Chihuly

I'm hereby adding a new component to this blog: Art Shows. I think we come across them now and again and some of them are worth talking about.


This weekend I saw the Chihuly exhibit at the De Young. I was intrigued because half the people I know passionately hated it and decried it, claiming it wasn't art. The other half loved it, praised it, and thought everyone they know should see it.

As for me, I only want to add two things to this scholarly debate.


First, the presentation of the pieces, be them art or not, was awesome. Walking through dark rooms and discovering color made you feel like you were exploring the gemstone section of a museum or the phosphorescent fishes of the deep in an aquarium. But I especially loved the mirrors. You could see the reflection of the piece, but not your own reflection since the room was so dark! That gave it an even more surreal feeling. I also loved how vibrant the glass looked in the dark mirrors below each piece- the reflections were almost more impressive than the art itself. That was worth the price of admission alone.

In contrast, the plaques on the walls, with Chihuly's thoughts behind each piece, did everything they could to belittle the experience. "I called this 'Persians' because I thought it was a cool word but I don't really know much about anything to do with Persia." "I wanted to try using every color in my studio, so here it is." I wonder what would have happened if his thoughts had just been vague and obscure, saying simply "This represents conflict." Perhaps then the art world would embrace his work. In some ways, it's refreshing to see honesty on those plaques, but it was still hard to look at his pieces with the same respect after reading them.

Spring Awakening

It's so great. It's the greatest musical of our lifetimes.

I was so thrilled to see this again. I counted every second until I was finally at the show. It was just as perfect as I had hoped. Better, in fact.

Since we've both seen it, I'll just talk about what was different in this West Coast premiere compared to Broadway. The female lead was much better. Stronger, less Mimi-esque and a lot more fun to root for. Melchior was BETTER- looked more like the other kids and sang SO WELL.

I think this show featured the "original" Melchior and Hanschen. Could be wrong? Can you verify? It said they debuted the roles on Broadway. Anyway, they were amazing.

The "My Junk" song was ten times more elaborate than I remember it- they added TONS- it was HILARIOUS. I could've sworn that the gay-makeout scene took place on the swing platform on Broadway... maybe I'm wrong? This time they just sat on the steps near the front of the stage and kissed.

Our audience was amazing. Ten minutes of laughter on every joke. It was SO FUN to see this show with such a vibrant audience!

The only other thing to add was that I noticed a line early in the show where Melchior is describing Goethe to Moritz and talks about this one story Goethe wrote called "-some girl's name- and Child." Melchior complains, "Everyone focuses so much on that story just because of an illegitimate child!" The lady in front of me was telling her husband that Spring Awakening's plot parallels that story- that was interesting- we should research that.

Anyway, I hope to see it a few more times before it leaves SF. It might be fun to try and score seats on stage too! Check out this review that dares readers to do what we joked about, sing from the audience!

The Mikado

I don't know how it's possible that I had never even heard of this musical, considering it turns out to be this classic Gilbert and Sullivan show. Well, now I've seen it, now I know.

This was not bad. It was good in fact. Put on at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, it was a very professional deal.

For a while I cringed at all the politically incorrect insulting-Asian jokes, but then you realize that they're in fact mocking England and so it's all ok. Despite knowing two people in this show (through Beth), nothing caught my attention until the Lord High Executioner, Ko-Ko, made his appearance and every scene from then on out was a joy! He threw his character around in a Jack Sparrow-type flamboyance, with a Jim Carrey-type self-consciousness that completely endeared the audience to him. I could've watched him all day and fortunately he was in most scenes, so it was great. The show builds on the typical Gilbert and Sullivan type misunderstandings and backwards logic and there were some fun fun songs.

Also kudos to the female antagonist (played by one of Beth's friends) who had a fun role as well and a great voice!

This show put a smile on my face. I'm glad I saw it.

A Chorus Line

I loved this show. It was incredible. It combines the excitement and tension of auditions with an interesting psychological back-story for each character. What better two aspects of drama are there to combine? I loved every minute of it.


I really liked how the director and his voice-from-the-megaphone was a character all his own, with his own story and his own baggage that slowly plays out over the course of the show. I really liked how simple and elegant this show was. I wanted MORE- I wanted to hear everyone’s life story. I’m not sure why they chose to have no intermission and make it all one act. I could’ve watched three more acts of this show and loved every minute of it.

I know I’m always complaining about plays that are about plays, musicals about musicals. But I actually found it really endearing this time to focus on the chorus members and show that even for a non-speaking role, so much passion and life has led up to this audition moment for each person and everyone has different motivation and drive. I’m a sucker for all of it. This was a great show for me.

I’m fairly sure they either preserved or recreated the 1970s choreography. It would’ve been interesting to see more modern choreography since disco-era dancing is now dated. But it worked. I also particularly liked the choice the SF Curran Theater’s version made to have giant rotating mirrors as the backdrop, which proved incredibly powerful for those of us in the balcony who now saw an entire theater reflected behind each dance number. Very cool. I never stopped smiling during this show.

Insignificant Others

Insignificant Others is a modern day "Tale of the City" about five friends who move from the Midwest to San Francisco looking for love and adventure.

Yes, it’s a familiar plot. Yes, they moved from Ohio. Yes, I really really wished they would bust out at least one verse of “Why-o Why-o Why-o did we ever leave Ohio?” and give props to Wonderful Town. No luck. Instead, we got this:

The Good

• It’s been a long-time dream of mine to write a musical that takes place in the tech world. I’d love to see some choreographed typing and dancing around cubicles and modern office spaces. This show took a stab at it and actually did a whole musical number involving modern rolling office chairs! It was pretty great actually, they did some fun choreography and cleverly danced around each other as they navigated their chairs into different patterns. Only four dancers and chairs though, and nothing else but chairs and them on stage- still it made me smile and I was impressed.


• The main character, Margaret (played by Sarah Kathleen Farrell) has to really hold this show together. As the red-head fag-hag, she does one outrageous musical number after another, each time raising the stakes, until eventually she’s acting out an S&M scene in full leather. If she had been weak, this show would’ve crumbled. Instead, she was having a blast on stage and helped us have a great time too.


• There were two songs I loved. One is the up-beat very fun song “Heterosexual” where Margaret belts out her joy at finally finding a guy in SF to date who isn’t gay. Bringing in a kick-line and taking this song entirely over the top, gets a laugh out of everyone. This is also the tune that stuck in my head and I was singing days later. Next, I thoroughly enjoyed the song “Plumbing.” Upon discovering that her straight boyfriend is actually a transsexual, Margaret sings a dark tune about “the wrong plumbing” while her backup male dancers hold up actual plumbing pipes in different patterns to spell and insinuate things during her song. It was an impressive clever way to pull off a dance number.


• This show is constantly chiding Starbucks every chance it gets. Starbucks becomes more and more powerful throughout the show, beginning to sell groceries, oil, and even Chinese food. The little riff they sing each time Starbucks acquires a new product line was alright. But after drilling it into our heads through the entire show, having the final Starbucks riff come when a two-timing boyfriend finds himself “so busted at Starbucks” is pretty funny.

The Bad

• I think the first rule of theater is that no one singing alone on stage should EVER put their hands in their pockets. Don’t give these actors pockets if they’re going to do that. Luke’s ballads should be strong and powerful, instead he came across as scared and insecure. Too bad.


• The first act ends with a car crash. The second act begins with a song whose chorus tells us that “time heals all things.” We as the audience naturally assume a death has happened. Imagine our surprise when we learn that our male protagonist has instead “moved back to Ohio.” WHAT? That made no sense.

The Ugly

• I have never, in my entire history of seeing shows, been more distracted by a set. This set almost single-handedly ruined this show. It was a cartoony/childish construction of the façade of some SF houses, with a stylized Golden Gate Bridge backdrop. One problem- it never changed. Whether they were in an office, Rainbow Grocery, Starbucks, their apartments, a nightclub- same set. They just stood in front of the very colorful, very poorly made, very unaligned and off-perspective set. The set screamed “don’t take this show seriously, this is a spoof, this is silly.” The show tries to throw in a lot of serious songs and moments, which is totally thwarted by the set. Other problems… when they would open a window from the set, it didn’t line up with where the painted window was. Intentional no doubt, but ultra distracting! The lines weren’t straight on any window, the bridge changed perspective angle halfway across it- I spent way too much of this show being distracted by this cartoony set. Even a minimal set or a blank wall would’ve been more effective than what they have. Considering this show has been running for over a year now, I wish they’d invest a bit more effort in the set.

The Other Summer Movies

Well, I see you've covered most of the big summer movies so far, but there are a few left for me to tackle.

Iron Man

Let me first say that I tried everything I could not to see this movie. I had no interest in this film, I've never seen a Robert Downey Jr. movie, I had no knowledge of who Iron Man was, and nothing in the previews or story sounded interesting to me. I managed to avoid seeing this for weeks until I was back in Denver and every other
movie sounded worse so I finally gave in. I went into the theater expecting to hate every second of it and already hating that I was seeing it at all.


To my complete surprise this movie was amazing. It begins with an arrogant, corrupt, sleazy businessman, Tony Stark, who gets captured as a prisoner of war. Instead of having that experience transform him and give him the morals and values of a "superhero," Stark remains a complete jerk! It's wonderfully refreshing to not only see a flawed superhero, but I LOVED that he didn't spend any time waffling about whether or not to do what he's doing (Spiderman, Batman, etc). He just accepts his flaws and embraces life! It's great.

There are many other things that are great about this movie. I love that he openly admits his alterego at a press conference without trying to hide it. I love that he makes mistakes and we get to see him learn. This is almost more a movie about inventing and mechanical engineering, with minimal focus on fighting crime or saving people. I also, again to my total surprise, loved Gwenyth Paltrow's character. She plays his loyal assistant who keeps busy to avoid thinking about her own feelings, and he totally takes her for granted. It's a great dynamic and the film does a great job of drawing out awkward moments, glances, too much eye contact, etc. Bravo!

I never thought I'd say it, but Iron Man is probably my favorite superhero film of the modern era.


Kung Fu Panda

Well, it's no Horton Hears a Who, but how can you compete with that? Actually, Kung Fu Panda was a lot of fun. It's not easy to tackle such movie cliches as martial arts, wise sensais, discipline-filled dojos, etc when so much has already been done. But this movie dove right in and made its own place in the East Asian mantra teaching films.

You will laugh out loud. You will like it. Jack Black's Po is a loveable character. They step around a lot of obvious holes you expect them to fall into. There are two scenes that make this movie worth seeing. One involves the best computer graphics I've ever seen as the villain, Tai Long, escapes from a mountain prison where he is being held as the only prisoner, chained over a bottomless pit with a thousand guards standing by. That was amazing, believable, and well-earned. (Also Ian McShane, Deadwood's Swearengen, is the voice of Tai Long- which is a great bonus!) The second amazing scene is the montage where Po tries to grab the last dumpling from his wise master. A more intense and impressive battle over one food item can likely not be found in movie history. Well done! Yeah, it's worth seeing.

If You See Something, Say Something

On Friday I got an email about a secret Mike Daisey show that would take place at noon on Monday. Daisey and his director/manager/wife Jean-Michele Gregory were back in New York for one day doing a new show at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater. They'd just been in Sante Fe performing a preview run of the show. After Monday's performance they were off to DC to perform the show there for a few months before returning to New York again in the October to begin a run at the Public.
How often do you get a chance to see a great show on a Monday at noon, for free? Not often enough I say. So I went. The new show is called IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING. It's about the manhattan project, but also about 1,000 other things. This monologue was even longer than the last one. I couldn't believe it. Two Hours he spoke. And a packed house sat and listened. It's really very satisfying to be in Daisey's audience. He gives you two hours of good, clean input. And it's interesting to remember that his shows are theater. He's peforming. He's not just reading a script. In fact there supposedly isn't a script. Just an outline. I like to go to his shows and walk out and think, if that was theater, what else could be theater?