January talking meme, day 13: innie_darling said Talk to me about theater - do you like to see it, what do you wish you'd seen, what should be made into a play, anything!

I...am not a huge fan of live theater. I find it stressful and awkward because anything could go wrong and the people are right there in front of you! I oddly do not feel that way about sports or concerts, which also happen LIVE! right in front of you! Maybe because they're unscripted (well, concerts have set lists etc. but it's not the same) and so the idea of anything happening is part of the appeal, whereas with theater, anything is not supposed to happen and yet I always worry that it will and it will be unbearably embarrassing for everyone involved. It's like my embarrassment squick is magnified by eleventy in person.

And this weird anxiety is worse now than it was when I was younger for some reason - maybe I'm just getting more nervous as I get older (which is kind of hilarious given how anxious I've always been). I used to go to the theater more back in my 20s and early 30s - not out of any personal desire, but because I had a friend who worked in the industry and got free tickets to stuff, so I saw Rent and I saw Le Miserables (which I was not a fan of at all) and what was probably the best live theater experience of all, I saw the revival of Cabaret with Natasha Richardson and Alan Cumming in the days before it moved into Studio 54, and we sat at a little cabaret table and it was amazing.

This is why I've never really been fussed about seeing Hamilton. Would I like to see it? Yes. With the original cast, even? Sure. But I feel like the OBCR is enough for me.

Of course, now I'm reading the book about the trials and tribulations of the Spider-Man musical, so I kind of wish I'd seen that for its trainwreck value. Otoh, that's exactly the kind of awfulness that makes me anxious, so it's probably best that I didn't. *g*

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Last night, L. and I went to see 90210 The Musical, which was pretty funny, especially if you watched the show, which I did for several seasons. It does a pretty good job mocking the show, though it goes hard at Tori Spelling, and sometimes steps over the line from funny to unfunny to flat-out offensive. But it was free, and some of the songs were very clever, and the cast reacted well when things went wrong (as things did with one particular prop, more than once), so I had fun.

Also they referenced "The Roof Is on Fire" and you know that always wins me over. I'm pretty sure I've told this story before, but since it's ridiculous and possibly untrue, here it is again: sometime during the 1985-86 school year, during an escalating prank war (that also occasionally included fist fights) between my school and its fiercest sports rival, allegedly the rival set our football team's bus (that they used to travel to games) on fire (no one was on the bus). (Francis Lewis Blvd = hotbed of juvenile delinquency, apparently. And also drag racing, iirc.) Which led to a slightly changed version of "The Roof Is on Fire" as that year's (unofficial but ubiquitous) senior quote: "The bus, the bus, the bus is on fire! We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn! Burn, motherfucker, burn!"

Oh, high school. I was miserable for a lot of it, but I do have some stories to tell. *snerk*

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My boss double-booked herself last night (she has a very active social life, though some of that is work-related stuff), so she gave me her ticket to The Village Bike, a play at the Lucille Lortel on Christopher Street. The seat was dead center orchestra, marred only by the very tall man who sat directly in front of me, and the very chatty couples on all sides of me.

The show itself was interesting. I didn't think it was as new and startling as Ben Brantley did in the review I linked to above, but I think being a lady internet pornographer also means I am harder to surprise with "revelations" about women's sexuality (e.g., that women like/desire sex, that it doesn't always have to be about an emotional connection, that women can enjoy porn etc.). I think the play provoked some interesting thoughts, but I did not find Becky, the main character, endearing or charming. She just didn't seem very bright to me (though I guess personal experience also comes into play here - I feel like I learned fairly young - 19 - that you should never ever let yourself be caught on camera and certainly you should never ever share that with anyone because you can't trust them not to share it with people you don't want to see it, and this was well before the age of cellphone cameras! And of course, this is the kind of thing the play should challenge - you, or me, or any woman, should be able to take sexy pictures or video and share it with a partner without fearing that partner will then share it with the world. sadly, that is frequently not the case. (and of course, in my case, I didn't know that I was being filmed. Which is a whole other kettle of consent issues)), while her husband was self-involved and oblivious, which he had to be in order for him not to notice what was happening.

It's about fantasies and how trying to make them reality never works out well in the end ( spoilersCollapse )

So I'm glad I got to see it, because it made me thinky, but I wouldn't have paid $75 for it, so I'm glad I didn't have to.

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