clapping at curtain call

shows & a schnitzel

some playbills. I’m doing improv again. more on that next week!

My new New York personality is Broadway. I haven’t fully committed to the bit but I’m damn near close. Just this week I attended a live reading of ‘Cruel Intentions’ the 1999 film starring Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Geller and Selma Blair. It was a dream live reading featuring the cinematic universe of Julio Torres. In the lineup was Justice Smith, Cristin Milioti, Amy Sedaris, Marine Gutierrez, Jaboukie Young-White, James Scully, Tomas Matos and JULIA FOX!

At the DGA (Director’s Guild of America) theater a patient audience gathered to see a (mostly) queer reading of the original script from ‘Cruel Intentions.’ The event was absolutely delicious listening to iconic lines from straight characters with sexual frustrations being played out with queer voices. The juicy, sultry plot was only amplified by the way in which only a queer person can read lines. The only thing that could make this lineup better is just give them the budget to make a whole damn movie.

A few days prior, I revisited one my favorite plays from last year, ‘Oh, Mary.’ Tituss Burgess was playing the role of Mary Todd Lincoln and it was superb casting. Cole Escola mastered their script with a performance that would be tough to beat. Prior to Tituss’ run, Betty Gilpin starred in the play. Anyone whose ever performed before would kill to play Mary Todd Lincoln. Cole Escola’s Mary is a narcissistic, needy and antagonizing woman who just wants autonomy and to perform cabaret. Abrham (Lincoln) requires Mary to maintain the image of a president’s wife. Mary thirsts (pun intended, if you’ve seen the show) to be her authentic self. The play raises the question, what if Lincoln’s passing wasn’t such a bad thing for her.

‘The Picture of Dorian Gray,’ starring Sarah Snook is a two hour, one act display in acting supremacy. 26 characters (15 performed live) contributed to any accolades Sarah Snook has already won for this rendition. If her name is not on the ballot for the Tony Awards this year, we’re truly a broken country. Sarah Snook has already won an Olivier for this run in London and she’s certainly primed for whats next.

The play that broke the spell for me was ‘Appropriate’ by Branden Jacobs Jenkins. My friend Alexis and I were planning on going for her birthday and got the call (last minute) someone in the cast had COVID. I couldn’t wait to reschedule, my interest was peaked. I booked a ticket in the orchestra and went alone a few months later when the play got an extension at the Helen Hayes Theater.

It was a thrilling night on Broadway. Five minutes before the play took place Jason Bateman, Jennifer Anniston, Sean Hayes, Sandra Bullock and Edward Norton all come in together sitting a few rows in front of me. I knew this was due to the high-wattage performance delivered by Sarah Paulson. In fact, when she took stage there was a brief moment of applause and wooing for her entrance.

I’m an obsessive. I cannot see a show or anything for that matter without doing the homework first. I don’t know why I’m conditioned this way but it makes me appreciate the value of the ticket price and the work tenfold. Like purchasing clothes, when I do research to justify the price I’ll (almost) always go for it. Sarah Paulson got her start on Broadway, so the production of ‘Appropriate’ was like a homecoming of sorts. When ‘Oh, Mary’ moved to Broadway from their downtown run I got tickets for $117 in one of the first rows in the orchestra. I truly felt like I won the lottery. The live reading of ‘Cruel Intentions’ was only $30 per ticket (a steal.)

Shows (good ones) pay for themselves. The experience alone is unmatched. When you’re witnessing excellence and you feel the divine gratitude brewing in the crowd, it’s a new kind of high. Please take into consideration that I’ve cherry-picked these shows. However, I saw a newer play (last year) at Playwrights Horizons titled, ‘Staff Meal.’ This fever dream featured exceptional writing and a twisted comedic POV that kept you on your toes well into the second act. It was smart, fresh and captivating how it all comes together in the end.

One thing of great importance is clapping at curtain call. A lot of fashion designers that came up in the pre-smart phone era talk about how applause was a way to know if your collection was successful or not. Now with everyone needing to alert their followers, applause has been less robust. I took a small video during Sarah Snook’s third bow at ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ as I clapped for the previous two bows. I felt justified in the moment. Cole Escola gives a message before opening ‘Oh, Mary,’ “Please no cellphones and if you must, only at curtain call, but really thats when you should be clapping.” True.

Next week, I’m back to doing improv, an art form thats changed my life.