The weather has turned to shidooberry. It has been raining like it's 1999 (or whenever there was lots of rain) and since I have no umbrella I have had my fair share of soaking hair/jeans/socks etc.
BUT none of this matters cos I got to go to the theatre twice, courtesy of Lynne (and I will be forever grateful) to see A Little Night Music on Saturday and Red today.
ALNM was, in a word, sublime. And it took me a while to think up that word cos it was so so so good. Every performance by every cast member was beautiful. Couple of things struck me. One was the very close proximity of self to Catherine Zeta-Jones as I was sitting 5 rows from the very front. Another was how strong the acting was - I mean, duh, of course, we are on Broadway (as I found myself thinking when the women next to me remarked 'wow, like, all the singing is like good! But it's like, really good!'). But I mean in the sense that because it's musical theatre sometimes you can forget that it's about acting too cos you get so swallowed up by the singing and dancing. Not here. Catherine Z-J wasn't how I expected - she seemed so warm and genuine and fun, not like 'acty' at all, if that makes any sense. Kind of made me want to hang out with Desiree (her character). My utter favourite line was when the leading male character,
Frederick, introduces his 18-yr old wife to Desiree who is an old flame of his. Desiree is his age - i.e. much older than his wife Anne. So he introduces her 'my wife, Anne' and Desiree pulls her young daughter forward and goes 'and this is my daughter' - implying that Anne is more like his daughter than his wife. Made me laugh a LOT - her delivery was spot on.
Another thing that I noted was the design - of course the costumes were all sumptuous and realistic and made you take notice. The set however was constricted to the bare minimum - not in a surreal, 'representational props and human tables' kind of way but just that it was a perfect demonstration of how a naturalistic scene can be created with very little, if the performances are good enough to induce the willing suspension of disbelief in the audience. Which of course it was. I noticed this particularly because the last musical I saw was Wicked. Now I love Wicked - seen it twice! - but its so different in that it has huge lavish sets with moving parts and special effects galore. The complete opposite of ALNM. Both fabulous but it kind of draws a line between the two - the golden oldie, classic and long-established musicals versus the spectaculars concieved in more recent years. Of course I'm generalising big here, using these two specific examples to cover the entire musical theatre genre, but its something to consider.
Angela Lansbury was also hilarious every moment she spoke - she is well known but I think she deserves more of a Helen Mirren scale of adoration cos she is just fabulous in every sense of the word. Distinguished, talented, vivacious, elegant...love her.
I pretty much couldn't believe that I was hearing the same voice that sung 'All that jazz' in the opening sequence of Chicago the movie - live, right in front of my eyes. I thought C Z-J's voice was perfect for the role cos it has this kind of throatiness that belonged really well to the character she was playing - a famous, adored, somewhat flighty and reluctantly aging actress. Compared to the youthfully piercing sopranos of the ensemble and the character Anne, her voice conveys the 'aging' part perfectly, but this is in no way to its detriment. She has a gorgeous rich tone and it kind of swells out of her...wow I could go on and on about it forever. I won't though...y'get the gist.
Final note - of course I must mention the choreography, as it is really thanks to the choreography that I was able to see it! My favourite number was 'A weekend in the country' though it must have been a bitch to do as there was a lot of blanket throwing - not easy! But it looked lovely with all this fabric swirling around and levels changing all the time. Also loved the waltz - it was used both to open and close, but the closing one was best as it circled around Angela Lansbury's character who has just died and also Frederick, Desiree and Frederica all dance it together this time as a family instead of Frederica being left alone like she is at the start.
Right, 'Red'. Well.....this is tough.....see I've had a day to digest ALNM, but I'm fresh from seeing Red just a few hours ago and its still whizzing through my mind. Suffice to say it made me think very hard - I don't remember the last time I saw a play that had my brain buzzing quite so hard all the way through. It was a two-cast-member play - Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne being the cast members in question. This immediately tells you that it is going to be bloody good cos it is very very difficult to pull off a play stuffed to the brim with intensity with just two players
(ask Mick Keegan and Suzanne Hall). Red is about the painter Mark Rothko. He has just been offered a huge commission from the newly opening Four Seasons restaurant in NYC. The Four Seasons will be hugely prestigious, and Rothko will earn a huge sum for doing a mural to go all around its walls. When the story starts for the audience, he has just hired a new assistant, Ken. The play is about their 'journey' (ugh...sorry...that's a really shit word to use but its the simplest) and how Rothko kind of struggles between wanting to take this commission and not wanting to sell out. Ken shakes him up because he questions him and condemns his motives and tries to open his eyes, and Rothko shakes Ken up by trying to make him see cold hard truths...they both try to make each other see cold hard truths about the other while pretending that's not what they're trying to do...at least that's what came across for some of it to me. Script is amazing. Performances were bordering on the ridiculous...super intense but completely believable because of where we are and who we are talking about. You are sort of told outright 'this is Rothko. He is an artist. He is consequently a bit of a dickhead'. The whole thing is set in his basement studio. Red lighting hues abound. It is mostly dim and dark. This gives you 'sacred', 'oppressive' and 'creepy' all at once.
My favourite moment was after they have just finished prepping a canvas. There has just been a short physical scene in which they cover this huge canvas entirely with deep red paint. When it is finished Ken realises that it is the exact colour of the dried blood of his parents the morning that he discovered them murdered in their bed. Rothko forces the story out of him, and Ken tells it whilst kneeling on the floor, spattered with red. You can guess what image the director was trying to create - it's a story of bloody murder and he, his hands especially, are covered in red paint which is a very convincing blood-like shade.
The ending made me smile, though I could almost see it coming. It shows how underneath all the pretension and 'artiste' bullshit, Rothko is human and in spite of all his promises to both of them, they have developed a relationship that goes deeper than employer-employee and they have both gained some kind of understanding of the other, however unwillingly. I liked that Ken frequently challenged Rothko - you think at the start that he'll be this wimp who agrees with everything Rothko says but then he starts speaking up for himself even when he knows it will make Rothko kick off.
Both performances were unbelievable.
And theeeen....well of course I waited outside the stage door, playbill in hand. It took a long time but they came out eventually and they both kindly signed my playbill and I took pictures...in fact I had a picture with Eddie Redmayne, and also a short conversation with him (cos he obviously noticed that I'm a fellow Anglo and asked if I'm living here). And then I realised that I was shaking like a fool and had clearly fallen madly in love with him so thought I'd better make myself scarce. And had to work very hard to not go Gene Kelly on the way home - that is, the urge to swing on lamposts and click my heels with joy was almost overwhelming.
So now, finally, four years on, I have two signatures that have trumped Graham Norton. Still love ya Graham - but this is Broadway baby!
Oh gads I wish the photo uploader would hurry up, I can't take too long over these photos or my brain will fall out all over again and I only just squeezed it back in after actually meeting them.
Err...and that's Lucy Liu...she was in the play showing next door to Red and they came out before E.R and A.M so I got a quick snap in. She's prettttty!
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