#1
Posted: 7/18/08 at 8:50am
That's right, theatre nerds - as opposed to theatre queens. A queen wears her crown with pride.
Very few people get ALL the references. Most people would consider my obscure musical theatre knowledge to be expansive, perhaps to a fault, and yet I miss several of the references. I've read NOT SINCE CARRIE twice, but some of those Broadway flop titles mentioned in [title of show] weren't even familiar to me.
The insider fun is NOT why I respond to the show.
This is a story of real characters going through a real struggle of passion. That's what theatre is about - you don't have to be an immigrant gang member to "get" WEST SIDE STORY or an East German ex-pat botched trannie song stylist to be moved by HEWDIG.
I think that many, maybe most, of us theatre enthusiasts have felt marginalized in this day and age when theatre often feels, and can be, culturally insignificant, or at least irrelevant to pop culture. Maybe we've been made fun of for our passion for the obscure. Don't forget, in the real world, even Patti LuPone and Bernadette Peters are relatively random.
We see this show and, as we are delighted by all the references we get, we fear, "am I laughing too loud?" "Will this play in Peoria?" "Can something that speaks so specifically to my individual tastes be real art?"
This is like self-hating homophobia or self-inflicted anti-Semitism.
Die, Vampire, Die!
Check out the broadway.com “Word of Mouth” review, it echoes the reaction of the non-theatre people I’ve sent to the production:
http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=568705
I predict a long and healthy run for this exciting piece of theatre and I think it will be healing for all us.
Very few people get ALL the references. Most people would consider my obscure musical theatre knowledge to be expansive, perhaps to a fault, and yet I miss several of the references. I've read NOT SINCE CARRIE twice, but some of those Broadway flop titles mentioned in [title of show] weren't even familiar to me.
The insider fun is NOT why I respond to the show.
This is a story of real characters going through a real struggle of passion. That's what theatre is about - you don't have to be an immigrant gang member to "get" WEST SIDE STORY or an East German ex-pat botched trannie song stylist to be moved by HEWDIG.
I think that many, maybe most, of us theatre enthusiasts have felt marginalized in this day and age when theatre often feels, and can be, culturally insignificant, or at least irrelevant to pop culture. Maybe we've been made fun of for our passion for the obscure. Don't forget, in the real world, even Patti LuPone and Bernadette Peters are relatively random.
We see this show and, as we are delighted by all the references we get, we fear, "am I laughing too loud?" "Will this play in Peoria?" "Can something that speaks so specifically to my individual tastes be real art?"
This is like self-hating homophobia or self-inflicted anti-Semitism.
Die, Vampire, Die!
Check out the broadway.com “Word of Mouth” review, it echoes the reaction of the non-theatre people I’ve sent to the production:
http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=568705
I predict a long and healthy run for this exciting piece of theatre and I think it will be healing for all us.
