Wings at Second Stage
Wings at Second Stage
#1Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 12:33pmDid anybody see it last night? I'm usually not one to invite first preview thoughts, but I am not in New York right now and am too curious not to ask how it was.
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#2Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 12:39pmI love this play, so I'm curious too!
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#2Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 1:17pmI don't know the play, but, well, John Doyle.
#3Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 1:40pmI was there last night, and Jan Maxwell is giving a tour de force performance in a play that has absolutely no arc and goes nowhere for an hour and ten minutes. The direction wasn't really that exciting. Short of the detailed lighting and stark set and staging (staples of Doyle's direction), I didn't find it to be anything that special.
#4Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 1:44pm
Did he design it, too? I think he did, but I can't remember and it doesn't say on the web page.
And when is Jan Maxwell NOT awesome, really? 
#5Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 1:45pm
I thought this was the musical version for some reason.
This is about a stroke victim, right?
....but the world goes 'round
#7Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 2:45pm
bjh, the run time was only 70 minutes? I'm seeing the show tonight.
Updated On: 10/6/10 at 02:45 PM
iluvtheatertrash
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/9/04
#8Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 5:49pmNeed to see this. It's a beautiful play.
"I know now that theatre saved my life." - Susan Stroman
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#9Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/6/10 at 5:57pmI'm def. interested. I've miss Jan Maxwell in everything else she's done, so it's about time I got off my ass and saw her.
#10Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/7/10 at 8:33amJan Maxwell was outstanding last night. It was a very quick 70 minutes, and I was engaged the whole time. I'm very glad I saw this.
dave1606
Broadway Star Joined: 12/8/07
#11Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/10/10 at 12:15am
Just want to second the praise for Jan Maxwell. Saw the show tonight, and while I wasn't in love with the play, I found John Doyle's direction to be interesting, and Jan to be absolutely fascinating to watch.
This is a gut-wrenching, draining performance that made me tired for her. Every twitch, every dart of her eyes, every shake of her hands, Jan rivets you. This really makes the material watchable, because frankly otherwise, this is quite challenging theater. There was an awkward walk out right during the middle of the show tonight, and I wasn't surprised by it at all, but in a theater like second stage where you have to walk right by the stage I found it to be particularly rude and inconsiderate. I mean the play is only 65 minutes anyway!
Overall if Jan Maxwell had been so incredible in the role, I don't think I would have really liked the play.
#12Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/10/10 at 12:24am
When does Jan Maxwell not give an amazing performance?
The fact that this woman, who works so consistently, and is ALWAYS brilliant, does not have a Tony yet, is a crime.
AEA AGMA SM
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
#13Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/10/10 at 12:53am
Wow, I guess it says something that I didn't even notice the walk out tonight.
As others have stated, Jan Maxwell is absolutely riveting. Doyle's staging is relatively simple, but I don't think this play requires much more. Basically let Jan Maxwell go and before you know it 70 minutes have gone by.
#14Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/10/10 at 7:36amThere were MANY walkouts at the first preview. I think I counted 3 separate occasions with a total of about 7 people.
#15Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/11/10 at 3:42pm
The Doc does Wings at Second Stage. Bring a GUN to kill yourself with.
Wings will make you BEG for DEATH
Trust Me, I'm a Doctor.
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#16Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/11/10 at 4:02pm
Yes, I applaud Jan Maxwell. She's great in the show. It's HER show. It's essentially just a 70min monologue for Maxwell, and she delivers. The staging is fine. The projections are interesting, and some of the just simple crosses and stuff seemed a bit forced to me. There was one scene where they are at a sort of "group meeting" and the black character keeps getting up and switching his chair and standing and leaning, and to me it was distracting. It was like "this is directing," ya know? It just felt very stagey to have people do that. I did love the effect of the shutters and stuff moving and opening, but I didn't really care for the mirrored back part.
I honestly felt awful for the rest of the cast. I mean these people have great credits and while they're doing fine, there is just not much meat for them to chew on. It's just a showcase for Maxwell (who again is stellar in the part), but they don't have anything to do. It's just one dimensional characters.
The script itself is a great, great concept. I don't think it really works so well for the stage, though. The idea worked well for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," but here it becomes a little unbearable. There is no arc, no story, no drama, no nothing. I love absurdist theater, and this was kind of borderline absurdist, but there is just no dramatic tension. It is just her rambling and mumbling for 70mins. She's turning in a great performance, but I can only listen to someone mumble for so long until I begin to tune out and think about other things.
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#17Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/12/10 at 11:29am
Saw this over the weekend and was impressed with the skill of the production and Ms. Maxwell's splendid performance. It is still pretty early in previews, and I think she's got some work to do, especially in making it the stroke-inflected language just a bit clearer, so that it isn't so easily dismissed as being mere gibberish. But she's a brilliant actress, and she's in very good hands with Mr. Doyle.
My one question with the play had to do with exactly when this is supposed to be taking place, and of how old Emily Stillson is supposed to be. Mention is made that Emily Stillson had been a female flyer in her youth, indeed something of a daredevil/stunt flyer, and that would pretty well indicate that Emily had been a young woman in the 1920s or 1930s, which would seem to me to indicate that the events of the play are taking place in the 1960s or 70s at the very latest.
As for Emily's age, the play was originally performed by the great Constance Cummings, who was in her late sixties when she played the role, as opposed to the great Ms. Maxwell's being in her early-fifties.
I can't make up my mind if I'm being terribly nit-picky or not here. It is either important or not, as you wish. I'll have to think about it a bit more.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#18Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/12/10 at 12:33pmThat's interesting. I didn't even really think of time period, but that would make sense. I thought some of the people really looked of the era, and some people just stood out as being dressed in a "costume" like "Amy."
#19Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/12/10 at 3:45pmWell all this negative word-of-mouth certainly makes me regret getting my tdf tickets for this weekend. Now I'm afraid no one will take them!!
Stephen: "Could you grab me a coffee?"
Me: "Would you like that with all the colors of the wind?"
#20Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/12/10 at 3:53pmI would say this is mixed word-of-mouth, definitely not all negative. Why not go see it for yourself with your cheap tickets and form your own opinion?
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#21Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/12/10 at 4:15pm
You've got tickets to see the great Jan Maxwell grace the stage, in a fine and interesting play staged by one of the best directors out there.
You've got ZERO to bitch about.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#22Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/12/10 at 5:17pm
In what world are the thoughts on this thread overwhelmingly negative? They aren't all raves, but does your world lack middle ground?
And yeah, what happened to going and seeing for yourself? Sheep are boring.
#23Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/18/10 at 10:29amWell I went and saw Wings on Saturday and I have to say, it was an awful experience. I walked out at about 40 minutes. I sometimes dislike shows, but I rarely ever feel like, "I wish I had NEVER seen this show" and that's exactly how I feel. I wish I had never seen it at all, and I can't ever get that back now. Also, the theatre needs to turn off the Air conditioning it's unhealthily freezing in there.
Stephen: "Could you grab me a coffee?"
Me: "Would you like that with all the colors of the wind?"
#24Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/18/10 at 4:21pm
Well, I can't be the only one who finds that totally unsurprising. To each his own, but I find pre-determined opinions to often be self-prophesizing. Positive and negative.
Anyway, I saw it this weekend. I certainly didn't find it an enjoyable experience, but I think that's the point. If you're made uncomfortable, even to the point that you don't want to be there, then this play has done its job. That's a very, very difficult thing to take on and produce, because what are you asking your audience but to come have a really terrifying, distressing experience? Jan Maxwell is a FORCE. It's amazing to think that the same actress who gave that performance in Wings is also one of the comic geniuses of the current stage generation. She was stunning.
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