A celebration of choices!

This post will be a celebration of choices I thought were particularly strong when looking back on all the theatre I saw this trip. At times it may not actually be choices because I got distracted but hey ya know ya love me.

• In A School For Scandal, I absolutely loved the choice of color palette. I loved the way one line, which was certainly written originally to be “oh, I think he might be by” (I think he might show up) was delivered as “oh?! I think he might be bi!” as in bisexual. A nice little acknowledgement of all the queer aesthetics in that show, especially with as little actualy queerness as there was.
  
  

• I also want to appreciate maybe the best joke in this entire trip, which was from costuming in this show. Lady Sneerwell having an absurd, PURELY HORIZONTAL hot pink rectangle dress, so over the top she can barely walk down the little catwalks: hilarious. beautiful. perfect. But then she changes costumes for the last two acts of the play… INTO AN IDENTICAL DRESS IN BLACK. I laughed for an embarrasingly long amount of time at that.
  
  

• While we’re here, a hot take for this show: They should have made Snake non-binary! No reason not to. It’d put more actual queerness in the show, and I love the image of a slippery gossip writer throwing all these rumors about men and women around and forging their letters being a little bit intrinsically seperate from their man-woman dynamics. It’d give them a fun little bonus motivation into why they find the whole thing funny and just prance around! Besides, there’s nothing gendered about Snake, and his outfit is already androgynous splendor. I was honestly a little disappointed when someone refered to Snake as “he”! I kind of assumed he was non-binary!!
  
  

• There were so many amazing choices in The Taming Of The Shrew, just sort of intrinsic to doing such a high concept version of the show. I loved how Caroline said that the Globe is essentially doing a classic Shakespeare Comedy, History, Tragedy trio but by playing Shrew as a tragedy!
  
  

• For a more specific choice: I loved the choice to have a stranger in really modern, though not thematically out of place, clothes standing around in the first half just sort of rushing scene transitions along. What are they doing there? And then, in the second half, when they actually get their character, and it’s that guy’s father? (I don’t remember names, sue me.) Who is played as this forceful, meta-powerful being that forces Kathryn-actress back into Kathryn? AND HAS A GUN? If you choose the high concept Shrew that this company is making, there’s a lot of things intrinsic to that concept that you’ll have to do and show. But this character? Not one of them. Just a really great idea, a great little twist, set up so well… I love it.
  
  

• In People, Places and Things, I loved the staging of the extra seats behind the action. It works so well thematically with this character who is always performing and making points about acting and life being literally surrounded by viewers. Fantastic!
  
  

• In Starlight Express, they do some fantastic cross casting! So much so that I’d never have known or thought about how sexist the original was (originally the racing engines were universally male, the helpless coaches were universally female). There’s a mix everywhere in this cast! Rusty is inspired by his strong, retiring Ma instead of his father! The kid playing with these trains is a little girl! There’s feminine male coaches! Greaseball is a butch lesbian!!! AHHHHHH!!!! It’s done so seamlessly, so well.
  
  

• I LOVED the layout of the physical space in Bigger and Closer. Having the audience enter via a balcony with stairs leads to such a natural moment of arriving and staying at the balcony for a little while because you think “hey, I can see the whole show from here! this is the best spot!” until eventually you realize no, not smaller and further away, BIGGER and CLOSER and you go find a spot, maybe in the bleachers, then you want to go sit on one of the rock things, and then like me you end up sitting on the floor, completely immersed, trying to be as close to Hockney as possible. Such an incredible moment of the space aligning with the piece.
  
  

• The casting in Hadestown is perfectly unique and perfectly executed. Hermes being played by an indian woman gives a whole new take on the character that evokes the indian maternal figures I’ve had in my life, and it’s a really incredible take on the character. The humor works so well in this context, and the character is a little more maternal towards Orpheus while also kind of snappy, jazzy, and of course, hard hitting. Like I said: indian maternal figures. I just look at her and see my high school chemistry/research teacher that I was so close to.
  
  

• Additionally, Orpheus was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen, of anything, with a skinny little Irish actor with a thick accent. The choice to have every actor perform in their natural accent and not fake an american one like some musicals works incredibly well, in execution and in terms of themeing. I know Orpheus is based on folk characters (and,, communism) but the character also works fantastic as Irish, perfectly at home in this accent.
  
  

• The actor for Hades giving a performance that is at times very goofy is initially offputting, but seeing a man who let his power make him full of himself, when once upon a time he just made his wife laugh? Really, really well done. It even evokes more modern robber-barons (cough elon musk cough) who are this weird and unnatural type of funny that is fueled by being surrounded by Yes men who always laugh at their jokes. So many strong choices in the West End’s Hadestown.
  
  

• In Slave Play, I adore the weird mirror set, which is unnatrually polished and has this creepy slightly blue-grey hue. And the backstage being flooded with light whenever the wall opens so we can’t see inside? Fantastic.
  
  

• I love the choice to have the one character who insists he is “not white” to never have whatever ethnicity he says he is “revealed”, and also to be completely inscrutable,, I just love that character. I’m bad at names but you know who I’m talking about!! The script has casting that says he is “white, but a dirty white, the lowest kind of white” and that’s so great. Jeremy O Harris, man. Wish I’d seen him in
  
  

• Echo, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of despite being absolutely intrigued by the concept. I’d love to write something like it about transtion. I think the instant stooging of an actor like that could work really, really well for the feelings that accompany transition: The confusion and unease, feeling lost or alone in a world that you’re not interactign with, not really. That pre-transition unease feels a lot like being in a play where the main character didn’t show up, and you’re their miscast understudy. You don’t know what to do. Everyone is expecting something or someone that doesn’t exist and that you aren’t. You should know how to act, but it all feels foreign and even with repitition, it’s never natural. Your performace feels stilted, as if you’re barely off book, when you know that it’s just the wrong role. I think you could do something really beautiful with that idea and the instant stooging and i’d like to write it. But that’s not a choice – oops. Twas a tangent.
  
  

• A choice I did really love in Echo were the moments of banter between the actor and the creator. To ask your actor, do you like my work? Do you like being in it? What do you think about what I’m saying? It worked really well in telling the creator’s story, of writing and knowing and immigration and stories and origins. I love how many plays on this trip tackled such big concepts.
  
  

• Here’s a show that deals with big concepts: Mnemonic. I love the choice to give people eye masks. You were already turning off the lights. You could have just said “close your eyes”. But no, you lay out hundreds of bags every show to give people physical objects. To really push them to blind themselves. I love that choice.
  
  

• I loved the decision to have so many background characters in Spirited Away that don’t actually do much. Like those weird red lady things. They were just there to dance in the background sometimes! And they were such a big costume! Commitments to creating such a complete environment like that are what made me really love the show, and shows they respected the original animation medium that was probably best suited to making a complete visual environment like that.
  
  

• I loved the choice in Fawlty Towers where they decided the play was over. I wish they’d made that choice sooner.