recognito | rare late-month detour

I had the opportunity to see two plays this month and thought I'd do a short write up of both so I can give Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, which is, if I'm honest, about forty to seventy percent of my thoughts at any given moment... anyway. Writing about the plays now so I can give Rebecca a FULL GIGANTIC POST as she deserves. Maybe even two of them. God knows if I will finish this massive tomb this month.

1. The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions - Watched this at a packed house full of local queer people sourced from neighborhoods I'd describe as "happy going home from the club before midnight but mad the club's not open on Thursdays" and "very likely to be involved in a psychosexually unproductive polycule with mid drama." More audience interactivity than I was expecting, including a request for confessions (GIRL, I would NOT have admitted getting that NSA job!!!!) and prompting the audience to write a response to "what would you like to see grow in the new world" and turn in the paper, then attaching the papers to the "garden" at the end of the show.

I'd rate this a solid "okay" - largely because lol I feel like it was a play that wanted me to feel good and inspired, to understand that if we all pitch in and try, if we are earnest and good and empathetic and looking out for our allies, we can resist and it will be more than sufficient: it will be beautiful. I am not receptive to this type of messaging even when I'm not chugging the espresso depresso. I kind of feel like it needed to get uglier and rougher? It needed a bit more self-awareness of the real splits and differences within the queer community? but most people left the theater happy, and it enjoyed a sold out run and even had an extra performance. so I'm happy for the show.

2. Lord of the Rings: The Musical - I bought tickets impulsively on realizing that the next tour stop was going to be in New Zealand... fomo really gets me. Went on an open caption night for maximum accuracy in reporting.

Verdict: I have mixed but positive feelings on a whole. VERY derivative of the movies. The original West End run in 2006 was lol a huge flop. It should almost be self-evident as to why: the show runs two hours and forty-five minutes and adapts the entirety of the trilogy. It takes them a solid 40 minutes to make it to Rivendell. If you're hearing this and thinking, there is no way this can be good: yeah...

Rough notes and impressions: really beautiful costuming, fabric had some nice volume and movement especially for the Hobbits. score influenced by finnish folk rock and indian music, choreography also a highlight. I do wish they had not done the set to look so much like gnarled wood, even if it was probably the best choice for the selection of settings they had. Just about all the music is played by members of the ensemble or cast, leading to memorable moments where the Steward of Gondor, a mishmash of Denethor and Theoden, gets up and blasts some notes on a trumpet while Gimli rips out a sick solo on the guitar and Pippin plays the cello. Cast as a whole was local and pretty good to great. Some really great set pieces and even puppets. On a casting note, the only thing that stuck out for me was Galadriel, who brought a cheery and peppy vibe to the show that made me go, huh?! Turns out she's played Glinda and Elle Woods off Broadway. Makes a ton of sense. I did not love any of the songs and cannot remember the tunes for any of them.

The most obvious negative is the story and adaptation choices. A musical doesn't have to be great at story, right, but the music isn't super either, and the story and best scenes of LOTR are so familiar to the audience that it's impossible to not watch it and feel like it's not desperately trying to hit the big scenes everyone knows without having nearly enough time to make the scenes work. To me this is kind of a bog standard adaptation problem and basically a given for the three hour runtime. The adaptation problems are even that exciting to analyze--you know the type of problems it's bound to run into, and the musical runs into them without trying to evade.

The one bright spot here is the Frodo and Sam relationship, which gets adapted more or less in its entirety. Frodo/Sam has always been a story of love through difficulty, fear, and weakness and it remains pretty potent here, even abridged. The stage also adapts the Ring's seduction/corruption in pretty compelling way: when Frodo puts on the ring, the spotlight shines on him, the stage floods in red, Sauron's eye rolls in, and Frodo stands straight up and screams, "Sauron! I see you! I hear your call!" - very loud, not meek or frightened - very different from non-ring Frodo.

Gollum also a great part of the show and I am not afraid to admit that he ends up looking kind of ripped and hot (YOU HAD TO BE THERE!!!)??? maybe it's also that movie Gollum is SO small and SO pathetic and play Gollum manages to come off as bigger and taller than Frodo and Sam, and his movements are more grotesque and muscular than anyone else on the stage, even the Orcs, who never do more than some modern dance. He sings mocking parodies of Sam's songs and really menaces the Hobbits in a way he never really does in the film for those sweet, sweet problematic queer-coded henchman vibes. This is really one of the only sources of effective and exciting conflict and tension.

Would I see it again? haha no. but not mad that I saw it.