Theatre Talk: In Our Own Little Corner

[Ohiopirate02]

I am a bit sad that I never made it to NYC to see Phantom, but I'm also hopeful for a revival in a couple of years.  I would love to see an updated version with costumes not designed in a 80s cocaine fever dream.  

[aradia22]

I was watching On Stage... the trailers haven't been released yet but the press/promo footage from A Beautiful Noise and &Juliet makes them look very fun. Who knows what the actual shows are like but A+ on filming them to look amazing. 

[DisneyBoy]

This is really unfathomable.

I realize the show wasn't going to last forever. I really didn't see this coming however.

People are saying this is about Cameron trying to squeeze the estates of the creators out, which requires closing the show, leaving it closed for three years and then remounting a new version with different choreography, direction and sets (it takes three years of being closed before you can reopen and be eligible for the Tonys apparently).

So a measure to increase profits...awful.

Phantom is beloved, has an amazing score and will obviously continue to make Cameron money in the future. But this original production - the most lavish thing on Broadway...which brings tourists back for regular visits...which recently got funding from the state to get back on it's feet after covid - isn't important enough to keep around?

Edited September 19, 2022 by DisneyBoy

[DisneyBoy]

On 9/16/2022 at 5:34 PM, Ohiopirate02 said:

I would love to see an updated version with costumes not designed in a 80s cocaine fever dream.  

...what's this now?

I can think of only one costume that looks pretty weird (up-close). But the costumes are really beautiful otherwise. Maria did incredible work.

And if you really think an "updated" version will look better, please, by all means, check out the video clips from the recent re-imagined tours or non-replica productions. Just don't eat first.

[aradia22]

https://variety.com/2022/music/news/netflix-bridgerton-musical-lawsuit-dropped-barlow-bear-1235382454/

Quote

Netflix has settled a copyright lawsuit that it had filed against the creators of “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical.”

The streaming service dismissed the suit on Friday against Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow, the creators of the musical. Though the court filing did not say so, a source confirmed that the suit was in fact settled. The pair had earlier canceled a performance of the musical at Royal Albert Hall in London, which was to take place this week.

Netflix sued in July, alleging that Barlow and Bear had infringed on its copyrights by putting on a for-profit stage show at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The service argued that their conduct “stretches ‘fan fiction’ well past its breaking point.”

[...] Barlow and Bear had yet to respond to the lawsuit in court. A response was due on Thursday, but instead Netflix filed the dismissal on Friday “with prejudice,” meaning the suit cannot be refiled.

Neither Netflix nor representatives for Barlow and Bear responded to request for comment on Friday evening.

[Dr.OO7]

Phantom Of The Opera has begun its promotions for its final months:

I'm going to see it 6 times between now and February 18 to bring the total number of times I've seen it to an even 20 and also so that the majority of times will be with a black actress in the role of Christine. I went by the box office the other day and they'll apparently release the final block of tickets in November. I'm making sure one of those six times is for the 35th anniversary performance.

It's a shame that Norm MacDonald will be Broadway's only African-American Phantom. I'd hoped I'd get to see Derrick Davis or Quentin Oliver Lee (who did wonderful jobs in the touring production).

Edited September 27, 2022 by Dr.OO7

[ebk57]

I'm heading to NY for a short trip tomorrow and thought since Phantom has Thursday matinees (and there are discounts!), maybe I'd go.  Then I realized that I'd managed to see it only once (in London, about a week after it opened back in the Stone Age) and if I'd wanted to see it again, I certainly could have.  But I didn't.  So I won't. 

(And it's Norm Lewis, not MacDonald.  Although Norm MacDonald would have been an interesting casting choice...)

[aradia22]

I watched the videos on their website and there are just too many other things I want to spend money on this year (now that opera, concerts, etc. are back in the budget). Funny Girl, Encores, Camelot, A Man of No Importance... and maybe some actual Broadway shows ;)

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photos-Original-TITANIC-Star-Victor-Garber-Visits-TITANIQUE-20221005

[ebk57]

On 10/5/2022 at 6:53 PM, aradia22 said:

I watched the videos on their website and there are just too many other things I want to spend money on this year (now that opera, concerts, etc. are back in the budget). Funny Girl, Encores, Camelot, A Man of No Importance... and maybe some actual Broadway shows ;)

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photos-Original-TITANIC-Star-Victor-Garber-Visits-TITANIQUE-20221005

I saw this (not the show, the article) and it always makes me happy to see Victor.  If he was in the show, I'd have to go.  As it is, I can skip it. 

[Luckylyn]

How is Lea Michele Doing in Funny Girl?

Reviews for the show as a whole are mixed but Lea’s getting raves.  I really hope she’s changed and is treating her cast mates more professionally.

[Scarlett45]

4 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

How is Lea Michele Doing in Funny Girl?

Reviews for the show as a whole are mixed but Lea’s getting raves.  I really hope she’s changed and is treating her cast mates more professionally.

Me too. She’s such a talent, damn shame to have that be rained or lose out in parts because you are a nasty human. 

[aradia22]

I'm not sure if I can stand for three hours (plus time in line) for Funny Girl. I'm not in my twenties anymore. But I don't know how much I can budget yet. Hopefully they bring rush back.

I'm still waiting to hear what Only Gold is like. I'm getting zero read on anything released so far. I can't even tell what time/reality it's supposed to take place in.

I've been thinking about Little Shop of Horrors. I have until November to see Bryce Pinkham and it'd be fun for Halloween season.

I definitely want to see A Man of No Importance but not until November. Hopefully tickets aren't impossible.

I've been thinking it over and I think I'm going to skip Parade. There are still decent balcony tickets but re-listening to the score, I can see how Micaela and Ben make perfect sense vocally, but I can picture their performances and I'm not into it. Yeah, Howard McGillin and Grace McLean will be there but I don't think they have songs and while Paul Nolan might have book scenes, he seems to only have one or two songs (depending which version they use). If he was playing Tom Watson, that would be something. I'm not excited for Jay Armstrong Johnson as Britt Craig (he'll be fine but just... fine). I can't go just for A Rumblin' and a Rollin' and the big Leo and Lucille songs. I'm sure they'll sing wonderfully, but I just don't think I'll emotionally connect to Micaela and Ben.

Still thinking about Dear World. Part scheduling/part budgeting. If only it was in April.

[aradia22]

[Luckylyn]

@aradia22 

Great Broadway discounts on this website https://www.todaytix.com

[PRgal]

Les Miserables celebrated its 37th in the West End today.  They posted a video of a news report of the premiere on social media… note how Fantine’s wig has evolved!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjctVcwI2fY/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[Dr.OO7]

On 9/27/2022 at 5:16 PM, ebk57 said:

I'm heading to NY for a short trip tomorrow and thought since Phantom has Thursday matinees (and there are discounts!), maybe I'd go.  Then I realized that I'd managed to see it only once (in London, about a week after it opened back in the Stone Age) and if I'd wanted to see it again, I certainly could have.  But I didn't.  So I won't. 

(And it's Norm Lewis, not MacDonald.  Although Norm MacDonald would have been an interesting casting choice...)

Yes, I know. Damn autocorrect.

[PRgal]

On 9/19/2022 at 7:00 PM, DisneyBoy said:

...what's this now?

I can think of only one costume that looks pretty weird (up-close). But the costumes are really beautiful otherwise. Maria did incredible work.

And if you really think an "updated" version will look better, please, by all means, check out the video clips from the recent re-imagined tours or non-replica productions. Just don't eat first.

Costumes evolve over the years, even when shows don’t close.  Take a look at the Fantine wig in the original London Les Mis (clips from when it opened in 1985) to the 10th Anniversary concert.  And then now, too.  And the Fantine wig also depends on the actress’s skin tone. But this is Les Mis, not Phantom.

[Dr.OO7]

Since she had a remarkable theater career in addition to film and television:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna42421

This year sucks. 😢😢😢😢

[EtheltoTillie]

RIP Angela Lansbury.  I had never heard the songs from Dear World, and there are some beautiful ones on the OCA, which I just found on You Tube. 

Edited October 11, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Spartan Girl]

Imagine how traumatizing seeing the bloody Sweeney Todd cartoon poster was for me as a child, then later finding out that the crazy pie lady was my beloved Mrs. Potts.

All kidding aside, she was fantastic in both roles. 96 was a damn good run, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna miss her.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[Dr.OO7]

5 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

All kidding aside, she was fantastic in both roles

Her range was amazing. I grew up knowing her as a sweet grandmother type from "Murder, She Wrote". Then I watched "The Manchurian Candidate". Good lord, what an evil bitch.

[Spartan Girl]

Yes, for a woman whose trademark was her plucky matronly charm, she could pull off being an evil bitch spectacularly.

[LegalParrot81]

I was so lucky to see Ms. Lansbury in 3 broadway productions.  She was fabulous in each one.  The woman's range was amazing be it films, tv or broadway.  I still think her character in Manchurian Candidate is truly one of the most evil ever.

[Dr.OO7]

On 10/12/2022 at 10:09 AM, LegalParrot81 said:

still think her character in Manchurian Candidate is truly one of the most evil ever.

She really is. She's ranked very high on the AFI "Villains" list and it's well earned.

If anyone is planning to see POTO sometime soon, Emilie Koautchou will be on vacation from 10/31--11/9. Kanisha Marie Feliciano will be playing Christine 10/24 (a Monday evening), 10/29 (a Saturday matinee) and 11/5 (a Saturday matinee).

And this is the link to where you can enter a daily lottery for cheap tickets:

https://phantombroadwaylottery.com/

And to where you can get discounted tickets, but it's only good until 11/20. My guess is between the holiday season kicking off and the final block of tickets being released around that time, they're going to want to make as much money as possible:

https://www.broadwaybox.com/shows/the-phantom-of-the-opera/

Edited October 13, 2022 by Dr.OO7

[aradia22]

Hugh Jackman birthday celebration at The Music Man

[aradia22]

I'm sorry if it's behind a paywall but it's way too long to quote.

https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/1776-star-sara-porkalob-interview-molasses-to-rum.html

Wow. Just wow. Most actors aren't this bold when the show has closed... and it's still running until January.

[chitowngirl]

Well she sounds like she’s fun to be around-knowing she’s looking for a Tony nomination and a better rep when she’s only giving 75% of herself to the show…

[Jane Tuesday]

They sound exhausting, and the whole show sounds like a miserable experience, tbh.

I literally cannot imagine reading this article and thinking, "there's a person I want to work with." Good lord. 

[ancslove]

Holy hell, she is exhausting!  I also take great issue, as a non-Japanese Asian person, with her implication that violent supremacy is “assimilating into whiteness”.  

But beyond that, it must be exhausting to be around her and exhausting to be her in her head.  

[Panopticon]

It would be funny if the show’s creative team chose to cast her because they figured her smug disdain for everyone around her would come through on stage and suit the character she’s playing (which it does). 

[aradia22]

Quote

Well she sounds like she’s fun to be around-knowing she’s looking for a Tony nomination and a better rep when she’s only giving 75% of herself to the show…

I actually thought they made some solid, thoughtful points. And 75% doesn't really bother me in the context of her saying that you have to reserve some of yourself to function in the rest of your life ("How am I going to have time for myself, for my partner, or for my family?"), especially as she says she considers 1776 to be a compromise job and makes out Six to be a sellout job where they'd have to pay her a ton to consider it. 

But it is A LOT. They're very... honest. And while I don't think she ever misspeaks, everyone's not going to take that well and I'm not sure how it's going to get her closer to a talent agent (you should read her twitter to see what she's been "manifesting" or a Tony nomination. Even if you're ready to write off establishment theater, people in establishment theater are the ones who would nominate you for a Tony and they're still largely the ones who will bankroll any substantial project. But maybe she will get Instagram followers and clout.

Personally, I love mess so I was entertained and I did appreciate both their thoughts on the production and their revelations about what things were like backstage (e.g. not engaging with queerness, directing them to "posture" as men, the weird rehearsals where people were separated into groups). Though there's privilege in even making statements like this and the response she's been getting.

[Luckylyn]

How an incident at Hadestown connects to Patti Lupone’s tweet regarding her decision to give up her equity card.

I feel a lot of sympathy to the hearing impaired Hadestown audience member who got yelled at for having a captioning device that was mistaken for a cellphone.

[aradia22]

Quote

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Broadway composer Lucy Simon, best known for The Secret Garden and Doctor Zhivago, has passed away at the age of 82 from metastatic breast cancer.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Broadway-Composer-Lucy-Simon-Has-Passed-Away-20221020

[Dr.OO7]

I saw Phantom Of The Opera today with Kanisha Marie Feliciano as Christine and she was GLORIOUS. I enjoyed her so much that when I was leaving the theater, I went to buy a ticket for the 11/5 matinee (her next performance), but they were unfortunately sold out.

New Yorkers, if you want to see it before it closes 2/18/23, buy your tickets as soon as possible. I still have no idea when they'll release the final block.

[Dr.OO7]

Phantom Of The Opera has released a set of tickets through February 4. I just barely got one for the anniversary show.

The Premium seat prices are ridiculous, ranging between $300-400.

[ancslove]

Ryan Murphy is threatening a Glee jukebox musical stage show!

[Spartan Girl]

12 hours ago, ancslove said:

Ryan Murphy is threatening a Glee jukebox musical stage show!

[Dr.OO7]

This is a rather disturbing tidbit of information that makes "The Final Lair" sequence a little hard to watch:

https://www.onstageblog.com/editorials/2021/10/20/rebecca-caine-phantom

[EtheltoTillie]

I'm excited.  I got tickets for Leopoldstadt for December 16.

[EtheltoTillie]

Heard on the subway yesterday:

Youngish hipster carrying a skateboard.  Talking on the phone to his friend.  "Hey, I'm going to this show, it's called The Music Man.  Yeah . . . it stars Hugh Jackman.  I'm really stoked."  I wanted to say "Hey, you know he won't be Wolverine . . ."  but I didn't want to spoil his fun.  I like to think he enjoyed it.

Edited November 17, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Lady Whistleup]

I saw Some Like it Hot (still in previews). I wrote a review on my personal blog:

https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2022/11/some-like-it-corny.html

[aradia22]

Thanksgiving Parade performances 2022

Six: This feels like the song they usually perform so it highlighted how much of a weaker performance it was since I've seen it done better elsewhere. The sound seemed to get a little mushy whenever they sang as a group vs. as soloists. You could really tell who has high placement and who the real belters are in the group. It was nice to have a recording of the new cast members but that's about it.

Moulin Rouge: It was nice to get a peek at Derek Klena and Ashley Loren in these roles. It was just a little too chaotic for me. I thought it was filmed better than the Six performance but the timing of the orchestra/singers felt off. Seeing it like this made the choreo look unintentionally goofy and the medley was just grating. I don't remember this new medley well enough to know if they've changed any songs since it opened but compared to the movie it's just so much worse. It's harder to sing, especially live, (why the hell is Fidelity in there?) and it's so much harder to follow. The movie medley felt like they were grabbing pieces of songs to form a dialogue. The musical medley feels like they're trying to cram in as many references as possible and the switch of tempos, genres, etc. is jarring. I usually like Derek but I felt like he was trying too hard to make his voice sound deeper and fuller. He already has a rich tenor. I don't know if that was a wig but either way, Ashley's hair looked gorgeous. Maybe it's better in the theater but it seemed like the show is so busy they barely have a chance to focus on acting the material. 

Funny Girl: Lea has WON. SHE HAS WON. I cracked up laughing at the beginning of the parade. The lip-syncing on NBC is a little jarring after watching the in-theater performances on CBS but Lea's a pro from Glee so she knows how to lip-sync. I did think the rest of the cast was super awkward following her down the parade route. There's a reason you're static on stage. You can't act/react when you're walking like that when the focus character can't turn to look at anyone else... because you're all walking. Dumb. Anyway, things settled once they cut to the star. The costumes are still ugly, but God do I want to see her in this show.

The Lion King: Maybe some of those costumes read better in the theater but I feel like they could be a little refreshed/updated. Some of the design and the puppets really are stunning though. It still holds up. And the current Rafiki sounded great.

Some Like It Hot: Natasha Yvette! So happy to see her getting to shine. Mixed feelings on the costumes. I liked some elements, but they also looked shiny and cheap. Maybe it works better on stage under the lights. I've heard this song before. Of the ones I know, this felt like a smart choice. It's tuneful, the lyrics are decent, and it's pleasantly Cole Porter-adjacent. I get what people mean about it being a lot of tap... it felt like a lot even for that one number but it might be a choreo thing.

A Beautiful Noise: Love seeing a truly diverse ensemble. I don't know if they all have speaking/named roles in the show, but if not, the casting is even more impressive. Maybe he's altering it slightly but unless we accept the premise that Will Swenson sounds like Neil Diamond, that's just Will Swenson's voice. The man has a very distinct voice. It sounds unchanged to me. It's already doing well but they definitely sold more tickets on the promise of a Sweet Caroline sing along. (I still don't know what that song has to do with sports.) 

[aradia22]

Warning: Do NOT click to look at the comments in the thread. It's not worth it. 

[Dr.OO7]

Good news, Phans!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2022/11/29/theater/phantom-opera-broadway-closing.amp.html

Phantom Of The Opera has extended it's closing date to April 16, thanks to the inevitable spike in ticket sales that happened after the closing announcement. The final block of tickets will be on sale at 100AM EST tomorrow, but not for the final show, which is being reserved for alumni and family/friends.

ETA that I just bought two more tickets to make it an even 20 times that I've seen it. I was determined to sit in the orchestra one last time until I saw that the seats cost a whopping $500. I settled for the front mezzanine, which overhangs half the orchestra section anyway.

Edited November 30, 2022 by Dr.OO7

[Spartan Girl]

In a few weeks I see Pretty Woman at Wharton Center. But my theater no longer enforces masks unless the show requires it, and as of now, the show has no protocols. Up until this point I’ve always felt safest seeing a show there because of the mask rule, even if there were some dumbasses wearing it under the noses. Now, even though Mom and I will still wear masks, there won’t be that safety net—I’m not optimistic that the majority will still wear masks. And seats, needless to say, will not be spaced out.

The theater does as least have the air filters. I WANT to see the shows; giving up our tickets is not at option. But I’m still scared.

[aradia22]

You know I take forever with reviews if I don't jump on it immediately. I'm working on it but for now I'll say that I saw 1776 last month and I saw KPOP tonight. They are flawed productions but they have definite redeeming qualities (which I will hopefully enumerate soon) so if you're on the fence, I would go, but only if you can get an affordable ticket (in both cases). 

[aradia22]

@Spartan Girl I don't know if this helps, but I'm also very cautious about covid and I felt fine at my last two shows. At 1776 I think I was the only one in a mask (the usher was wearing his wrong). There were more people masked at KPOP and they were all wearing their masks correctly (mostly N95/KN95s too... which makes sense if you're going to bother to wear a mask at this point). Granted, 1776 was undersold and KPOP had well-spaced seats but I didn't feel anymore nervous than I would going to the grocery store. If you feel good about your N95/KN95 and you're not immunocompromised, I think it's okay. 

Of course, I did have a practice run in the summer with Into the Woods where I did freak out about people mostly wearing masks but mainly surgical/cloth masks and also how packed the theater was. I might freak out again having to go to the Met Opera and Carnegie Hall which are more sardine-like. But try to calm down before you go and evaluate how you feel when you're there. You might be pleasantly surprised. Also, I've gotten lucky and not had anyone sneezing or coughing near me. You can always leave or ask to be moved if there are bad vibes like that. 

[Spartan Girl]

@aradia22 That does help, thank you. I don’t want to miss this season for anything: I’ve been dying to see Beetlejuice and Tina. And I’ve got some oldies in the mix like Wicked and Jesus Christ Superstar. I’m trying to remember that we’ve been to other places where there were people without masks. Who knows? Maybe most people will still wear them.

[Dr.OO7]

The Phantom Of The Opera webpage has been updated with a calendar to show availability:

https://us.thephantomoftheopera.com/tickets/

So you can save yourself the headache of searching for tickets on a date that's already sold out.

[aradia22]

Full disclosure, I'm not really in the mood to be writing but I have too many shows kicking around in my brain and I need to get some thoughts out... especially since I'm only going to be seeing more things in the next few weeks.

I'm starting with Ain't No Mo which I saw yesterday as I don't think sitting with it any longer is going to help. It's one of those shows that was a good experience in the theater but started flying out of my head as soon as I stepped outside. In this case it's because it's a little bit dense so it's difficult to retain without having the script in hand or being able to see it again. I remember the plot in broad strokes but not all the arguments and specific dialogue. (I am tempted to see it again but December is way too busy for me to be pulling those kinds of shenanigans.) I am glad that I saw it but I didn't find it to be the revelation some people are describing. It's just a very solid play.

The play has a wide reach, opening its arms to encompass many different ideas. It doesn't feel shallow but it does feel like a thought experiment or a gentle exploration even for all the moments that are challenging or incisive. Like, I cannot look at the play at the whole and say that it feels anxious or angry or personal or pained even though parts of it do. It doesn't have one driving force. But I also don't want to give the impression that it's confused or lacking in some way. If there's one unifying theme, it's a preoccupation with post-Obama America. I think it will help to talk about structure...

The play consists of a series of entirely discrete scenes linked by the overall concept of black Americans being offered a free plane trip to Africa. Except for the first scene, what this generally means is you'll be watching a scene and at some point the concept of the flight will come up and the characters will react. And in between all those scenes, you have solo monologues (though sometimes she's pretending to talk to customers or someone on the phone) from Peaches, the drag queen flight attendant scanning everyone in to board the flight at the airport. Personally, I found Peaches to be the most dynamic character because of the force of Jordan E. Cooper's charisma but it probably also helped that we kept revisiting her character so she started to feel like a familiar friend whose story was evolving throughout the show. I'd say the other big strength of the writing is how seamlessly Cooper is able to weave in cultural references. I don't know how the show will age (though a lot of the references are older/timeless) but they made the show feel more current and more in conversation with our world than plays usually do... seeming to try to exist outside of time divorced from pop culture or current/historical events. This play is the opposite of that. There has been some talk of Crystal Lucas-Perry maybe deserving a Tony for this. idk... it would depend on the rest of the season. She does play a lot of different characters but so do the other actors and I personally did not think her performance outweighed any of theirs. Time for spoilers...

Spoiler

Scene 1 is the funeral of Brother Right to Complain. This was the weakest scene for me as it felt like a simple premise (the irony of anyone thinking the election of Barack Obama would magically solve racial issues in America) that was driven into the ground. I think it served its purpose of engaging the crowd but I also hate audience interaction. Maybe it's because it was a matinee crowd but I also feel like forcing the audience to participate isn't that effective. You want the audience to be organically swept up. You can't just order people to stand up and dance 10 minutes after they just sat down, you know? It was a tough sell. Marchant Davis really leads the scene as the pastor with the female characters mainly reacting. 

Scene 2 is at an Abortion Clinic. It has a long silly name. This one is complicated. I think it might get accusations of being problematic but I didn't find it so. I think it was just structured too much around being surprising rather than letting us really appreciate the arguments and the characters' personal feelings, but it did feel balanced to me. Fedna Jacquet and Ebony Marshall-Oliver play two women sitting in the waiting room. Fedna is accompanied by Marchant Davis as the father of her unborn child. He seems kind of boorish and generally unsympathetic to what she's going through as he eats a bag of chips. The scene starts to turn as he increasingly starts to press her not to have the abortion and she argues with him. From Ebony's dialogue there are hints that all is not right and it becomes increasingly clear that Fedna is talking to herself as Marchant's character was killed in a police shooting. It's not merely a question of having a right to an abortion but whether you can stay hopeful as the parent of a black child. Shannon Matesky appears in the scene as another heavily pregnant woman getting an abortion and Crystal Lucas-Perry plays a TV reporter. Again, I did not retain a lot of this dialogue but there are some interesting points made between these two. Marchant keeps telling Fedna about the flight to Africa. Eventually she does decide to walk out of the clinic. Ebony takes her ticket to move ahead in line. I would not call this anti-abortion as two characters do go through with their abortions and Fedna's character never feels shame. I'd say it's constructed more as a choice she thinks she has to make because she has lost her partner (he's described as a hashtag name whose death received a lot of publicity to the point Ebony recognizes Fedna from the footage of the funeral) and doesn't feel hopeful about bringing a child into a miserable world. Totally fair if people dislike Marchant's character in this scene, though.

Scene 3 is a parody of a Real Housewives reunion here called "Real Baby Mamas of the South Side." I'd agree with those who have described this as one of the stronger scenes but really the play picks up momentum from here and doesn't let down. All four actresses are in this scene as the cast members on the show with Marchant playing the host of the reunion taping. Cooper has fun with the dialogue in this scene until we get the twist that this is all scripted by the white powers that be. For instance, Crystal's character is British and doesn't even have children. What is real in this scene is that Shannon Matesky is playing a Rachel Dolezal "transracial" character and there are real resentments between her and her castmates because she's just as offensive out of character. "Rashanda" does fire back at the other women about how she's been watching them act like this for 8 seasons but that indictment of how they've played into harmful narratives for fame/profit doesn't really go anywhere as the topic shifts. Matesky makes a meal out of this role. She's Rachel Dolezal but she's also Kim Kardashian and everyone who adopts a "blaccent" and really just the spirit of cultural appropriation. I wouldn't say it ever gets surreal but the dialogue Cooper gives her starts to feel bigger than any one person or even this character, but not in a speechifying way. The scene ends with everyone (except Rachel) getting an alert on their phones and leaving for the flight while Rachel is left to stand alone on stage, applauded by the unseen production members. 

Scene 4 happens around the dinner table of a wealthy black family. A painting of the deceased patriarch hangs on the wall overlooking the scene and it's very "sins of the father." This is a more surreal scene that blends figurative abstraction (big ideas) with literal absurdism (the spirit of blackness has actually been chained in the basement being fed literal dollar bills to try to turn it green). I don't know if she's the oldest, but Fedna plays the most entrenched sister, the one most resistant to giving up their status and way of life. I was not entirely clear on this but I think in this scene Shannon is another sister married to Marchant and Ebony is the third sister. At times Shannon and Ebony are tempted by Crystal (the spirit from the basement) but Fedna pulls them back. They all also participate in violence against the Spirit. I can see how this was a show off scene for Crystal. She does deliver some rapid-fire dialogue and really dominate the space. But... it felt very SNL. Just like a "big" performance. There are interesting points in the dialogue (again, so hard to retain) but it was a fairly simple concept. To me, the most striking points of the scene were in watching the physicality of it and also the appreciation of how inclusive Cooper chose to be in his discussion of blackness. It felt like saying 'this play isn't speaking for everyone, but I see everyone.' The characters in this scene know about the flight from the beginning and are also upset because their maid seems to have left for the flight. Marchant's character does make a point about how his family is from Africa and this solution is overly simplistic but that isn't deeply interrogated. The characters are committed to not taking the flight while the Spirit keeps urging them to go. The scene ends after their multiple attempts to kill the Spirit have finally subdued her... and there is the sound of police sirens outside. It's possible this is also related to their neighbor who called in the middle of the scene about the disturbance.

Scene 5 takes place in a prison as the last few inmates are being released to go on the flight. The guards will also be leaving afterwards. Cooper made these scenes very poignant and found a lot of empathy for the characters... they feel grounded and fully realized even without a lot of stage time. Fedna and Crystal play the two main prisoners who get a lot of dialogue and Ebony and Marchant play guards. To me, this is the real argument that Crystal is doing award-worthy work in this play. Though, maybe it's because this is the same theater as Girl from the North Country, but it bordered a little on stereotypes of neurodivergence. Still, I found both actresses strong in this scene. They don't really dig too deep into it but Ebony is the friendlier guard while Marchant is cold and keeps referring to them as "offender lastname." It's one of those times where the idea is there and visible, but not explored in the text. 

Scene 6 The play ends on Peaches. Throughout there have been mostly comedic scenes of her interacting with passengers, urging her friend to hurry up, making references to President Obama and VP Kamala Harris flying the plane... There is an earlier dramatic monologue where she talks about how she was attacked by men just the night before for being in drag and those same men are somewhere in the crowd that she's checking in. But this really wraps up the play and gives her heavy material. Peaches checks in the last passengers and receives a briefcase of cash for her work. She's about to board when she goes to pick up Miss Bag (the shiny mosaic bag that contains all the cultural production of black people in America... a bag where Peaches earlier instructed everyone boarding the plane to drop things of such significance). But the bag is stuck. She tries and argues and fights with the bag and eventually the plane flies off and leaves her behind. The walls close in and she's left alone, TPTB raining down cash to placate her but she refuses to be silenced. The grift of it seems to be allowing everyone to escape on free flights, but stealing their cultural production in the bargain.

I think this is the sort of play that starts a lot of discussions. It isn't making decisive declarations but I don't think it aims to. It isn't telling you exactly what to think. It's asking questions and pushing you to think. I don't think this is a weakness. It's still well-written. But it is a different experience than a play that lets you sit with the emotional journey of the same characters the entire time or has a project of trying to convince you of a singular POV by the time you leave the theater.