Laughed Till I Cried
This past weekend was Usher Weekend at Arena Stage - I ushered a matinee on Saturday, and another on Sunday. (We needed to shift one show from our usual date, because of the Thanksgiving holiday.)
The first show, SHE LOVES ME, was a little jewel of a show. It's set in 1930's Budapest, in a parfumerie (which was created on stage with lighted glass boxes that rose up from the floor, filled with shimmering bottles and containers - a perfect complement to the show.) The musical is based on a play, which also became a movie in the 40's (or 50's?) and in the 90's - it's YOU'VE GOT MAIL, in one of its earlier iterations. Of course, Mark and I were Extremely Amused at the notion of a couple meeting in writing before they met in person (for newcomers: I met my husband on Match.com). And we were Tickled Pink by the song about finding true love in a library. All in all, a fun afternoon.
But the second show, NOISES OFF, was one of the most successful shows I've ever seen. Written by Michael Frayne (whose extraordinarily different work I saw in COPENHAGEN), NOISES OFF is a farce about a theater company staging a farce. The first act of the play is a dress rehearsal for the play-within-a-play. The second act is what goes on backstage, on opening night. The third act is what goes on onstage, later in the run.
The writing is brilliant - it tells the audience what to expect (at the dress rehearsal) and then plays with those expectations throughout. The characters are sharply drawn - there's no attempt to make them realistic (there's the Ingenue; there's the Leading Man, etc), but they work like expert bits in a machine.
And the show is funny. Hilariously funny. Laugh-out-loud until your sides hurt, your cheeks ache, and tears are streaming down your face funny.
I've often told people that I'm a humorless bitch, and that they shouldn't look to me to be amused by movies, plays, books, etc that most people find amusing. But everything about NOISES OFF just *worked* for me. If you're in or around DC, check it out - the official run starts this week.
Mindy, thinking about the nature of comedy and how to make it work...
The first show, SHE LOVES ME, was a little jewel of a show. It's set in 1930's Budapest, in a parfumerie (which was created on stage with lighted glass boxes that rose up from the floor, filled with shimmering bottles and containers - a perfect complement to the show.) The musical is based on a play, which also became a movie in the 40's (or 50's?) and in the 90's - it's YOU'VE GOT MAIL, in one of its earlier iterations. Of course, Mark and I were Extremely Amused at the notion of a couple meeting in writing before they met in person (for newcomers: I met my husband on Match.com). And we were Tickled Pink by the song about finding true love in a library. All in all, a fun afternoon.
But the second show, NOISES OFF, was one of the most successful shows I've ever seen. Written by Michael Frayne (whose extraordinarily different work I saw in COPENHAGEN), NOISES OFF is a farce about a theater company staging a farce. The first act of the play is a dress rehearsal for the play-within-a-play. The second act is what goes on backstage, on opening night. The third act is what goes on onstage, later in the run.
The writing is brilliant - it tells the audience what to expect (at the dress rehearsal) and then plays with those expectations throughout. The characters are sharply drawn - there's no attempt to make them realistic (there's the Ingenue; there's the Leading Man, etc), but they work like expert bits in a machine.
And the show is funny. Hilariously funny. Laugh-out-loud until your sides hurt, your cheeks ache, and tears are streaming down your face funny.
I've often told people that I'm a humorless bitch, and that they shouldn't look to me to be amused by movies, plays, books, etc that most people find amusing. But everything about NOISES OFF just *worked* for me. If you're in or around DC, check it out - the official run starts this week.
Mindy, thinking about the nature of comedy and how to make it work...
Reading your posts about ushering always makes me miss theatre. I stopped being involved in a community theatre on the Eastern Shore of Maryland almost four years ago, and that itch has come back something fierce this last year. I find it incredibly amazing that the theatres local to Bowie, MD are not at all interested in taking volunteers. I sincerely need to do research on other areas nearby in order to facilitate this growing need of mine to be near a stage again.
Of course, with a show like that, once is never enough. So many minor things are constantly happening, you pick one character/pairing and just ride the waves of laughter. I wish we could have gone back during the run. Heck, I wish I volunteered and could have seen the show over and over again.
I am looking forward to seeing "She Loves Me" next week, though. I like musicals, and I really like "The Shop Around The Corner" (the first movie version, which I saw in Vienna the semester I was studying math in Hungary).