377 days - Blog #11 - I saw another play tonight and here is my midnight conclusion

Another night, another opening, another show.

So this evening I had a chance to go see another musical.  This time around it was more the opportunity for the company of a friend than to go see friends on the stage.  But that does not diminish my determination to celebrate.

We went to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which opened at Theater at the Mount in Gardner.  This is a theater I know relatively well, by reputation but also by the fact it was a frequent visit in my early theater life.  Indeed, on the drive home I found myself behind a Volvo station wagon full of teenagers… and I thought… yeah, that was us twenty years ago.

Anyway, I’ve been a patron but not an intimate participant.  So I think my reaction to this performance is different.  I think it's a pretty obvious sentiment that we are louder cheerleaders for those with whom we share friendship.

I’m also going to precede my comments with the honest statement, this is not a favorite play of mine.  It is unnecessarily long.  And dated.  And misogynist.  I mean, no amount of contemplation is going to help me reconcile with a song called, “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm.” Gag.

In fact, just to wash my soul from that, I had to watch this video with Joan/ aka Christina Hendricks.

All right, now that I’ve got that out of my system, I will say this was a fun night.  It is a musical full of frothy numbers, including one about coffee.  And much though the script was squirm inducing in some sentiments, I appreciated the odd joke about meetings or a department of morale boosting or superfluous titles.  As the show progressed, I did start thinking about how J. Pierrepont Finch’s rise to success isn’t unlike any smoke and mirrors routine of Wall Street money these days.  So maybe, embedded in all the fluff is actually a serious comment on the American Dream.  Indeed, we can even contemplate Rosemary’s ambition as the mirror of Ponty’s climb to the top.  Something to think on… maybe.

But, sorry, I’m getting deep because it is after midnight.  I don’t imagine many audience members will go to this musical and think too long and hard about the social justice implications.  So let me get back to the fun.

It was fun.  Much like my Thursday night venture, there were enthusiastic dance numbers.  Tap, too.  And some really good dancers who were having fun on the stage.  I’m always impressed that a big showstopping number will come at the end of a performance.  At the end of a long night and the energy turned up a notch.  Some really impressive syncopation and great singing for that last number.  Yep.  I liked it so much, I looked it up on youtube.  And, well, I have to share it… because… damn, Harry Potter can dance!

But you know, truth is, seeing it live and moving and coordinating with the orchestra and lining up and turning and jumping around is still better than a youtube video, Daniel Radcliffe or not.

What I do like about shows at the Mount is they have some really great technical talent… and resources.  Most of my theater life has been the shoestring budget variety… and typically a straight play or Shakespeare, where costumes and set are minimal.  It’s fun to go see a production like this with so much color and set changes and lighting to really sharpen each scene.  I think it’s great we have a theater of this quality so local.  It’s professional… and yet very user friendly.  And I very much appreciate the work of the techies on every level.

I actually did know one member of the cast.  Someone I know from years long ago at Barre Players when we were both sort of kids.  He did a great job as J.B. Biggley, even though it is a role for which he had to age himself.  He has the voice for it, as well as the comic reactions. It's fun when you see someone you knew as a kid grow up to be so much talent.

In fact, there were some great comic expressions throughout the cast.  I think this show really played up the comedy – so you could easily go see it and not be weighed down by the heavy ideas of my thinking too much about the script in the wee hours of the morning.

And yes, it is past midnight. I wanted to share my positive thoughts on this production and get in a blog before I close my eyes on this Friday.  I would encourage you to see it if you appreciate good dance numbers or sixties fashion and tropes or you just want to see a good piece of Central Mass theater.  It is a good theater that deserves some support.  It is a cast that has clearly worked very hard and has fun.  I suspect if you go see them, you might catch the contagion of that fun yourself.  Even if you over think those 1960's tropes like I do.

Speaking of those tropes, I do like this play for one very dorky pop culture reason.  If you are a Mad Men fanatic like myself, you might already appreciate the fact the original J. Pierrepont Finch was Robert Morse – or Bert Cooper.  And… I’m not going to lie, I enjoyed tonight a little bit lot more because this show helped to inform the brilliant (half) season closing number.