@ JordanCatalano - I feel like we've been at a lot of the same shows at the same time lately. I was also there last night.
For me, I feel like my expectations were high and it was a bit of a letdown. The DJ dance party in the beginning felt thoroughly unnecessary, especially since, from my view, the audience was less the "hip" crowd and more the "hip replacement" crowd.
Act I was very much a slog and felt like it was saying a lot about perceptions of how people perform art without really saying anything at all and, truthfully, I was close to nodding off by the end of Act I. Act II, while much more contrived in nature (Krysta Rodriguez - love her I do - was done no favors by such random character with so little substance) is really where it took off. Watching Bettany's Warhol crumble emotionally while Pope's Basquiat achieves a level of mania/paranoia that is very hard to capture onstage without appearing cartoonish was a wonderful payoff. Pope EASILY lands a Tony nod for this role. Overall, I would probably see it again just to see if there was anything I missed, but it's a take it-or-leave it show for me - mileage may vary.
The Stage Door: - Woof...I called it when they announced the show that the Marvel weirdo autograph hounds were going to show up and I was right. I will say that the security was organized for it (although the lack of barrier gates was odd, though MTC is not known for having a lot of stagedooring). When Krysta and Erik came out first, the Marvel people were just acting dismissive and the 10 of us there that did see the show struggled to get their autograph since the autograph hounds kind of waved them off. (I got Krysta but missed Erik). When Bettany came out, he was very subdued with the Marvel people but kind and chatty to those of us who actually saw the show. Pope came out last and took his time with every single person and he's such a sweetheart. I do wish they had the Marvel folks on one side and the show folks on the other, but it's MTC so I can't imagine it's something they would sweat over.
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