Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

It's the first production at the new venue The Shed, and there's a lot that needs to be said, so I'll break it down into two sections:

The Venue:

It's a good thing I left myself a lot of time to explore the area because it's not the easiest to find from 34th since it's down a lot of steps and looks from the corner like the entrance is closed. They're still working on the area, so lots of construction happening. Much easier to enter from 30th, but it's on the street level, not the Highline level. The theatre is a few floors up, and one of the escalators wasn't working.

Once you're inside the theatre, it looks more like an auditorium than anything else. The floor seats are folding chairs with cup holders. There's are no levels to it, so if you're short, you may have a hard time seeing with people in front of you. The mezzanine (I suppose) in the venue make it a bit easier to see, but the seats themselves aren't great. Leg room is good, but the seats are tight. The building itself is moveable, and from the sound and feel of people walking around, this seems to be that way also. Seems like everything could be cleared out in moments. My seat shook whenever people walked. The exit from the room is not in the back of the theatre; it's on the side. This makes it very obvious when people leave early (see below for why).

The Production:

Oh boy...the only reason to see this is Ben Whishaw. He is fantastic. Everything else will put you to sleep. So many other shows that I've seen have left me thinking, "What happened to the 'art' of theater?" This show has too much art and not much of anything else. Mr. Whishaw's character, from what I could gather, is writing about Marilyn Monroe and doing research on other famous female "vixens" for his writing. His typist, Renee Fleming, writes down everything he says, so her "singing" for the first hour is just her repeating the last word that he says. Eventually Mr. Whishaw transforms into the iconic lady, and I honestly can't tell you why or anything else that happens. An older couple around me left after 10 minutes. Literally. The whole room saw the door open. I saw others get up and try to find a less obvious exit but gave up when they realized their only way out would be a distraction to everyone and disrespectful for the hardworking actors. I suppose the venue will be focusing more on abstract theater. If that's your thing, go for it. Not sure I'll be back.

The music is not worthwhile. There were a couple of moments where I thought it may sound bluesy. Then there were a few moments of power and strength that come at about an hour in in the form of cantorial sounding music. Most of it is droning, and my eyes actually closed.

Nothing being sold. No merchandise and no drinks or anything. It's 90 minutes with no intermission.

A friend of mine -- a woman with a Ph.D. in literature and nearly 50 years' experience as a college professor -- saw the first performance on Saturday night. She described it as "incomprehensible."

FYI, someone is selling 2 second row center seats on StubHub for tonight's performance, $14.53 each, plus fees, $42.47 total.

Updated On: 4/13/19 at 10:21 AM

Ok then, looks like I'll be the lone yay-sayer!

It's true that much of the text is somewhat incomprehensible, but the text is not the play. The text is a play-within-a-play. And the play itself is not very hard to follow at all. It's New Year's Eve on 1963, Marilyn Monroe has just died, and a young man and a typist meet in an office to write a play exploring a thematic link between Monroe and Helen of Troy (from reading the program, it's suggested that the play-within-a-play is an adaptation of Euripides' "Helen".

For me, the story of these two people in the office is fascinating. I interpreted it as being a story about hidden forms of expression. In the wake of Monroe's death, two people find personal release and comfort by paying a private homage to her. Whishaw's character dresses as Marilyn and writes the play, and Fleming's character, a somewhat homely typist in 1963/4, finds her release in singing. And as the evening unfolds, there is a deep kinship and sadness that exudes from both of them. The themes of social imprisonment that face both Norma Jeane and Helen, both reflect and contrast with the social imprisonment that these two people face. And the creators explore these ideas with a bend of history, verse, music, and sound in a way that is indeed complex and difficult to riddle out entirely, but if you let go somewhat of trying to understand every word, the sentiments and ideas come through pretty loud and clear.

I admit it's not an easy piece, but it was disheartening to see people giving up on it so quickly, either by completely checking out and talking amongst themselves, or by ditching the performance entirely (and making loud clomping noises on the stairs in the process).