I'm Alive, I'm Alive, I Am So Alive

My time in New York is more than half over now. I just got home from seeing my second show. The first, which I saw yesterday as a Sunday matinee, was Eye of God by Tim Blake Nelson (Delmar from O, Brother, Where Art Thou?) which was lacking is so many fields. I believe the production would be considered off-Broadway (the venue contained 99-500 seats) but the facility, the seats the quality of the set were all great. However, the design was impractical and some of it was very poorly executed. A landscape printed on a cyc that comprised half the scenery was pixely and the positioning of the tables and chairs were huge sightline issues. Particular favorites of mine were when one character referred to his new cash register, then proceeded to slap around blindly offstage while cash register noises played and the classic phone hung on the wall by a bracket with its chord TIED TO IT making no attempt to disguise it as real.
At the end of the first act, it is revealed that the main character gets killed. The rest of the show is a plodding march towards the event actually occurring. The 12-year-old kid in the play wanted me to slip into a coma, as did the fresh blood stains on his shirt, which were clearly dry and dye. This was interesting to see just how ubiquitous bad theatre is; existing even here in the heart of commercia Americanl theatre. (Brief side note: there is a show out called Rock of Ages which is some juke box musical featuring all the classic rock songs you here blaring out of tow trucks and construction sites. Plot? I doubt there is one, but this might be Jon Reeves' new favorite show)

Now the show I just got home from is the talk of the town. It's called Next to Normal. While the story really grasped me only in a few particular instances, it did it very well, but much of the story arc didn't resonate with me -- perhaps because my student rush ticket was in the very first row and I could only pick out 1/5 of the stage at a time to focus on and anything occurring on the top two levels of the set were secrets kept from me. A perfectly-timed standing ovation might've left a bowing actor with a bloody nose. Seriously. However, the true heart of this piece was the performances as well as the subject matter they tackled, which I found particularly germain in a world of reliance on the uncertain field pharmo-psychology.

After the the show, I shook one actor's hand and told him it must be a dream come true. He agreed, and stared me in the eye and gave me a long firm handshake like I was interviewing him for a job. I hope he thinks about that, what I said to him though, because what he's doing is the dream of so many people, myself included, and it's something to keep in perspective and be grateful for.