Now. Here. This. at the Vineyard — Page 2

All four are adept comics, and they riff on the absurdism of 21st-century language and non sequiturs without being cloying, which I give them credit for. That sort of humor can have a ingratiating cutesiness that makes my stomach turn (are you listening, Diablo Cody?) especially for actors all hovering around 40, but they do it well.

But the main problem with the show, as others have pointed out, is that it almost entirely lacks focus, which wouldn't be such a huge problem if it wasn't set up explicity at the beginning with a "Here is what this show is about" framing device. They preface everything by taking us from the first amoeba, all the way through time, to us gathered in this one room together, everything that's happened in history to get us to this one moment, this now, this here, this this. And how do you live there, where we all are, be present, experience it, make the most of it? That's what the show is about.

And then for 90 minutes after that they whine and self-analyze and dwell and kvetch about their insecurities and pasts and hangups and issues, issues, issues. The show becomes completely about living everywhere *but* the now, here, this. And it's fairly relentless. There are laughs throughout, but after the first 50 uninterrupted minutes of angsty navel-gazing, it was a struggle to stay interested. After 80 minutes, I was ready for it to be finished. (Heidi's un-ironic song about being a proud attention whore actually made me despise her for about 5 minutes.)

When I saw [tos] at the Vineyard, I liked it a lot. I don't own the recording and have only revisited the material sporadically since then, but I remember leaving knowing I'd recommend it to people -- and did -- and can't say the same for this show. Nothing left the theater with me, not an idea, not a sentiment, not a melody, not even any especially funny jokes. They're not untalented. They just either don't want to or don't know how to explore an idea for all it's worth, so show is slight... and very forgettable :-/

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I saw it last night and really enjoyed myself!
To me the show WAS focused with the point being: To enjoy the now, it helps to see how we got here to this. I laughed a lot and found some moments to be profoundly moving. They're working on it. I hear last night had MAJOR changes from the night before. These are four consummate writer/performers doing amazing work - that alone was worth the ticket for me.

"To me the show WAS focused with the point being: To enjoy the now, it helps to see how we got here to this."

Then perhaps some of the changes have included making those two ideas directly relevant to one another within the framework of the show. It's one thing to understand that connection objectively. I certainly did while watching it; it's the only thing that explains their choices and the show's structure. But the night I saw it, the two ideas were so disparate that making an intellectual connection between them was useless, as nothing in the material showed them to inform or reflect upon one other. The characters talked about change and growth in working through their various problems, but not once did I see a straight line drawn, thematically -- either explicity or implicitly -- from that idea to the idea they begin the show with.

I hope they continue to rewrite! The show's got a lot of potential. I just fear 75% of it may never be realized, as I felt when I saw it (about 11 days ago now) that they'd have a long way to go.

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