TRAVESTIES (2018) Previews- Page 2

[pacificnorthwest]

Posted: 3/30/18 at 11:36am

WhizzerMarvin said: Btw- are those your cats? If so, they are adorable!!! What are their names?"

Thank you!  Yes, those are my little beasts. They're brothers, 4 years old. As kittens, they took a wild ride in the wheel well of a car before escaping at a stop and being rescued by a friend's daughter, which how they came to my babies. They're incredibly sweet and hugely destructive. But I adore them, of course. They are "Kissa," which is kitty in Finnish (my heritage) and "Kokko," short for the small Baltic Sea city where my (distant but wonderful) relatives live.

The dialogue of "Travesties" sounds so intriguing, even if the production is imperfect. I actually downloaded a study guide to my Kindle, which I'm sure will make some on these boards LOL.

 

 

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 3/30/18 at 11:57am

Aww, Very cool names and I think it’s a cat’s job to be both incredibly sweet and hugely destructive, ha.

No shame in a study guide! You’ll probably end up appreciating the dialogue so much more than by just going in cold. 

[haterobics]

Posted: 3/30/18 at 12:52pm

WhizzerMarvin said: "the applause from the small group who stay til the end felt strong."

Well now I'm intrigued, heh, and curious what I'll get from this show going in completely not knowing what it is... buy $69 for Row C was too good to pass up, so guess I'll find out.

[Tom-497]

Posted: 3/31/18 at 3:16am

I saw the show this evening through TDF (Mezz Row B). While there were more than a few walkouts at intermission, many people seemed to enjoy the show. There was frequent laughter, and exit applause on a least two occasions, including (if I remember correctly) after James Joyce dresses down Tristan Tzara.

I was unfamiliar with the play and liked it a lot overall (Act I more than Act II, actually). Also, although I'm sure I missed some allusions, etc., it seems to me that Stoppard fills in the historical basics in a helpful manner to keep people from getting seriously lost.

But I agree with the thrust of an earlier comment that the production came across as more superficial than necessary. Partly, I think, this is just tentativeness during early previews of an extremely wordy play (for example, tonight the actor playing Bennett had some trouble with one of his long speeches and seemed to be prompted by Hollander -- along the lines of, "I believe you were going to say something about Marx." )

A more significant problem, to me, and one reason I preferred Act I, was the focus on Lenin in Act II. Lenin's views on art, as presented, struck me as not only much less intellectually interesting than any of the other characters' -- which I would imagine is the point -- but also less compelling in even their practical implications (due not only to the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc but also to a possibly related loss of stature suffered by the arts themselves -- unlike in the 1970s, I think it's very hard to view art as a serious threat to anything these days).

Updated On: 3/31/18 at 03:16 AM

[pretzelman2]

Posted: 4/1/18 at 12:22am

Saw it tonight -- enjoyed it.  Would NOT describe it as "hilarious," or recommend it to most friends except the nerdiest, but it's certainly madcap and never boring.  Seth Numrich and Tom Hollander give great performances.  Some truly great jokes, rip-roaring dialogue, and I'm sure so many references that went over my head.

Knowing Importance of Being Earnest extremely well, I was shocked at the many scenes that are ripped directly from Earnest, almost Mad Libs style, with names and references changed.  Sometimes this was absolutely delightful for me.  Sometimes it made me just want to be watching Earnest (a MUCH funnier play).  

I'd definitely recommend reading the two short background pages in the bio to bone up on the historical figures, it was really useful.

Also, we were sitting in Hiptix seats in the rear mezz for act one and snuck into front/side orchestra seats for act two, and I almost never feel this but this is a show where the production was really just as good from further back.  With the larger-than-life performances, and the awesome set and stage tableaus, mezz was good.  (Is American Airlines one of the smaller houses?  That may have helped too).

[Julie Yard]

Posted: 4/1/18 at 9:38am

Although I didn't get everything, I really enjoyed this, and may go back for 2nd dip to fill in. Yes, it is Stoppard with his smarty-pants on, and like Invention of Love (where I didn't have a clue, but still knew it was beautiful)  sometimes you just have to surrender  to the smartest person in the room and go where he's going. How many playwrights can manage a play this rich, silly, sly and challenges you to keep up? IMO, not too many, and don't you wish there were more? Well worth the small efforts. As mentioned, the couple of pages in the program helped.

 

[pacificnorthwest]

Posted: 4/1/18 at 9:55am

Throughly enjoyed it, and so did the rest of the audience as far as I could tell. Abundant laughter. The cast was superb -- the sharp, fast-paced delivery of such a dialogue-dense show was impressive. They did great justice to the wit and intellect of Stoppard's writing. Have been delightedly skimming parts of it after picking the play up (along with Three Tall Women) at the Drama Book Shop. I have a nephew who recently graduated from college with degrees in theater and philosophy. I keep imaging how much he'd love it. Hope I have a chance to take him.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 4/7/18 at 6:19pm

I went into this completely blind this afternoon. I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to keep up and follow along, but once I got used to the quick dialogue and the fast pace of the play, I was just fine. I know I probably missed a few things and some stuff went over my head, but I was still able to enjoy this. 

The play itself is VERY wordy, and the characters all talk extremely fast. I was still able to understand mostly everyone with the exception of the actress playing Cecily who talked WAY too fast. I understood maybe 1/4 of what she said, which was a little annoying, especially when she was recapping the historical events at the beginning of act 2. It would have been helpful to understand her at that point.

Tom Hollander and Seth Numrich were the two standouts for me. They were both sensational and hilarious. I would love to see them get Tony nominations in a few weeks. 

The set was very impressive and served the production quite well. I loved the deck with all the strewn papers covering it. There are also quite a few fun lighting effects throughout the course of the play.

While this is not a play for everyone (I noticed quite a few walk outs at intermission), I still enjoyed it. It definitely requires a lot of attention, and the dialogue does take some getting used to, but overall, it’s a very solid production of a solid play.

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 4/8/18 at 7:10pm

It's nice to be reminded every once in a while of just how good Tom Stoppard is as a playwright. Any return of his to the City should be celebrated. 

Travesties, I would argue, belongs with Rosencrantz and Jumpers as of his highest calibre. This production, while overall well-put together, fails to really reckon with how much there really is to this play. The secret to Stoppard is that all of the characters' intellectualizing is really just an elaborate disguise for their emotional turmoil. As such, this production gets a lot of the text across clearly and is often superb, but really doesn't provoke the intense response the play is capable of generating. It's also not nearly funny enough—Travesties is one of the funniest plays ever written and I was only chuckling at this production with a few exceptions (most notably the limerick scene with Joyce, which was perfection)

[wonkit]

Posted: 4/8/18 at 8:29pm

I am seeing this this week and can't wait. Stoppard's humor requires an intelligent audience and I wonder if we are all so intellectually lazy that we can't "get" this play any more.

ARCADIA is my favorite play of all time, and I lived at the Barrymore the last time it was revived. Hope to visit this a number of times was well.