#1
Posted: 5/19/06 at 4:34pm
Dear Mr. Maitner
You probably had no idea that I snuck into your opening night of your show “The Misadventures of Robbie Maitner” just as the lights were going down at The Duplex. I wanted to see your show incognito for no reason other than I love blending in and observing and basically being a voyeur. So I wore a large picture hat with a black Alexis Carrington veil and quietly sat in the back of the house, virtually unnoticed. It sort of surprised me that I went virtually unnoticed, since it was the exact same incognito outfit I have worn to the Standing Ovations performances and other such events and it pretty much screams "notice me," though in a totally undercover non-specific identity way.
For a moment I thought I caught the eye of Mr. Eddie Varley, beloved Standing O performer, but I held up a copy of New York Magazine like a fan in front of my face. In which, I noticed, there was a nice plug for your show.
As you may recall, I really loved your show of last spring, "Basket Case: A Songspiel for the Unhinged." Adored it so much I wrote a little missive about it a year ago on these very pages.
But this year is something else entirely. "Love" doesn’t accurately encompass the complex feelings "The Misadventures of Robbie Maitner" engendered in me. I’ve been sitting with them since I saw the show and they have not dissipated over time. I have talked at great length with people who have never met you, have never been to a cabaret space, don’t like musicals, etc., and they’ve replied, "Man, I’d love to see that." And that’s just from me talking about your show and my reactions to it.
Here’s why: You have created a show with real staying power. I’ve been wondering how I can capture the depth of meaning in your extraordinary writing and the affect it had on me as well as the pleasure I felt riding the thrill ride of your narrative. All that plus the joy of basking in the singing and acting skills you marshal to deliver it. They are considerable.
I’ve been challenged in thinking about how I want to present my reactions to your show here since the minute you took your final bow, because I don’t particularly want to give away a single thing for those who have not seen the show yet and who have the great good fortune to be going to your closing night on May 20.
Let me say this: there is brilliance at work there. Your show functions perfectly on so many levels and has so many facets, it’s hard for me to believe that you could densely pack so much information in its relatively short running time. I really laughed. Out loud. A lot. But I also was incredibly moved when the show went deep. I totally trusted you as a story teller and a performer to take me to a place inside myself that I hadn’t really thought about in a few years, and to feel a connection to everybody else who was in that cabaret space that night. It was a truly superlative experience for me, reminding me of what I love about live theatre: the communal gathering, the shared connection in our humanity, the catharsis.
I remember in a writing class a very famous writer once said that there are three things a person needs to have in order to become a great writer. I can’t remember what the first two things he said were, but the one that stayed with me was "a gift for metaphor." This show works beautifully as a couple of parallel stories told with aplomb. But it’s also an ingenious metaphor, the way the chorus line and the spelling bee are ingenious metaphors. You reminded me that life isn’t really about gigantic triumphs (like the inevitable crowd pleasing endings of most Broadway musicals), but usually, for most of us, as many small triumphs as fate, luck, effort and external circumstance will afford us. In the end that series of small triumphs add up to a life. The little triumphs in your show are our collective triumphs, hard won and totally well earned.
So basically Rob, thanks. Thanks for creating something so good that, as Eddie Varley pointed out in another post, it’s not only enjoyable but advances the form. I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing a handful of performances in my life that have always stayed with me and this is now one of them.
Lots of love,
Namo Incognito
You probably had no idea that I snuck into your opening night of your show “The Misadventures of Robbie Maitner” just as the lights were going down at The Duplex. I wanted to see your show incognito for no reason other than I love blending in and observing and basically being a voyeur. So I wore a large picture hat with a black Alexis Carrington veil and quietly sat in the back of the house, virtually unnoticed. It sort of surprised me that I went virtually unnoticed, since it was the exact same incognito outfit I have worn to the Standing Ovations performances and other such events and it pretty much screams "notice me," though in a totally undercover non-specific identity way.
For a moment I thought I caught the eye of Mr. Eddie Varley, beloved Standing O performer, but I held up a copy of New York Magazine like a fan in front of my face. In which, I noticed, there was a nice plug for your show.
As you may recall, I really loved your show of last spring, "Basket Case: A Songspiel for the Unhinged." Adored it so much I wrote a little missive about it a year ago on these very pages.
But this year is something else entirely. "Love" doesn’t accurately encompass the complex feelings "The Misadventures of Robbie Maitner" engendered in me. I’ve been sitting with them since I saw the show and they have not dissipated over time. I have talked at great length with people who have never met you, have never been to a cabaret space, don’t like musicals, etc., and they’ve replied, "Man, I’d love to see that." And that’s just from me talking about your show and my reactions to it.
Here’s why: You have created a show with real staying power. I’ve been wondering how I can capture the depth of meaning in your extraordinary writing and the affect it had on me as well as the pleasure I felt riding the thrill ride of your narrative. All that plus the joy of basking in the singing and acting skills you marshal to deliver it. They are considerable.
I’ve been challenged in thinking about how I want to present my reactions to your show here since the minute you took your final bow, because I don’t particularly want to give away a single thing for those who have not seen the show yet and who have the great good fortune to be going to your closing night on May 20.
Let me say this: there is brilliance at work there. Your show functions perfectly on so many levels and has so many facets, it’s hard for me to believe that you could densely pack so much information in its relatively short running time. I really laughed. Out loud. A lot. But I also was incredibly moved when the show went deep. I totally trusted you as a story teller and a performer to take me to a place inside myself that I hadn’t really thought about in a few years, and to feel a connection to everybody else who was in that cabaret space that night. It was a truly superlative experience for me, reminding me of what I love about live theatre: the communal gathering, the shared connection in our humanity, the catharsis.
I remember in a writing class a very famous writer once said that there are three things a person needs to have in order to become a great writer. I can’t remember what the first two things he said were, but the one that stayed with me was "a gift for metaphor." This show works beautifully as a couple of parallel stories told with aplomb. But it’s also an ingenious metaphor, the way the chorus line and the spelling bee are ingenious metaphors. You reminded me that life isn’t really about gigantic triumphs (like the inevitable crowd pleasing endings of most Broadway musicals), but usually, for most of us, as many small triumphs as fate, luck, effort and external circumstance will afford us. In the end that series of small triumphs add up to a life. The little triumphs in your show are our collective triumphs, hard won and totally well earned.
So basically Rob, thanks. Thanks for creating something so good that, as Eddie Varley pointed out in another post, it’s not only enjoyable but advances the form. I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing a handful of performances in my life that have always stayed with me and this is now one of them.
Lots of love,
Namo Incognito
Twitter @NamoInExile
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Updated On: 5/19/06 at 04:34 PM
