Summer and Smoke

Amanda Plummer in the Tennessee Williams play Summer and Smoke. Glad I got to see her, but we were so bored with the play, we left at intermission. The first act was almost 2 hours. Long enough. Not much to write except the southern drawls were good, the costumes were fine, and the sets looked like hold-overs from last years production of Hello Dolly.

The Vertical Hour

I'm not sure why I did not like this show, but here are two theories:
Theory 1: Sitting with a bunch of theater novices, the girl next to me asked what she should see that is currently on the boards. I offered Company and Spring Awakening. She said "what about Phantom?" That is the caliber of the audience when you go see a show well into the run. When Pierce Brosnan came into the theater, everyone around us was more interested in him than in the play.
Theory 2: The woman in front of me had a coughing attack that lasted through half the show. Distracting. The woman next to me had a cold and kept sneezing and blowing her nose. Distracting. The man behind me was snoring, and then when he was awake, he kept digging into a plastic bag of candy. His wife kept telling him to knock it off. Distracting.
Theory 3: While the play was interesting (if not terribly exciting), I kept hearing the same odd words repeated. Example: ignoble. Used twice in the first act and again in the second. The very wordy dialogue got in the way of the story for me. People don't talk like that. It was a little verbose. There was a great scene where Nadia tries to simplify bad behavior and deconstruct the justification that we all use to make our selves feel better. I liked it. I wish the author would have deconstructed a bit and made the banter easier to listen too.
Theory 4: Bill Nighy is a terrific actor. His delivery is marvelous. His hands though, have some sort of arthritis? that cause his 2 small fingers on each hand to clench. I don't think it was an acting choice, and if it was, it was very distracting, especially when he picked up a glass, or had to have "hand in hand" contact with Julianne more. Or when he used this odd gesture where he seems to be rubbing imaginary gnats from his forehead. I stopped listening to his story.
Theory 5: and probably the reason. Julianne Moore is radiant. Probably one of the great beauties of the world. And a wonderful screen actress. I did not believe a single word of what she said. It seemed to me like she learned the part yesterday, and was trying to remember the lines. There was no emotional peak or valley, and even the angry scenes were flat. Shame, because I like her so much.
I would love to see this play as a film. Maybe she would be better doing it on screen.

Frank's Home

Frank's Place in an hour and 45 minutes of uninterrupted boredom. This play, about a couple of days in the later life of Frank LLoyd Wright, has no point. I was hoping there would be something fascinating, like how the relationship with children somehow compared to the relationships with his students (only 1 student,if you can call him that, was in this show). Or how he approached each new design. Nothing,,,Nada,,,Nyet.
It was very obvious why there was no intermission, after about the first 5 minutes. No one would come back.
Pete Weller led the cast of poorly directed actors. Not a single one worth mention. Stage set, ehh, Really, there is nothing to talk about. I hope the next post follows a wonderful night of theater.