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| "What the Constitution Means To Me" Yesterday (Spoilers) | |
| Last Edit: student_rush 01:47 pm EST 12/27/18 | |
| Posted by: student_rush 01:43 pm EST 12/27/18 | |
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| I don't understand what this is or what it wants to be. None of the framing or conceits are constant ... it isn't narrative theatre, it isn't storytelling, but rather if a Buzzfeed article came to life, snorted adderall, and screamed at you for 100 interminable minutes. The horrible framing of a memory play from her childhood is completely abandoned about halfway through for no reason, and we, like, kind of come back to it at the end? No sense of time or space outside her performance, which does not hold up to scrutiny and may have been helped if Butler jazzed up some of the stepping in and out of her fifteen year-old self. Who is her audience at any given time - the old men from the VA halls or us, the real audience? And does it ever matter? Schreck is either in nonstop frenetic mode or these gross displays of performative grief. She often will stop to gather her thoughts, overcome by emotion ... in a play she wrote. And performs eight times a week. And has worked on for ten years. Give me a break. It's masturbatory and often completely stops any sense of momentum. Again, it's confusing that Bulter allows her to have such indulgent moments of "emotion" while simultaneously uptown his "Thom Pain" I found to be streamlined and cutting, veering from any unnecessary sentimentality or tropes of a solo show. All these tropes, by the way, are on full display at the Greenwich House Theatre. Every cliche about solo performances is found in "What the Constitution Means To Me." Funny enough, at dinner before the show we overheard the table near us discussing another yet-to-be-announced transfer of this play. For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would put money into this ... what model are they following? Mike Birbiglia - a famous monologist and comedian - is having his own troubles filling a Broadway house. So why would anyone think that a non-celebrity would attract audiences to the story of her non-famous life ... oh, and did we mention it's about the United States Constitution? I fell asleep halfway through writing that sentence. |
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| re: "What the Constitution Means To Me" Yesterday (Spoilers) | |
| Posted by: AC126748 10:02 am EST 12/28/18 | |
| In reply to: "What the Constitution Means To Me" Yesterday (Spoilers) - student_rush 01:43 pm EST 12/27/18 | |
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| For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would put money into this ... what model are they following? The show has been selling out virtually every performance at $80-90 for most tickets. There is clearly an audience for the play, even if it doesn't include you. You're entitled to feel however you feel about the play, but it would be especially dense to assert that the play doesn't have an audience just because you didn't like it. |
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| re: "What the Constitution Means To Me" Yesterday (Spoilers) | |
| Posted by: student_rush 10:53 am EST 12/28/18 | |
| In reply to: re: "What the Constitution Means To Me" Yesterday (Spoilers) - AC126748 10:02 am EST 12/28/18 | |
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| I don’t believe that it is dense to say that selling out for a month-long run in a 200 seat house will not translate to selling out a 500+ seat house (at a higher ticket cost). It is in the vein of “Be More Chill” - another show I predict will have a short run. Just because a small and passionate audience can sell out a limited Off-Broadway run does not mean that show has a viable commercial life on larger stages with more seats and higher ticket costs. |
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| re: "What the Constitution Means To Me" Yesterday (Spoilers) | |
| Posted by: AC126748 11:17 am EST 12/28/18 | |
| In reply to: re: "What the Constitution Means To Me" Yesterday (Spoilers) - student_rush 10:53 am EST 12/28/18 | |
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| It is in the vein of “Be More Chill” - another show I predict will have a short run. Just because a small and passionate audience can sell out a limited Off-Broadway run does not mean that show has a viable commercial life on larger stages with more seats and higher ticket costs. Yes, and people said similar things about Dear Evan Hansen, The Humans and even Hamilton. Perhaps it will be successful and perhaps it won't. No one will know until it actually happens. |
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