pretty early, and then we see her for ONE SONG in the second act. Granted, it’s the best song, but – I’m gonna state it – Julie la Verne is the most wasted great character in musical theatre. She has the two best songs in the show, she has such an interesting backstory and regular story, and yet those two songs are pretty much all she does. We don’t see her in Act II except for “Bill”. Don’t get me wrong, her “Bill” is a reason to see this show, most critics say the main reason because it is that good. But without a story to go with her current situation, I wasn’t all the way involved. Granted, I always thought this song was sung about a person named Bill in the show that the character was actually in love with, and not a forced ‘rehearsal for the cabaret tonight’ shoehorning into the plot. But still, it’s clear enough that the song is applicable to her current situation, we just don’t see any of it and it’s a shame because she’s so darn interesting. Did anyone write a spinoff show about her? Because I would see that.
Anyway, back in main plotland, the two lovebirds learn each other’s names and unfortunately his happens to be Gaylord Ravenal. I know. They wisely mainly refer to him as just Ravenal. They fall in love and get married like the next day or some such, and then they move to Chicago and have a baby. Sounds like a smart plan that you fully thought through.
So Gaylord turns out to be a gambler, Magnolia quickly learns, soon after she learns his name and that oh he’s her husband. He disappears a great deal, losing their money so frequently that they have to rent their rooms out. Kim, their daughter, grows up with hero worship on her father even though she saw him maybe 5 times during her childhood in convent school (sounds fun). Gaylord finally disappears for good, leaving Magnolia via a LETTER that she gets while ELLIE MAY AND FRANK are WITH HER and they have become super successful Hollywood stars and it’s SO EMBARRASSING for poor Magnolia and hot damn, did she get the shit end of the stick. Ellie helps her get a job at a cabaret singing, which is where Julie is, but while Julie sees Magnolia, Julie doesn’t let Magnolia see her. It’s all very sad and, again, worthy of MORE ATTENTION. Anyway. No use in trying to change a book that is 90 years old. Stuck in its ways and all that.
I don’t usually talk in detail about endings (or do I) because I don’t want to spoil things but the ending of this was done so well that I have to. Also its spoiler warning period expired 85 years ago. Things happen because like, 20 or 30 years pass or some such craziness? and Magnolia and a now grown-up Kim are on the Cotton Blossom because Kim is performing. She’s a performer now too. As Magnolia stands atop the boat, looking down, Gaylord appears. Because he’s a man and it was (and is) allowed for men to be total shits, everyone is ecstatic welcoming him back. Magnolia is the only one who is reserved, silent, while Kim runs to her father with open arms. Everyone else is totally fine with him. I would have said fuck you and the horse you rode in on. And that would probably be the only time I ever said that when the person really likely would have actually been on a horse. I mean, okay, so it’s 90 years old but even so, a story where a man abandons his wife and daughter because he’s a gambler and a shit and then comes back to open arms after 30 years is bullshit. Ugh I was like TURN HIM AWAY, QUEENIE.
Gaylord Ravenal I believe was the inspiration for naming Ben Stiller’s character in the “Meet the Parents” movies because man alive was he a focker. I did not see it coming that he was gonna be such a gaylord focker, either, so I was like dayummm she shoulda never met this focker. Ravenal was excellently played by Chris Peluso, who the programme tells me just graduated from U Michigan…so he is an American (USA! USA!) but also a child. Oh and he’s from Pennsylvania so at least there’s one more person in London who knows what Groundhog Day is. More importantly, he was really quite good. He looked strikingly like the Stark boy from Game of Sexist Violence, what’s his name? Rob! He looks like Rob Stark, so much that I just kind of accepted that it was him, actually. I should have known then that things wouldn’t go well. I mean, not that they don’t go well for him, he’s the man causing all the trouble so he’s fine, happy ever after as per uzh, but he’s just a dick for everyone else’s lives. Mostly women’s, so who cares!
I’m not sure if we are supposed to revile him along with Magnolia or feel pity for her or agree with Kim and rejoice at his return for her sake. Luckily, Gina Beck is so flinging flanging incredible as Magnolia that she makes everything okay: Magnolia stands atop the scene the whole time, and when she makes eye contact with Gaylord, she tells him that she’s fine, that she doesn’t despise him any more, that it’s okay that he’s back but just for Kim’s sake. But she doesn’t say any of that with words. All she does is make a little nod of reluctant acceptance, standing at top of boat watching over them, the slightest movement. It was right before blackout and reminded me of Eliza’s gasp that ends “Hamilton” (sorry spoiler!) and was so powerful that I gasp-cried at how perfect it was. Gina Beck was f-ing phenomenal. It was the best leading lady performance I’ve seen in London in a really long time, and I was shocked. I’ve seen her quite a few times in other shows, but this was beyond anything I could have expected of her. Just absolutely the role she was born to play. Her voice was perfect on this score, and p.s., it was a weekday matinee. Sometimes people hold back a little on those to save their voice and energy for the big shows. Nopers. She gave it everything.
Damn I’m still feeling that ending. So good but so devastating. At least no one gets killed. I was mixing up the plot of Carousel and other southerny shows in my head so I kept waiting for someone nice to get killed, Julie or Joe or someone tragic. Yay it didn’t happen! Just abandonment of a family and institutional racism! Even with all that, “Show Boat” is one of the classics and it’s such a special experience to see live in a big production, with such a stellar cast. Everything was done well in this production.
Oh I learned afterwards that the song “I Have the Room Above Her”, which I know and love because of Mandy Patinkin’s album Oscar & Steve, wasn’t included in this revival. It’s not actually part of the original score, as it was written for the 1936 movie and not the 1927 theatre production, but come on it was still written by Kern & Hammerstein AND included in the last Broadway revival AND Mandy Patinkin sang it. I guess really I would have been disappointed that Mandy wasn’t singing it if they did include it here but still, such a lovely song.
The show is closing by the end of the month because people are stupid so SEE IT GODAMMIT SEE IT NOW.
AUDIENCE
The audience was fine from my vantage point, which is astounding considering it was 99% white hair, which usually means phones that don’t get turned off. Aside from awful perfume, it was actually a really good audience. One thing that bothered me though, about the New London theatre, is that the programmes were $6 instead of the usual $4. I’m already paying for my programme and now you’re gonna charge extra? BUH-LERGH.
STAGEDOOR
I didn’t! But people seemed to be coming out to meet their friends as I was walking home.
So it tells the story of a troupe of performers on a riverboat down south called the Cotton Blossom, which is an absolutely smashing name for a boat down south. The captain of the boat, the jovial Santa of a man Captain Andy (Malcolm Sinclair, great), runs everything – the boat, the show, the troupe – with his domineering stern wife Parthy Ann (oof with that name) (oy with the poodles). Actually I think it has to be Cap’n Andy. Their daughter Magnolia (Gina Beck) yearns to be an actress but is not allowed because she is too innocent and lovely and young to be in acting, said while fanning themselves. Her best friend in the whole world is Julie La Verne (Rebecca Trehearn), the leading lady in the troupe, whose husband is the leading man. You know that Julie has a past and a disreputable character because Magnolia’s parents don’t like her spending time with Julie, scared she’ll become ruined or get her clothes dirty or something. The rest of the acting troupe is solid, with the cheeky blonde comedienne (I hate that gendered word but it is appropriate here because she was totally old-fashioned ‘20s-style ‘comedienne’, and she’s told many, many times that that is what she was) Ellie May and her nimble suitor Frank (Danny Collins, a dead ringer for Ethan Embry in that graduation party movie) making me like them more than I expected. Alex Young’s Ellie seemed over the top at first but she quickly grew on me and like, that’s how the character is. While the troupe troupes it up onboard, the black dock workers do literally backbreaking work, never resting, getting underpaid to say the least. With Queenie, the cook, and Joe, her husband and one of the workers, the cast is pretty large and full of interesting characters who could each have a show about them. We don’t know much about Joe, but he is the one who sings “Old Man River”, which was a truly magical moment, hearing that in the theatre. I was really eager to see Emmanuel Kojo as Joe, but he was out (as was Sandra Marvin as Queenie), so I was disappointed at first. But both of those understudies were fabulous, and I really can’t imagine Old Man River being more moving. Pretty great actors all around, which you know I rarely say.
While docked in Southern Town, a mysterious stranger approaches the deck while Magnolia is like standing around or something in the moonlight. Naturally they fall in love because Magnolia is like ‘oh boy there’s a boy on my deck!’ and this super shadowy but intriguing figure is like ‘oh my there’s a girl who is young and pretty’ and they sing lovely soaring songs about how much they love each other before he has to go. I am pretty sure they don’t say his name yet? That’s love. Magnolia goes into the kitchen to hang with her friends, Julie and the black servants, and they have a gay old time singing “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and it was swonderful. Truly.
Then, in the middle of a rehearsal, the sheriff or some other fake drunk-with-power armed law enforcement comes into the room and shouts about how there’s rumors of illegal miscegenation floating around and hoo boy we can’t have that. The alleged criminal is Julie La Verne herself, the leading lady and ostensibly white lady married to a white man. It’s a pretty brutal scene with everyone crying as Julie admits that she is actually mixed, but then her husband says that he is too, so it’s fine. He’s obviously not, but everyone in the company lies for him/them and the sheriff lets them go if they leave town, which sucks but beats being shot. The scene is distressing for everyone, especially America, and especially for Julie and Magnolia, whose sisterly bond was one of the few things the other had to count on. Luckily for Magnolia, mysterious stranger shows up to be the new leading man! and Magnolia is going to take Julie’s place since she already knows all the lines, so it’s like a tragedy became a fairy tale for her! No more tears because the handsome stranger you have a crush on is here, so who cares about your old friend and institutionalized racism! I mean she is a teenager, Magnolia, so you expect flightiness but freal, there are 5 seconds between her crying and her flirting. Oh child.
So Julie’s gone pretty early, and then we see her for ONE SONG in the second act. Granted, it’s the best song, but – I’m gonna state it – Julie la Verne is the most wasted great character in musical theatre. She has the two best songs in the show, she has such an interesting backstory and regular story, and yet those two songs are pretty much all she does. We don’t see her in Act II except for “Bill”. Don’t get me wrong, her “Bill” is a reason to see this show, most critics say the main reason because it is that good. But without a story to go with her current situation, I wasn’t all the way involved. Granted, I always thought this song was sung about a person named Bill in the show that the character was actually in love with, and not a forced ‘rehearsal for the cabaret tonight’ shoehorning into the plot. But still, it’s clear enough that the song is applicable to her current situation, we just don’t see any of it and it’s a shame because she’s so darn interesting. Did anyone write a spinoff show about her? Because I would see that.
Anyway, back in main plotland, the two lovebirds learn each other’s names and unfortunately his happens to be Gaylord Ravenal. I know. They wisely mainly refer to him as just Ravenal. They fall in love and get married like the next day or some such, and then they move to Chicago and have a baby. Sounds like a smart plan that you fully thought through.
So Gaylord turns out to be a gambler, Magnolia quickly learns, soon after she learns his name and that oh he’s her husband. He disappears a great deal, losing their money so frequently that they have to rent their rooms out. Kim, their daughter, grows up with hero worship on her father even though she saw him maybe 5 times during her childhood in convent school (sounds fun). Gaylord finally disappears for good, leaving Magnolia via a LETTER that she gets while ELLIE MAY AND FRANK are WITH HER and they have become super successful Hollywood stars and it’s SO EMBARRASSING for poor Magnolia and hot damn, did she get the shit end of the stick. Ellie helps her get a job at a cabaret singing, which is where Julie is, but while Julie sees Magnolia, Julie doesn’t let Magnolia see her. It’s all very sad and, again, worthy of MORE ATTENTION. Anyway. No use in trying to change a book that is 90 years old. Stuck in its ways and all that.
I don’t usually talk in detail about endings (or do I) because I don’t want to spoil things but the ending of this was done so well that I have to. Also its spoiler warning period expired 85 years ago. Things happen because like, 20 or 30 years pass or some such craziness? and Magnolia and a now grown-up Kim are on the Cotton Blossom because Kim is performing. She’s a performer now too. As Magnolia stands atop the boat, looking down, Gaylord appears. Because he’s a man and it was (and is) allowed for men to be total shits, everyone is ecstatic welcoming him back. Magnolia is the only one who is reserved, silent, while Kim runs to her father with open arms. Everyone else is totally fine with him. I would have said fuck you and the horse you rode in on. And that would probably be the only time I ever said that when the person really likely would have actually been on a horse. I mean, okay, so it’s 90 years old but even so, a story where a man abandons his wife and daughter because he’s a gambler and a shit and then comes back to open arms after 30 years is bullshit. Ugh I was like TURN HIM AWAY, QUEENIE.
Gaylord Ravenal I believe was the inspiration for naming Ben Stiller’s character in the “Meet the Parents” movies because man alive was he a focker. I did not see it coming that he was gonna be such a gaylord focker, either, so I was like dayummm she shoulda never met this focker. Ravenal was excellently played by Chris Peluso, who the programme tells me just graduated from U Michigan…so he is an American (USA! USA!) but also a child. Oh and he’s from Pennsylvania so at least there’s one more person in London who knows what Groundhog Day is. More importantly, he was really quite good. He looked strikingly like the Stark boy from Game of Sexist Violence, what’s his name? Rob! He looks like Rob Stark, so much that I just kind of accepted that it was him, actually. I should have known then that things wouldn’t go well. I mean, not that they don’t go well for him, he’s the man causing all the trouble so he’s fine, happy ever after as per uzh, but he’s just a dick for everyone else’s lives. Mostly women’s, so who cares!
I’m not sure if we are supposed to revile him along with Magnolia or feel pity for her or agree with Kim and rejoice at his return for her sake. Luckily, Gina Beck is so flinging flanging incredible as Magnolia that she makes everything okay: Magnolia stands atop the scene the whole time, and when she makes eye contact with Gaylord, she tells him that she’s fine, that she doesn’t despise him any more, that it’s okay that he’s back but just for Kim’s sake. But she doesn’t say any of that with words. All she does is make a little nod of reluctant acceptance, standing at top of boat watching over them, the slightest movement. It was right before blackout and reminded me of Eliza’s gasp that ends “Hamilton” (sorry spoiler!) and was so powerful that I gasp-cried at how perfect it was. Gina Beck was f-ing phenomenal. It was the best leading lady performance I’ve seen in London in a really long time, and I was shocked. I’ve seen her quite a few times in other shows, but this was beyond anything I could have expected of her. Just absolutely the role she was born to play. Her voice was perfect on this score, and p.s., it was a weekday matinee. Sometimes people hold back a little on those to save their voice and energy for the big shows. Nopers. She gave it everything.
Damn I’m still feeling that ending. So good but so devastating. At least no one gets killed. I was mixing up the plot of Carousel and other southerny shows in my head so I kept waiting for someone nice to get killed, Julie or Joe or someone tragic. Yay it didn’t happen! Just abandonment of a family and institutional racism! Even with all that, “Show Boat” is one of the classics and it’s such a special experience to see live in a big production, with such a stellar cast. Everything was done well in this production.
Oh I learned afterwards that the song “I Have the Room Above Her”, which I know and love because of Mandy Patinkin’s album Oscar & Steve, wasn’t included in this revival. It’s not actually part of the original score, as it was written for the 1936 movie and not the 1927 theatre production, but come on it was still written by Kern & Hammerstein AND included in the last Broadway revival AND Mandy Patinkin sang it. I guess really I would have been disappointed that Mandy wasn’t singing it if they did include it here but still, such a lovely song.
The show is closing by the end of the month because people are stupid so SEE IT GODAMMIT SEE IT NOW.
AUDIENCE
The audience was fine from my vantage point, which is astounding considering it was 99% white hair, which usually means phones that don’t get turned off. Aside from awful perfume, it was actually a really good audience. One thing that bothered me though, about the New London theatre, is that the programmes were $6 instead of the usual $4. I’m already paying for my programme and now you’re gonna charge extra? BUH-LERGH.
STAGEDOOR
I didn’t! But people seemed to be coming out to meet their friends as I was walking home.
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Edinburgh Fringe Part 2: The Stand-ups, the Two-Handers: Janeane Garofalo, Josie Long, Afghanistan is Not Funny
Welcome to Part 2 of our Edinburgh Fringe round-up! Today we are talking the two stand-ups we saw: American Gen X favorite Janeane Garofalo and British Gen X favourite Josie Long. We’re also talking about the show “Afghanistan is Not Funny” from Henry Naylor. You may be like ‘that doesn’t seem like it goes with two stand-up performances?’ and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but we are making it work because a) they are all two-handers so it makes sense (as does my version of the phrase two-hander to mean one person and not two because how many victims of chain-saw accidents are there in the theatre world? not many) and b) Naylor is a comedy writer and, despite the title, definitely fancies himself a comedian in this show! Was it all funny? Some of it was! Did they all start late and go long? You bet your ass they did, in true Fringe tradition!
Janeane Garofalo: Pardon My Tangent
The key lesson I took away from this set is that I forgot her name was spelled like that! Janeane was great to see mostly for nostalgia’s sake, and also because her jokes seemed tailor-made for ME! Not for the Edinburgh crowd, no sirree, it was all for me, from the perspective of an East Coaster trying to make sense of British cleaning products (awful!) and Scottish culture. Just like me! It was super New York (walking dogs around the city and getting jealous of bigger apartments!), super ’90s-era Americana (jokes about James Spader!), super left-wing (unapologetically anti-Trump supporters!). She used the word ‘shanda’ (it means shame!), and even brought up my favorite TV show from one month when I was 13 “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant” (I really only was interested because it was always on “The Soup”). I mean, no one has talked about that show since Kathy Griffin in one of her HBO specials from the early aughts! What a fun memory! “Ma, there’s a baby in the terlet!”
Janeane began her set in a remarkable way: by telling the crowd she never really was a stand-up comedian and is no good at it. Way to prime the crowd. She didn’t have a real set planned, just some notes and some off the cuff observations about NYC and Edinburgh. It was chaotic and messy, but still fun and enjoyable, at least for me, because I was the target audience. (I can’t say the drunk-off-her-ass-jerky girl behind me who was talking the whole time and kicking my seat enjoyed it as much.) The vibe I got was mostly that we could be, and should be, best friends.
She told a ridiculous story about how she was hit by a car in New York recently, but it wasn’t really the driver’s fault because “I was wearing these pants.” Reader, she was wearing camo print pants. I loved her jokes about her upper body strength, because as soon as she came onstage in her tank top I thought ‘man she looks ripped’. And lo and behold, later she talked about how we audience members may have assumed that she had muscle, but it was all an illusion she meticulously created: by pulling her bra straps and shirt straps high and tight behind her neck, almost like a halter (which she highly recommended we try) and by having strategically placed tattoos that made it seem like her delts were coming to a point. All of this together gave the facade of musculature from the front, while the people on the sides of the room could see it was all loose meatbags. I was dying, it was all so true, it really had worked on me.
The best thing about Janeane is how unapologetically left-wing she is, and rightly so. Now that Trump is out of office (omg hopefully forever but who knows) people seem less actively angry towards his supporters because it’s not as urgent a threat, but NOT JANEANE! She knows that we can never forgive, never forget, that they aren’t ‘decent peace-loving people’ BY DEFINITION. Loved her for this! I also loved that she makes relentless fun of Tom Cruise and got in a fight with her brother about it. Please let’s be friends!
INFORMATION: Janeane is playing at the Wine Bar at Gilded Balloon Teviot. It’s not even close to looking like a wine bar! There are some seats up in a balcony but mostly it’s very strangely laid out rows of chairs. The girl next to me was wearing a mask! First and only other masker of the whole Fringe!
Josie Long: Re-Enchantment
Let’s cut right to the chase (unlike this show because it started super late packing in last-minute wannattendees into the very hot basement (none of these venues had air flow, it was very concerning) which you can’t really fault because she is amazing and who wouldn’t want to see her?): This is one of the best, most cohesively written comedy specials I’ve ever seen. It was better than 90% of the specials on Netflix, all of which I’ve tried, few of which I’ve been able to finish. (No good!). Not since I saw Mike Birbiglia do his special “The New One” at the Leicester Square Theatre (which eventually went on to Broadway) did I find a comedy hour (plus 15) so well-written and performed.
The best part is that it seems so chaotic and casual, as Josie has such an open and friendly and spontaneous vibe, so it seems like she’s just talking, sharing with friends. But you see at the end that it was all perfectly planned and formatted. And HILARIOUS. She mainly talks about how she has moved from England to Scotland (all the cool kids are doing it!), about how great Scotland is (it is!), and about how urgently we all need to be fighting against impending fascism (we do!). For someone who looks like the nicest, sweetest mom at the preschool dropoff who brings cookies for the other moms, she is surprisingly and amazingly radical left-wing. LOVES IT! I loved that she told the crowd that we had to fight more, harder. That we had to stop making fun of groups like Insulate Britain because THEY’RE RIGHT. And they are! People complain about them and similar action groups because they don’t like their tactics, but, as Josie reminded us, that’s what people said about the suffragettes and MLK, and we’ve just conveniently forgotten all their controversial methods.
It’s funny that both of our female comedian shows made it super left-wing and political, but while Janeane gives off that great “don’t you dare f with me” energy, Josie has the energy of a little blonde girl in a flower dress wearing pigtails, despite being 40. Her bubbly joyousness is infectious and I have absolutely added her to my list of faves.
INFORMATION: The show is at Monkey Barrel 3 (downstairs) at the Monkey Barrel Comedy venue. It is VERY HOT and there was an AC unit, but Josie had them turn it off because it was noisy. If I didn’t love her so much I would be cursing her out for that one (okay I did a little). There’s a bar upstairs with water pitchers, but after the show they shoo you out directly to the outside world, so you can’t go back up for more water. There are small toilets downstairs in the back of the room.
Afghanistan is Not Funny, by Henry Naylor
Henry Naylor has some STORIES. This writer and actor and comedian was doing regular radio and TV gigs as a writer and actor and comedian 20 years ago yet somehow ended up in Afghanistan during the start of the war, alongside photojournalists and government operatives and unofficial government operatives. He went to research his previous show, but man, the average playwright doesn’t just up and go to a war to do some researching on a whim! He was here to tell those stories, and we wanted to hear them. Unforch, he’s focusing too much inwardly, and not on what those stories mean outside of his career and to the wider world, despite what he says to the contrary.
That first Fringe show, “Finding Bin Laden”, was a successful satire about media representation of the Iraq invasion. So successful, in fact, that it almost became a movie with Hugh Grant. We learn all of this, because the potential and then non-potential of this movie’s existence seems to be the crux of this show. Even though this guy saw the real effects of the American presence, even though he saw endless suffering especially among injured children, even though he was literally held at gunpoint by a group of Afghani mujahideen, the thesis of this show seems to be about him and his success and his almost movie-making, which it shouldn’t be. He even talks at length about how he knew that in this show, as opposed to “Finding Bin Laden”, he needed to tell the story of those suffering children, especially of a girl his photographer friend captured who was holding what could only be the wrapped body of a dead baby, this poor girl whose memory haunts him to this day, to finally tell the world her story. But he doesn’t. Sure he shows her picture in a big dramatic flourish that is clearly meant to move us emotionally, but it doesn’t because it comes without support — after he rants endlessly about how his movie fell apart because Russell Brand is an asshole who f-ed someone’s granddaughter, and he says this over and over and you’re like, wait, I thought this show was about the suffering of children in Afghanistan, not about this guy complaining about how Russell Brand’s lack of tact ruined his movie. It made such a brave and open man, who has been through and seen so much, seem self-satisfied in his storytelling, which I’m sure isn’t the case.
So, tonally it was completely off, and it felt unedited. It ran 15 minutes long, but it should have been 20 minutes shorter. It’s so interesting how much he spoke about his intentions with this show — he clearly wanted it to be about the people and the things he saw there, and yet he didn’t make it about that. There was a great format he used, going through four stages of awareness he learned in therapy (unconscious incompetence to conscious competence), but after the second stage it sort of fell apart in relation to the narrative. There’s so much potential for his storytelling — like I said, he was HELD AT GUNPOINT BY THE MUJAHIDEEN — he just needs to remember his purpose in sharing. We want to hear more of those stories, which would automatically convey the gravity he wanted to share, and all the real things he saw over there, and not hear vulgarities about Russell Brand.
INFORMATION: The show is in Gilded Balloon Teviot, in a slightly-more-professional seeming room than a lot of the others, but it’s set up in the worst way: it’s a very steep room, with all the seats reached from just one aisle, and the only door is on the OTHER side of that aisle. Meaning, you have to cross the stage area to get from door to aisle and vice versa. MEANING, if you have to pee or leave early, you have to literally say excuse me to the actor on the stage and force him to take a step back, as one guy did. yikes! And yes you may see that we were in Teviot for Janeane and you might think ‘oh how convenient’ but nope, we had a different show in between these two, so we were constantly running back and forth across town. Felt like a bloody boomerang! Plan your days wisely!
Lungs but Socially Distanced: The Perfect Play for a Pandemic, Though Not a Perfect Play
Recently, the Old Vic held pandemic-safe performances of last year’s hit production of Lungs, starring Claire Foy and Matt I-always-want-to-say-Lucas-but-it’s-definitely-not-Matt-Lucas Smith. Since I missed the regular run of this modern four-hander (yes correct), I was super excited to catch this version – which was performed live at the Old Vic, but to an empty auditorium and streamed to a virtual audience. The two actors also stayed six feet apart on the stage, with two different cameras on them at all times. Honestly, it was the perfect play to test this sort of format. Since it’s about a distressed couple, it worked well to see both characters the entire time separated by space and camera angles, and since it’s a one-act it worked well for me to be closer to a bathroom break without disrupting anyone (I love an interval).
The livestream situation was better considered and executed than the play itself. Duncan Macmillan’s present-day look at a couple deciding whether it’s morally wrong to have children was, shall we say, relevant to our interests. We were really excited to see a deep-dive into the ethical considerations that millennials discuss as part of this decision, and to see how they grapple with these considerations, how they make this extremely difficult decision. And we got the first part. The two famously talented actors have the early parts of the conversations that we’ve all had, with the same comments about carbon footprints, but then…then they just decide they want a kid, without applying the conversation to that decision at all. Then that aspect of the play – the aspect that it was billed as being entirely about – was finished.
Instead, it became a look at this couple’s particular dysfunctions from then on, like any other play about a couple. And it was compelling, but I found it too disjointed. It was like two separate plays morphed into one. The first part, about the ethics of procreating while the world is on fire, ended just when it would have been the most compelling: once they actually decided to have a baby, once they had to actually own their decision and defend it, the part that would have been novel.
On its own, the second half was an interesting look at this couple that I was not rooting for (but maybe I’m biased against them because the glaring, grimacing Matt Smith at times looked like a goddamn bare-hands murderer (i.e. a man who doesn’t need a weapon; he will kill you with his bare hands), while Foy looked like a sweet lil bunny rabbit (not helped by her juvenile overalls, which I LOVED)), but it felt like a completely different show, seen through a lens that wasn’t in play at the start and with some hella shocking time jumps. The only common thread throughout was that they always wondered if they were good people – they said the phrase ‘good people’ about themselves so many times that it’s a shame that was already taken as a play title. But they never actually tried to, or wanted to, answer that question.
Still, it was wonderful to see a live play even though I wasn’t there. Knowing they were performing right then was definitely on improvement on these past recordings we’ve been watching, although nothing like being in a theatre. Also, I can’t see this working for anything other than two- or four-handers, which means the big shows (and musicals) won’t be coming in live to my living room.
INFORMATION
The Old Vic’s In Camera series continues on their website with rehearsed play readings.
The stream occurred over Zoom, which is annoying, because Zoom sucks. Also, it’s kind of ridonk that even shows where the whole audience is home still start 10 minutes late.
And because I can’t go a day without finding a mistake in a leading paper, I have to point out that The Guardian’s piece on this livestream event said “although all audience members will have the same view, tickets will be priced from £10–65 with virtual theatre-goers asked to give what they can to help support the theatre.” Erm, no, theatre-goers weren’t ‘asked to give’ shit; we bought tickets from the website just as we normally would and were stuck with whatever price point we could get (the 10 pounders were gone quick and we weren’t ‘asked’ to give more) for whatever date they showed us first. Luckily we didn’t get stuck with the £65 tickets but man alive I can’t imagine paying that much to look at my computer, no matter how good the show.
