Category Archives: Play

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (NT Live)

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  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (National Theatre Live)

5/29/18 (Tues), Tokyo

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern get their day again in the Old Vic’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s through-the-looking-glass take on Hamlet, broadcast as part of the great National Theatre Live series. I always thought that Beckett did the two-man existential comedy act with more punch and efficiency, but R&G is a fun ride nevertheless and with funnier lines to boot (“We’re actors – we’re the opposite of people” “[He’s] stark raving sane” “Life is a gamble with terrible odds. If it were a bet you wouldn’t take it” “The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily… that is what Tragedy means”). Its concept of diving into a classic through its minor characters is feeling its age, partly because of the many imitations it has spawned (Wicked, anyone?), and the part with the players is a hippie touch stuck in the 1960s, saved only by a fabulously flamboyant performance by David Haig as the lead player. But the dazzling wordplay and audaciousness of the interaction between Shakespeare’s fictional world and Stoppard’s own are as fresh as ever. Continue reading →

London (May 2018)

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London (Apr 28-May 6, 2018)

  • Witness for the Prosecution, 4/28/18 (Sat), London County Hall
  • Chess, 4/30/18 (Mon), ENO
  • The Encounter, 5/2/18 (Wed), Barbican
  • An Ideal Husband, 5/3/18 (Thurs), West End
  • The Best Man, 5/4/18 (Fri), West End
  • Mood Music, 5/5/18 (Sat), Old Vic
  • Red, 5/5/18 (Sat), West End
  • Bedroom Farces, 5/6/18 (Sun), Fringe
  • Brief Encounter, 5/6/18 (Sun), Empire Cinema

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The Inheritance

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  • The Inheritance, Part 1, 4/26/18 (Thurs), Young Vic
  • The Inheritance, Part 2, 5/1/18 (Tues), Young Vic

The Inheritance, Part 1: The first half of a seven-hour portrait of gay yuppies in the Trump era — can’t get more contemporary than that. It is reminiscent of Angels in America in its epic canvas, multiple story lines, gay Manhattan setting, AIDS-related theme, broken relationships and up-to-date politics under a conservative government (plus a lead role that would be perfect for Andrew Garfield). But it is not as angry or preachy. Whereas Angels was written and staged at a time when the gay community was still finding its voice in the face of a mysterious deadly virus and social ostracism, the situation has changed drastically in the intervening years, with gays enjoying much higher visibility and widespread acceptance. The real difference is that this generation has no collective memory of the road that others had to travel to put it there, and the theme of the show is how to remember and deal with the past in order to appreciate the present. (Angels has its own issues in how it interprets the past, but that’s another story.)

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The Black Lizard (黒蜥蜴)

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  • 黒蜥蜴 (The Black Lizard)

1/27/18 (Sat), Tokyo

The latest rendering of Mishima’s overwrought, exceedingly talky but highly popular detective drama of 1962. I saw the traditional shingeki version ten years ago with the sleek villainess played by the legendary Miwa Akihiro, Mishima’s own choice for the film version (and supposed lover), and came out unsure whether I was seeing a serious rendering or a parody. This time was a new production by the celebrated British director David Leveaux, who, less tied to the old ways, would presumably be coming to the material with fresh eyes. I was also encouraged by good reviews by friends. The production was completely sold out throughout the run, but I managed to grab two day seats.

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New York (November 2017)

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  • Junk, 11/16/17 (Thurs), Lincoln Center
  • Torch Song, 11/17/17 (Fri), Broadway
  • Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, 11/18/17 (Sat), off Broadway
  • Time and the Conways, 11/18/17 (Sat), Broadway
  • The Band’s Visit, 11/19/17 (Sun), Broadway
  • Brigadoon, 11/19/17 (Sun), Encores!

A brief visit to New York on the way elsewhere. Shows I missed this time included Dear Evan Hansen (tickets impossible to get in the lead actor’s final days) as well as Hamilton and Bruce Springsteen (tried half-heartedly and unsuccessfully for the lottery for both). I decided against the revival of M Butterfly, one of my favorite shows, when I heard that the author had added a part describing how the Chinese guy disguised his “package”, which sounded much too literal for a show about illusion. (And I didn’t need another apparent reference by Hwang to small Asian penises, an obsession he needs to overcome.)   Continue reading →

Needles and Opium

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  • Needles and Opium

10/10/15 (Sat), Tokyo, ¥7,500

A revival of Lepage’s breakout one-man show of 1995 – a reworking really, since it adds a character and evidently ups the technology factor considerably. I never saw the original, but any Lepage show is an event as far as I’m concerned, so I bought the tickets without knowing much about it (and despite the off-putting title).

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Premium tickets: Don’t bring us your poor

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  • Premium tickets: Don’t bring us your poor

10/10/17 (Tues)

Add another exclamation point to Hello, Dolly! The NY Times reports that premium tickets to the mega-hit between now and the departure of superstar Bette Midler in January will go for an eye-popping $998. That “98” sounds like Walmart marking its prices just short of the next dollar mark, and it would be nice to think that the producers are embarrassed enough to want to avoid four figures. But we know, of course, that they don’t care a whit about what anyone thinks given the overwhelming demand and limited supply for their tickets (which will actually cost $1,009 with Ticketmaster’s usurious charges, reaching four figures anyway).

Once upon a time, the theater was at least nominally an egalitarian business: you stood in line, you got your tickets when your turn came around. You knew that everyone else in an orchestra seat paid the same as you did (other than perhaps discounted day seats). Black, white, male, female, American, foreign, tall, short: everyone had an equal chance at getting a ticket. Yes, scalpers always existed, and we all knew that the rich weren’t standing in any line for their tickets. But we could comfort ourselves with the knowledge that scalping at outrageous prices was at least illegal. Now it’s the producers themselves who are charging those prices, claiming that they’re being deprived of all that illegal money. Got it? Instead of finding ways to prevent illegitimate activity, they’ve simply made it legitimate.

They have every right to do so, of course; no one is forcing the public to buy tickets, and allowing supply/demand to determine prices is the very basis of capitalism. The limited supply of tickets has to be allocated somehow, and doing that through pricing is no less legitimate than through first-come, first-served, i.e., time vs. money. What that means in real life, though, is that like elsewhere in our society, the rich go to the front of the ticket line, and you, the not-rich, go to the back. The theatrical community no longer even pretends to be treating everyone equally. Fair enough. But when the largely left-of-center Broadway community goes on about diversity and the poor and undocumented immigrants and all that, their words ring awfully hollow.

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Taira Jo: The Blind Minstrel Orin (はなれ瞽女おりん)

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  • Taira Jo: はなれ瞽女おりん (The Blind Minstrel Orin)

10/1/17 (Sun), New National Theatre, Tokyo

The eclectic puppeteer Taira Jo is back with a series of three adult-oriented shows performed over three days. All the dramas highlight women, making for a theme of sorts, though that’s the only thing in common among them. Yesterday was Medea, a revival of the excellent production I saw some years back, and tomorrow is a piece by the aggressively avant-garde Terayama Shuji. Today’s sounded like a safer bet. This story was originally a 1974 play, which was novelized the following year and made into a film by Shinoda Masahiro in 1977 under the name “Ballad of Orin”, which I have not seen. Taira again played all the roles, helped by three hooded kurogo stagehands.

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All Nudity Shall Be Punished (禁断の裸体)

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  • 禁断の裸体 (All Nudity Shall Be Punished)

4/18/15 (Sat), Tokyo

150418kindan1 I knew nothing at all about this play, but the poster art was eye-catching, to say the least, and a bit of research indicated that it was a famous (or infamous) show by one of Brazil’s best known playwrights, Nelson Rodrigues. It also starred the great Shinobu Terajima, who was so memorable in the film Caterpillar, and Seiyo Uchino, a well known stage actor. Tickets were hard to come by, which made me all the more curious to see it. I wasn’t able to find much information on the show, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into.   Continue reading →

Hamlet (NT Live)

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  • Hamlet (NT Live)

8/3/17 (Thurs), Tokyo

An encore showing of the Barbican production, filmed by the National Theatre people. This Hamlet had broken records not only on stage but in its NT Live incarnation at movie theaters two years ago thanks to the popularity of megastar Benedict Cumberbatch as the lead. While I don’t get the sex symbol thing at all, he was excellent as the monster in the NT’s Frankenstein some years back (also a sellout here in Tokyo), and I’m impressed at any TV/film star who’s willing to put himself out there in a challenging role like this.  Continue reading →

New York (March 2015)

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New York (March 2015)

  • Semele, 3/8/15 (Sun), BAM
  • The Audience, 3/10/15 (Tues), Broadway
  • On the 20th Century, 3/11/15 (Wed), Broadway
  • Honeymoon in Vegas, 3/11/15 (Wed), Broadway
  • An Octoroon, 3/18/15 (Wed), Off Broadway
  • An American in Paris, 3/19/15 (Thurs), Broadway
  • Paint Your Wagon, 3/20/15 (Fri), Encores!
  • The King & I, 3/21/15 (Sat), Lincoln Center
  • On the Town, 3/21/15 (Sat), Broadway
  • Finding Neverland, 3/22/15 (Sun), Broadway

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