June 19, 2006

Hear Me, Broadway!

I do NOT like theater.

I find live performances to be overpriced and unpleasantly irregular and distant.

I do feel connected to the play just because there are people acting it out in front of me.

I do not appreciate the notion of a "collaborative" art.

I especially do not like musical theater.

I know! This is blasphemy in this town and among the gays. But it's a fact.

I was extremely annoyed when that stupid Rent song was on the radio all the time and everyone wanted to sing it out loud to me.

I went out with some friends from Georgia this weekend and they introduced me to several individuals involved in theater. I had nothing polite or meaningful to contribute to the conversation.

This is not to say that EVERY play is boring to me. It doesn't mean that I will shun every invitation to the theater or even that my attendance would be grudging. There are some shows I'm genuinely interested in seeing.

But, as a rule, I don't like theater.

Thank you.

Posted by Flibbertigibbet at June 19, 2006 12:00 PM | TrackBack
Comments

You probably haven't seen the right kind of theatre... or musicals. Here's a good rule of thumb: If tourists like it, it's probably bad.

Honestly, I don't get it. I've been to a couple really big tourist shows. I saw Les Miserables a few months before its close, and it was mediocre at best... and yet, the tourists still gave it a standing ovation. Tourists will clap for anything--it's disgusting. Count "Rent," anything Disney, and anything Andrew Lloyd Weber among tourist crap.

Often the best shows aren't even around for very long. "Take Me Out," (Richard Greenberg) for example, was probably one of the best shows I've gone to see in the past few years, and it was only around for about a year. Same story with "Glengarry Glen Ross" (David Mamet). Awesome show. Liev Schreiber was amazing. That show ran for less than 12 months.

Musicals are hard for me to swallow too. The dark and depressing stuff is usually good though: Stephen Sondheim is usually a good bet.

Posted by: Matt Chancellor at June 19, 2006 02:11 PM
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