"We get up early just to start cranking the generator. Our limbs have been asleep, we need to get the blood back in 'em. We're finding every day several ways that we could be friends. We keep on churning and the lights inside the house turned on, and in our native language we are chanting ancient songs, and when we quiet down the house chants on without us." ~freelance whales

Freelance Whales opened their set on Wednesday with that song. It was lovely. Scroll down if you missed my concert post.

Today it's time for show reviews.

Arcadia
Apparently this is a very polarizing play and a polarizing production. Ben Brantley calls the play "entirely terrific" and the production "half-terrific." I completely agree that the play is entirely terrific. I absolutely love the play. It's intriguing and intense and intelligent and yet it does have heart. It's three hours long and you have to be thinking the entire time, but the time went by quickly and I thought it was a great production. Billy Crudup completely deserves his Tony nomination for his performance; he's wonderful (as always; I love him). Tom Riley and Bel Powley are the other strongest cast members in my mind; I loved seeing their story unfold.

I agree with most of Mr. Brantley's review, especially these points:

"Though this play finds Mr. Stoppard at his most luxuriantly wordy, it is not hot air of which I speak. Watching David Leveaux’s production I realized more than ever that “Arcadia,” a tale of two centuries in pseudopastoral England, is propelled by genuine, panting passion....

Mr. Leveaux’s interpretation brings out the irresistible force of “wanting to know” better than any version in my experience....

Yet if this “Arcadia” lacks the uniform surface sparkle it had when I saw it (with a different cast) in London in 2009, it has acquired something more important: an emotional depth, viscerally rooted, to support its intellectual shimmer....

But see it you should, in part to experience the ingenuity and seamlessness of Mr. Stoppard’s time-traveling craftsmanship, but also to feel the empathic imagination brought to characters you may wind up realizing you never fully grasped before...."

The Normal Heart
Again, I'm going to rely on Ben Brantley to give you the gist, because he does it so well:

More than a quarter of a century after it first scorched New York, “The Normal Heart” is breathing fire again. The passionately acted new Broadway production of Larry Kramer's watershed drama from 1985 — an indictment of a world unwilling to confront the epidemic that would come to be known as AIDS — blasts you like an open, overstoked furnace. Your eyes are pretty much guaranteed to start stinging before the first act is over, and by the play’s end even people who think they have no patience for polemical theater may find their resistance has melted into tears. No, make that sobs.

Trust me, there were plenty of sobs. I cried like a baby. It's difficult not to. I think this production (directed by Joel Grey) very successfully clarifies what each character is experiencing and makes you experience their emotions right along with the character. That's not an easy feat. The incredibly strong cast certainly plays a large role in allowing that. Joe Montello is superb. This year's Tony race for best actor is ridiculously competitive, and Mr. Montello is a strong contender (I've seen all the nominees and I can't decide whom I think is most deserving; I'm torn between Mr. Montello and Mark Rylance). Back on topic: along with Mr. Montello, the cast of The Normal Heart consists of Ellen Barkin, Lee Pace, Jim Parsons, John Benjamin Hickey, Richard Topel, Patrick Breen, Mark Harelik, and Wayne Alan Wilcox. There are some pretty big names in that bunch, and they're all at the top of their game here, pouring out their hearts with intensity that you have to wonder how they maintain during eight performances a week. This is an emotional, important show about a topic that is still sadly very relevant today.


Wonderland
Oh, Wonderland. How do I talk about this show when I just discussed two very serious plays? Wonderland was just as awful as I expected it to be. It's full of cliches and bland music (I expected more from Frank Wildhorn) and awful costumes and sets, and the book is a huge disappointment. Poor Lewis Carroll would be so disappointed to see what his wonderful work has become in this musical. I mean, really. You can see for yourself in this sneak peek:


I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is a fantastic year for plays. Musicals? Not so much. Thank goodness for The Book of Mormon.

Just because he's in my mind after seeing Arcadia today, here I am with the charming Mr. Crudup (taken a long time ago). I think I'll go watch Almost Famous for the zillionth time now just to see him some more.