Well, I just got back from my second time seeing the movie. The first was a totally unique experience at the midnight showing of the Ziegfeld so I was figuring that this would be a lot more average and it was, but it was unique unto itself.
I took my 64 year old mother to see it in a small theater in Kew Gardens (Queens, NY, for those outside the state) in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. It was the first showing of the day and the bulk of the audience was older, Jewish women (I mention their religion, only because the ones I heard afterward thought that "Mark Cohen" was a lovely boy and the loudest guffaw, by far, was the Scarsdale Jewish Community Center, followed closely by Maureen's mother suggesting Mark and Maureen could get back together). There were some couples in their 40's, about 3 teenage girls, and some older gentleman by themselves. I would say the theater was 1/3 full.
On the way in, I heard the woman behind me mention that by the time she got down to Florida she could see it at the $2 theater with "Morty." I swear, I wish I was making the stereotype up.
There were no reaction to anything accept the aforementioned laughs. The only person applauding was my mother, all by her lonesome. She's not one to care if she stands out in a crowd (and not one to care when she announces very loudly, "wow, I didn't know Idina had such a sexy body" during Take Me or Leave Me). She was bawling and I could see the gentleman in front of me, who looked to be in his 50's was wiping tears away through a good part of the second half of the film.
When it was over there was a smattering of applause, led by my mom, the three teenage girls all had smiles on their faces and one of them said, and I quote "I totally, like, want to be their friends." A cute couple in their 40's danced out of the theater, singing to I'll Cover You and some older women in the bathroom thinks she liked the stage show more but couldn't remember. I was surprised at the number of people who sat through every credit, a good half of the audience did that.
My mother, who hates West Side Story the movie because she is so attached to West Side Story the original production loved it and actually said "I think that may be the best movie I've ever seen and you know I love musicals." Afterwards in the cab ride home she explained the movie to our Muslim cabdriver (a guy that we use regularly and who is still fairly traditional in his ideals) and I was proud of her description, that it was about 8 friends who are struggling artists, who are poor but always have each other's backs and that it's hard to find that these days, because people don't care and the music is phenomenal, and if you have a problem with gay men or women or the issue of AIDS, then she didn't want to hear what he had to say. Go mom!
I was surprised at how easily she kept up with the story having no knowledge of it beforehand other than the commercials. The first time I saw the show I didn't even get the whole Akita... Evita thing, she bust a gut laughing in the middle of the movie theater and had no problem following what was going on during Goodbye Love/What You Own.
I guess the best testament is that she said she could see it over and over again and if I didn't buy the DVD the day it came out, I was disowned.
"Too young to hold on and too old to just break free and run" - Jeff Buckley
Updated On: 11/27/05 at 04:42 PM
