The play's the thing

I've been all drama'd up the last few days!

On Thursday, I saw "42nd Street" at TUTS (Theatre Under the Stars) at Stanley Park.  If you know me, you know I'm not a big fan of musicals, but once a year, my sister-in-law and I go to Stanley Park to see one of the two musicals they run over the summer.  The performances are always lots of fun and very energetic and it's good for a little drama teacher like myself to embrace all forms of theatre, even those to which I am not partial.

I did not know the story of "42nd Street" at all, nor was I sure what songs it contained, but you didn't need to know either to enjoy the production.  The script throws in all the cliches that you might expect -- a young idealistic girl from Allentown, Pennsylvania arrives in New York hoping to become a star.  The director is a hard-driving force to be reckoned with who forces the "kids" in the cast and the chorus line to work until they drop.  There is an older actress/diva who expects everyone to cater to her.  The show is being bankrolled by a Philistine capitalist who is in love with the diva.  The diva isn't a good dancer but has a dynamite voice and has an actor boyfriend unbeknownst to the Philistine.  They open out of town and the idealistic girl bumps into the diva and breaks Diva's ankle.  "Oh no, the show has to close and all the 'kids' will be unemployed . . .  unless . . . hm, where can we find a young woman who can sing and dance and act?  Hm."

"Hey, what about that girl from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who we just fired because she broke the diva's ankle?  Hey, Allentown, can you learn ten dances and songs and pages of dialogue by tomorrow?"  She does!  She saves the day!  She becomes a star!  Sorry if I ruined the ending, but you knew anyway, right?

So okay, very hokey plot, but the actors really sold it and I'm always so impressed with the dancing.  I have two young sons and out of all the teams and classes and friends they've had, only one of the kids in their connection learned to tap dance.  But there are all these young people on stage just tap dancing away.  And singing and acting and sporting colourful costumes and it's just great fun and I would recommend it highly.  The other show is "Cinderella" and I bet that's fun, too.

Last night I saw a double bill of "The Room" (which people call the "Citizen Kane of bad movies") and then "The Disaster Artist" which is a movie by James Franco which is about the making of "The Room".  "The Room" is truly terrible -- badly cast, badly written, nightmarishly directed, no continuity, stiffly performed, actually embarrassing to watch and as one of the people in "The Disaster Artist" says, "it's like the people involved have never actually seen a movie".  This guy named Tommy Wiseau, who is kind of mysterious -- no one knows where he comes from (he has a weird accent and claims to be from New Orleans) or how old he is or where he gets his money (he has a lot) wants to make this movie and he wants to be the hero in the movie and so he does actually make a movie based on his own script.

This friend of his who plays the second lead wrote a book about the process of making the movie and James Franco optioned the book and made "The Disaster Artist" in which JF plays Tommy Wiseau and his brother, Dave, plays the friend, Greg.  I really enjoyed "The Disaster Artist" and was very impressed by James Franco (as I always am -- he is an excellent actor and quite smart, I think).  It was funny and also rather poignant (the best comedies aren't just yuck-fest in my option.)

It was fun to watch both of them in one go, but I don't think you need to see "The Room" in order to enjoy "The Disaster Artist".  As I said, I found "The Room" pretty difficult to watch.  Some of it is really embarrassing to see -- it's just so terrible and you don't know quite what to make of it and people announce they have breast cancer or a drug problem and then nothing happens about the announcement and the romantic or passionate scenes are too long and quite gross and there are all these shots of San Francisco which have nothing to do with the plot and there is no reason to call it "The Room" (except that most scenes begin with a shot of the front door of Lisa and Johnny's apartment)  and poor Tommy Wiseau himself is so hard to understand with his accent and his tendency to laugh inappropriately and his strange appearance (his costumes and his actual physical appearance).  But it is a bit of a pop culture icon now, so I did sit through it.

Tomorrow night, we're going to Bard on the Beach to see "Timon of Athens".  It's a Shakespeare play I don't know at all (I think I read it years ago, but retained very little of its plot or anything else).  The production is set in a city "much like Vancouver" and Timon is being played by a woman, so we'll see  how that will work.  I'm looking forward to it.  More on this later.

Boy, is it hot!  I wish we could get some RAIN!  Everywhere you go you see birds all fanned out in the grass with their mouths open trying to cool off.  Why don't they go into the shade?