Threaded Order Chronological Order
| If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Vanya and Sonia and the benefit of the actors fully settling into the show (major spoilers) - Michael_Portantiere 12:17 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I saw V&S&M&S at the Mark Taper (same production with Nielsen and "Cassandra" recreating their roles) and then I did the show (as V) and then I watched the LCT stream. Ultimately I don't think it is a great play and not even top-drawer Durang. I think it emerged as a success in a very weak season and appealed to the snobbishness that V&S&M's parents suffered from in naming their children: it flattered the egos of theatregoers who "got" the references and that was seemingly enough. But that's just me. When I'm watching a show I will laugh regardless of what the people around me are doing and conversely, all the guffawing in the world won't seduce me into joining in. The coffee cup throw didn't work in any of the versions I was present for. nor did the Cassandra histrionics. The only consistently successful moments were the Maggie Smith impression, the big V speech in Act II and anytime Spike took his kit off! |
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| I Have to Agree With You | |
| Posted by: Jax 04:01 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| "Ultimately I don't think it is a great play and not even top-drawer Durang. I think it emerged as a success in a very weak season and appealed to the snobbishness that V&S&M's parents suffered from in naming their children: it flattered the egos of theatregoers who "got" the references and that was seemingly enough." Durang partisans like Ben Brantley wet themselves over this after ages of dissing the bourgeois Neil Simon. Yet what did V&S use for its first act curtain? Neil Simon's "California Suite" scene w. Maggie Smith....almost word for word. Come the second act curtain, for a moving moment, they just put the Beatles "Here Comes the Sun" on the loudspeaker. Hard to go wrong with that. Durang was a very clever sketch writer. Never much of a playwright. |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 03:36 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| "Ultimately I don't think it is a great play and not even top-drawer Durang. I think it emerged as a success in a very weak season and appealed to the snobbishness that V&S&M's parents suffered from in naming their children: it flattered the egos of theatregoers who "got" the references and that was seemingly enough. " I might agree with your first sentence, but I think the rest of your comment is unfair. I really don't think much or maybe even any of the humor in the play relies on the audience "getting the references." In fact, as I recall, most if not all of the references are explained in the text; I specifically remember that the Cassandra reference is fully explained. |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: MRH 02:52 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| It's not just you. I agree with EVERY word; and it seemingly happens a lot (at least to me) | |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 02:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 01:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| Based on my live viewing of the show, I agree with you about the Cassandra histrionics. But when I saw it, as I recall, the throwing and smashing of the first coffee cup got a pretty big, shocked laugh, and the throwing and smashing of the second one an even bigger laugh. | |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: portenopete 05:25 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
| In reply to: re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - Michael_Portantiere 02:48 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I'll grant you that the LCT archival response was weaker than the Taper version or for the one I did. I can definitely imagine it would have gotten a bigger reaction than....nothing (IIRC). In Los Angeles the late and lovely Mark Blum was DHP's equal, I thought. And David Hull was a very sexy and funny Spike. I seem to be in the minority that liked Weaver, but having read all the Durang one-acts in my youth with her voice in my head (knowing she'd come up with him), I think of her as the supreme Durang interpreter. I have always thought her vague and airy line readings highlighted the lunacy and amoral utterances of his characters. And as you (or another in this thread) said, I think he is best lauded as a sketch writer. And that is meant to be a major complement. |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: mikem 11:53 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - portenopete 05:25 pm EDT 04/10/21 | |
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| I would agree that there is some inconsistency to the characterizations from scene to scene. The Sonia smashing cups over nothing in the first scene has little resemblance to the Sonia we see later in the show. | |
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| re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. | |
| Posted by: Michael_Portantiere 02:56 pm EDT 04/11/21 | |
| In reply to: re: If it's funny to me, I'll laugh. - mikem 11:53 am EDT 04/11/21 | |
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| "The Sonia smashing cups over nothing in the first scene has little resemblance to the Sonia we see later in the show." Interesting, I never thought of it that way. My take is that Sonia has a lot of anger in her, much of it in regard to Masha, but also in regard to other aspects of her (Sonia's) life. At the beginning of the play, that anger comes out in the form of her smashing coffee cups, later she expresses some of her anger verbally, and eventually I think her anger begins to fade when she very unexpectedly meets a man who's interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with her, and also when it turns out that the house will not be sold out from under her and her brother. |
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