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Jesus Christ Superstar - 2012
Apr. 10th, 2020 09:54 pmFirst of all, if you want to see this production yourself, the link is here but only for a short time, so do that first.
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"Rebel Genius" musical
Mar. 13th, 2019 10:59 pmAttended a new musical about the life of Albert Einstein and his first wife. Called ahead for the possibility of rush tickets and was just told to get there 20-30 minutes early; did so, had to wait for standing room, sigh. But made it.
Here is a broad-strokes outline of the plot:
Act One:
-our hero is born, is brilliant, has daddy issues
-goes to college, hangs out with the bros, impresses them immediately
-is too cool for stuffy old profs who just don't understand him
-flirts with ladies
-publishes a bunch of papers in a short time
Act Two:
-seduced by another women who leads him to cheat on his wife
-wife is like "bleep that guy"
-his son is hurt and negatively affected by this and has mental-health issues as a result
-enemies are out to persecute him, not just because they don't understand his genius, but also because he's a member of a stigmatized minority group
-moves to NEW JERSEY and New Yorkers are horrified by this
-despite trying to seek peace, brings about an extremely weaponized and violent situation and is not happy about it
-his legacy? pretty much everything.
So...yeah, stop me if you've heard this one.
A couple other parallels from other plays: Max Planck is the Sir Lancelot of this group, portrayed as "not only am I incredibly smart and talented, but also I am phenomenally sexy and everyone wants to get in my pants!!" And the act one finale is kind of like that of Proof: "wait did a woman do all this math? That would be shocking and inconceivable, since women doing math is such an unusual and noteworthy thing!"
There were a couple cool ideas in the second act. The "general relativity is like a weight in a blanket" insight is "inspired" by his son jumping on the bed, which is so over-the-top that in context it actually works. And the stuff with the development of atomic weapons...I don't know, they seemed to be trying too hard to pull too many things together with "oh no I cheated on my wife who did the math, and now there are nukes, that sucks," but the "explosion" was pretty stunning in context. But yeah, in general, just felt like they were rushing to fit in too many set pieces/stock tropes.
Here is a broad-strokes outline of the plot:
Act One:
-our hero is born, is brilliant, has daddy issues
-goes to college, hangs out with the bros, impresses them immediately
-is too cool for stuffy old profs who just don't understand him
-flirts with ladies
-publishes a bunch of papers in a short time
Act Two:
-seduced by another women who leads him to cheat on his wife
-wife is like "bleep that guy"
-his son is hurt and negatively affected by this and has mental-health issues as a result
-enemies are out to persecute him, not just because they don't understand his genius, but also because he's a member of a stigmatized minority group
-moves to NEW JERSEY and New Yorkers are horrified by this
-despite trying to seek peace, brings about an extremely weaponized and violent situation and is not happy about it
-his legacy? pretty much everything.
So...yeah, stop me if you've heard this one.
A couple other parallels from other plays: Max Planck is the Sir Lancelot of this group, portrayed as "not only am I incredibly smart and talented, but also I am phenomenally sexy and everyone wants to get in my pants!!" And the act one finale is kind of like that of Proof: "wait did a woman do all this math? That would be shocking and inconceivable, since women doing math is such an unusual and noteworthy thing!"
There were a couple cool ideas in the second act. The "general relativity is like a weight in a blanket" insight is "inspired" by his son jumping on the bed, which is so over-the-top that in context it actually works. And the stuff with the development of atomic weapons...I don't know, they seemed to be trying too hard to pull too many things together with "oh no I cheated on my wife who did the math, and now there are nukes, that sucks," but the "explosion" was pretty stunning in context. But yeah, in general, just felt like they were rushing to fit in too many set pieces/stock tropes.
Scrooge's fears
Dec. 11th, 2018 10:23 pm
I recently saw a theater performance of "A Christmas Carol," which was performed as a one-person show. A lot of it was quoting Dickens' narrator in the book, so it was third-persony at times, but still had different voices for various characters.
This isn't specific to this production, and maybe is just a fluke of how my brain works, but it's interesting to me how the different chapters sort of build on each other, with Scrooge at first skeptical/freaked out when Marley appears, and by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come really terrified and determined to change his ways. Some of his "I will be a better person" starts before that, of course, but I think we're supposed to take away that the climax/biggest element in getting him to repent is the Future chapter, and in particular, the gravestone.
My question is...why? In particular, why that compared to, say, the Marley scene?
The future section tells us that, if things continue as they are, Scrooge will die alone and unloved, nobody will mourn him, people will steal his bed curtains, etc. Would Scrooge as portrayed at the beginning of the story actually...care about any of that? He's gonna be dead. Marley's death was similar, and Scrooge didn't seem to mind.
We also see the Cratchit family mourning Tiny Tim. This affects Scrooge, and that makes sense! Tiny Tim's fate is something that he can easily (in narrative) change by stepping in and supporting Bob. But in fact, Scrooge is so concerned about Tim that when he first meets him in the Ghost of Christmas Present section, he asks "what will happen" and the Spirit says "if things continue the way they are, Tim will die." Do we gain anything by seeing that "confirmed" in the bad future?
If I remember correctly, in the book Scrooge pleads with the spirit to say "whose name is that upon the stone, tell me this is just one possibility and not guaranteed to happen." The first part isn't exactly the same in the play, I think, but I'm guessing we're still supposed to infer "Scrooge is concerned that he was that dead guy he saw." (I.E. without context, his fear could be that the year on the stone is too close to the present, but I don't really think that's the point, and it's not like changing his behavior to be more moral is likely to make him any longer-lived.)
In contrast, Marley straight-up tells Scrooge, "I was neglectful to my fellow humans, and as a result, I'm cursed to bear this terrible chain and drag it around forever. If you don't shape up, you're gonna end up like me if not worse." This feels a lot more scary than "you will die and nobody will give a bleep." Like...everyone dies. And Scrooge doesn't seem the type to be concerned if people go about their business without him. Is he just too shocked at Marley's arrival to really process it? Is this just me projecting my thoughts/beliefs about afterlife/the infinite onto a cranky old businessman?
This isn't specific to this production, and maybe is just a fluke of how my brain works, but it's interesting to me how the different chapters sort of build on each other, with Scrooge at first skeptical/freaked out when Marley appears, and by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come really terrified and determined to change his ways. Some of his "I will be a better person" starts before that, of course, but I think we're supposed to take away that the climax/biggest element in getting him to repent is the Future chapter, and in particular, the gravestone.
My question is...why? In particular, why that compared to, say, the Marley scene?
The future section tells us that, if things continue as they are, Scrooge will die alone and unloved, nobody will mourn him, people will steal his bed curtains, etc. Would Scrooge as portrayed at the beginning of the story actually...care about any of that? He's gonna be dead. Marley's death was similar, and Scrooge didn't seem to mind.
We also see the Cratchit family mourning Tiny Tim. This affects Scrooge, and that makes sense! Tiny Tim's fate is something that he can easily (in narrative) change by stepping in and supporting Bob. But in fact, Scrooge is so concerned about Tim that when he first meets him in the Ghost of Christmas Present section, he asks "what will happen" and the Spirit says "if things continue the way they are, Tim will die." Do we gain anything by seeing that "confirmed" in the bad future?
If I remember correctly, in the book Scrooge pleads with the spirit to say "whose name is that upon the stone, tell me this is just one possibility and not guaranteed to happen." The first part isn't exactly the same in the play, I think, but I'm guessing we're still supposed to infer "Scrooge is concerned that he was that dead guy he saw." (I.E. without context, his fear could be that the year on the stone is too close to the present, but I don't really think that's the point, and it's not like changing his behavior to be more moral is likely to make him any longer-lived.)
In contrast, Marley straight-up tells Scrooge, "I was neglectful to my fellow humans, and as a result, I'm cursed to bear this terrible chain and drag it around forever. If you don't shape up, you're gonna end up like me if not worse." This feels a lot more scary than "you will die and nobody will give a bleep." Like...everyone dies. And Scrooge doesn't seem the type to be concerned if people go about their business without him. Is he just too shocked at Marley's arrival to really process it? Is this just me projecting my thoughts/beliefs about afterlife/the infinite onto a cranky old businessman?
