A new and surprising Opera

Was just reading the NYT, and found a review of a new opera called "Jerry Springer" and it immediatly caught my attention. Here is a summary of the opera:

The first act, which depicts the taping of a fairly typical Jerry Springer episode (bisexual cheating fiancé, diaper fetishist, woman with strip-club dreams), surely has more obscenities per minute than any work that ever played Carnegie Hall. But it’s the second act, which takes Jerry straight to hell to arbitrate a debate between Jesus and the Devil, that has raised hackles high.

Well if that does not catch your attention nothing will. The interesting part is that according to the reviewer the show manages to be empathic and uses music inspired bot just by musicals but also by more classical operatic music. It seems like a real winner to me, we shall see if we ever get to see it in DC.

Schdenfreude

Last night we went to see Avenue Q, with a bunch of swimmers and assorted people, and it was so much better than I expected it to be. It was one of those musicals where the every song is terrific, every character is likeable and every situation is somewhat real. I am sitting here in my desk on Monday morning and I am still some what amazed at the creativity of the people who wrote the book, the music and who came up with the concept.

The show is both a parody of Sesame Street and real life, and what real life is supposed to mean. It starts with a young freshly minted college graduate moving to Avenue Q, and what happens in his first year out there. The show is always ironic and raunchy, but it might be because of the use of puppets that you can just take it all in and enjoy the ride. I had listened to the entire sound track 3 years ago, when the show opened and everyone I knew had either seen it in NY or had heard about it, I remembering listening to it at the Architect’s house and going to next day to purchase it. As I played the entire cd, I fell in love with most of the songs, I specially enjoyed the “Internet is for Porn”, “What do you with a BA in English” and “Everyone is a little bit racist”. They were so different from any other songs I had heard in musicals before, and the seemed so fresh, and witty. When I went and saw it staged, the musical was even better because you get to see what happens in between the songs, and you understand the situations a little bit better and you get to meet The Bad Idea Bears, which are two adorable characters.

I loved the show, and yes I do recommend it completely. A big part of the experience was seeing the Argentine laugh uncontrollably at times, and few things make me smile more.

I do have to say that the show stands well against the test of time, in the early 00’s it was extremely relevant, with all the references to lay offs and young struggling college grads, I am by no means a young struggling college grad and half the show applies directly to my life. Of course the one line that will need to be changed next year is the one about how George Bush is only for now, which almost brought the audience to its feet. It was after all a Washington crowd. But I am sure they can find some other name to use when the times come to show how things are truly mostly for now.

Theater Whore (or every gay man's fantasy)

My last week in NY was very hurried, I had lots to finish and I was excited I was coming back to a semi local project. M and L, wanted to party like it was 1989, but I remember 1989 and I was not in for a week of late evenings and tens of G&T’s. I thought and thought, and the solution came to me via the NYT Theater page, why not just get tickets for shows, and then have an excuse to not have to go out. Monday I got my credit card out and bought three tickets, one for a Broadway tradition, one for a new show very off-Broadway and the last one for the next big hit. So happily I did what any other theater loving fag would in NY, watch a show every night.


The first show is Forbidden Broadway, this year’s show is called Rude Awakening, and it contains spoofs on Spring Awakening, Company, Grey Gardens, Les Mis, The Little Mermaid, Lion King, etc, etc. Almost every show was made fun of. I specially enjoyed the ones on Spring Awakening, that were dead on and made me think about how Broadway manages to be very shocking at first, but after they have done something, it becomes almost main stream. The show chide all the other shows, for being too commercial, for not being original enough, but it does it with love and admiration and with a big dose of reason. The women seated behind me, clearly a pack of Midwesterners on the prowl, thought they had come to see a completely different show, and when they saw the small theater and the lack of great decorations were a bit disappointed, but as soon as the songs started targeting the better loved musicals knowing by everyone they were fine. The leader had to apologize for choosing this show and not The Phantom.


The second show was a small production, with three actors in a theater that holds maybe 60 audience members. It is called Speech and Debate, and it is the story of three teenagers that come together for a Speech and Debate Club, because they are all outcasts, the club allows them to tap into the schools resources for purposes all their own. There is the attention starved girl, the new gay guy and the nerd. I can not give the plot away, cuz I have a feeling we will be seeing this show in DC soon, it managed to meld blogging, chatting and a traditional school format very well. The show was produced by Roundabout Theater Company as part of the Underground Program. This program tries to produce new author’s work, in a professional environment. One of the strengths of the show was the setting; it looked and felt like a classroom, and the direction. For this piece the Roundabout got same person that directed Avenue Q. This is why I like their productions; they try something new but make sure it is never amateurish. I am sure Studio Theater will have to bring this to DC, besides the production was cheap.

The last show I saw, as Young Frankestein, the new Mel Brooks musical. It is a big show, I mean big, with big stars, great sets, special effects. It has it all except great songs; well I guess Deep Love is a memorable song, but not really a musical hallmark song. The same criticism can be made of The Producers, it has no timeless songs, that can be taken out of context. Still the show is worth it, the cast is great and the story is very funny. I do recommend buying the tickets at the box office, because no one else (except scalpers) will have them in the near future. Andrea Martin, playing Frau Blucher, steals the entire show, even from the ever watching eye of Megan Mullaly, and a nymphomaniac Bride of Frankestein, er Frankesteen.