Sunday, October 14, 2012

Laughing Boy

You know, I just might not be cut out for live theater. Going to; not acting in.

I just don't think I appreciate the live art the way I'm supposed to, be it community, revival or Broadway (musical or non). I may have mentioned that earlier in the year when we went to see Spring Awakenings.

I know they have to play to the back of the house, but it all seems so over the top to me. Or maybe I'm just never in the right frame of mind when it comes to curtains going up.

There were no curtains in The Little Dog Laughed, and it was not a big theater.....though it seemed bigger, since half the seats were empty.

...and the little dog may have laughed, but I can't say this man chuckled or smiled too often - gay content, full-frontal male nudity or not.  (sorry, no photography was allowed.)

The four-member cast was iffy at best. The lead actress was in Spring Awakenings, and was too over the top, even for her role. The other woman was milquetoast at best. The two males, played gay, but judging how badly they kissed, I'd venture to say they were straight playing gay.

Yeah, they had not trouble showing their wieners, but if you can't even act like you can kiss, you can't go much further than that in terms of conveying emotion.

It was fun to go out with 710 and friends for dinner and a play. It was fun running into other friends and gym-goers at the play too, but still........the play was iffy.

Maybe I'm a naysayer (no....no......it could be true), but I seemed to like it less than others - or than others were willing to say.

I stand by my "review".



Song by: Hall & Oates

5 comments:

cb said...

Seeing bad theater just makes one appreciate good theater...

Harpers Keeper said...

cb is more succinct than I but the point is the same.

I am a total junkie for live theater so I've seen a lot of it, including a lot that was bad but still love the medium and the shared experience of seeing live performance in an audience with other people. "Little Dog is actually a good (not great) play. Sounds like you saw a bad production of it. (I like the set, if there is an actual door somewhere).

I assume you saw the musical adaptation of Spring Awakening. The (non-musical) play is very good but no one does it. The musical adaptation is hard to like even when done well (my opinion). It dumbs down the play, the music is derivative and not diverse enough to carry a stage piece. In the production I saw the actors had seen Rent too often. (They might have been good if they were actually doing Rent). It is also a tough musical to do in a small venue.

Raybeard said...

Sounds like this production goes under the heading of 'challenging' - or maybe it was just plain 'poor'! But please don't let this experience colour your general attitude towards live theatre too much.

Erik Rubright said...

Your photo of the set makes it seem like it was set on a Holodeck. Maybe you should have said: "Computer, exit."

Or better: "Computer, display a young, bearded Riker, naked."

Ur-spo said...

I enjoy live theatre as well - I am more willing to take a chance on a show than on a movie.