the spirit of the thing
Apr. 30th, 2007 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerSaw the very last performance of Studio Theatre's production of Martin McDonagh's THE PILLOWMAN. Aside from a whiny and distractingly-flaming lead actor, I can definitely see what all the big fuss about this play was. It's pretty damn good, far more enjoyable and rich (to my tastes) than any of the other McDonagh plays I've seen, and while I'm still not certain that the script doesn't have more than one plot hole or leap of logic... it's pretty damn great nonetheless.
But I would have done the play a bit differently. Studio's production was good, but me, I'd have pushed it even further. I want to see a golden era Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton do a production of this. My interpretation of this play would be PAN'S LABYRINTH meets Edward Gorey or Dave McKean, with Danny Elfman music. With John C. McGinley as the "good" cop. Heh, and maybe John C. Reilly as the "bad" cop!
Speaking of casting, man, I can't even imagine what Jeff Goldblum must have been like in the original NYC run, but boy oh boy, I'd have loved to have seen that. Billy Crudup would have been better than the guy I saw, but I dunno, I've never quite forgiven his horrid performance in BIG FISH. But the original London production of David Tennant and Jim Broadbent? GOD, I wish I'd seen that. Especially after seeing Broadbent in HOT FUZZ.
The play's dangerously close to being overrated (in my snobby opinion), if only for those iffy plot/character points and the fact that it became rather predictable in places, yet the ride was thoroughly enjoyable throughout.
What I particularly like about this is the fact that... well, it's a dark, evil, giddy, fucked-up little play, and yet it's somehow more uplifting and beautiful than most of modern theatre's "well made plays," as I previously ranted about a few weeks back. Well, "uplifting" may not be the way most people would see that, but I, for one, left THE PILLOWMAN with a smile on my face. Put another way, it's perhaps more "Hollywood," which would certainly jive with the fact that McDonagh's apparently a fan of Scorsese and Tarantino. It's less concerned with the moral ambiguities of the little ways people emotionally fuck each other over, as is the style of all "great" modern drama, and more about... well, just telling a damn good story! Or stories, even!
Even if it's still rather iffy in places, this might well be the best new play I've seen in awhile. Well, that and I AM MY OWN WIFE, which is what I saw on Broadway instead of PILLOWMAN a couple years back.
The photo shoot with Roy Cox went brilliantly. Tonight, he's gonna send me a link with about four hundred photos. I need to pick four. No more. And I already know that at least a hundred of those pictures are gonna be awesome, because Roy and I were on fucking fire today. And from them, I need to select just four (two from each session/outfit) to represent THE HEFNER MONOLOGUES.
To steal a gag from The Onion, this choice is gonna be harder to make than a Chinese woman who gives birth to septuplets.
I'm gonna try to lose at least ten pounds by the next time I see Roy. We'll do a whole Bill the Butcher/Victorian Heffie photo shoot next time.
But I would have done the play a bit differently. Studio's production was good, but me, I'd have pushed it even further. I want to see a golden era Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton do a production of this. My interpretation of this play would be PAN'S LABYRINTH meets Edward Gorey or Dave McKean, with Danny Elfman music. With John C. McGinley as the "good" cop. Heh, and maybe John C. Reilly as the "bad" cop!
Speaking of casting, man, I can't even imagine what Jeff Goldblum must have been like in the original NYC run, but boy oh boy, I'd have loved to have seen that. Billy Crudup would have been better than the guy I saw, but I dunno, I've never quite forgiven his horrid performance in BIG FISH. But the original London production of David Tennant and Jim Broadbent? GOD, I wish I'd seen that. Especially after seeing Broadbent in HOT FUZZ.
The play's dangerously close to being overrated (in my snobby opinion), if only for those iffy plot/character points and the fact that it became rather predictable in places, yet the ride was thoroughly enjoyable throughout.
What I particularly like about this is the fact that... well, it's a dark, evil, giddy, fucked-up little play, and yet it's somehow more uplifting and beautiful than most of modern theatre's "well made plays," as I previously ranted about a few weeks back. Well, "uplifting" may not be the way most people would see that, but I, for one, left THE PILLOWMAN with a smile on my face. Put another way, it's perhaps more "Hollywood," which would certainly jive with the fact that McDonagh's apparently a fan of Scorsese and Tarantino. It's less concerned with the moral ambiguities of the little ways people emotionally fuck each other over, as is the style of all "great" modern drama, and more about... well, just telling a damn good story! Or stories, even!
Even if it's still rather iffy in places, this might well be the best new play I've seen in awhile. Well, that and I AM MY OWN WIFE, which is what I saw on Broadway instead of PILLOWMAN a couple years back.
The photo shoot with Roy Cox went brilliantly. Tonight, he's gonna send me a link with about four hundred photos. I need to pick four. No more. And I already know that at least a hundred of those pictures are gonna be awesome, because Roy and I were on fucking fire today. And from them, I need to select just four (two from each session/outfit) to represent THE HEFNER MONOLOGUES.
To steal a gag from The Onion, this choice is gonna be harder to make than a Chinese woman who gives birth to septuplets.
I'm gonna try to lose at least ten pounds by the next time I see Roy. We'll do a whole Bill the Butcher/Victorian Heffie photo shoot next time.
