Wings at Second Stage- Page 2
Wings at Second Stage
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
BroadwayGirl107
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/26/03
#26Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/18/10 at 11:10pmSaw this about a week and a half ago. The play itself is interesting but in no way great drama; the direction, I think, is aesthetically quite beautiful but cold; Maxwell, as others have mentioned, is completely brilliant. I think her work is worth a visit for anyone.
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#27Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/21/10 at 9:53pmMy thoughts echo the general consensus on here. See it for Jan Maxwell. Other than that, ehhhh. The direction, as broadwaygirl perfectly put it, is smart but cold. And I felt like it kinda distracted me at times. The woman who played Maxwell's post-stroke therapist or whatever her job title would be, was horrible. It's basically a 75 minute Jan Maxwell monologue and she certainly delivers. I can see how people would loathe it. Ben Brantley was there tonight.
#28Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/21/10 at 10:08pmShouldn't it be cold, though? You're basically being asked to live inside the mind of someone who is totally alienated by her thoughts. I think the coldness fits it well.
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#29Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/21/10 at 10:25pmTrue, but it also makes it hard to "open up to" if that makes any sense. It's a VERY niche play. I can see people loving it and I can see people hating it. I honestly think without Jan Maxwell, I would've been bored to tears.
#30Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/21/10 at 10:58pmNo, I agree. That's part of the paradox of doing this play, which I mentioned earlier. I can totally see why people hate it. I didn't really ENJOY being there myself, but not in the sense that it was a bad play or bad production. It's just very difficult.
RippedMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
#31Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/22/10 at 12:56amI can't imagine that the playwright intended you to "not enjoy yourself" or to "not want to be there." I mean, I would think he would want to write something that people would enjoy and an experience people would want to share with others. Again, maybe I'm totally wrong, but I saw the Scottsboro Boys yesterday, and I thought it handled the same idea so much better. It was difficult subject matter, but handled in a way that you were entertained and enlightened at the same time. This however is just relentless nonsense. We don't really learn ANYTHING about this women, so why am I to care? I don't really feel bad for her, I just want her to stop.
#32Wings at Second Stage
Posted: 10/22/10 at 1:22am
It's not that simple. I think it comes down to what people want to get out of going to the theater, and that's not the same for everyone. But given the handling of the sujbect matter, it's pretty clear that Kopit didn't intend for this to be a fun, leave your cares behind kind of theater experience. I think this production of this play is extremely discomforting (particularly the first 20 minutes or so), and at least for me, created a lot of emotions that added up to my not really wanting to be there for a great deal of it. But good theater can put you through a lot of feelings that you don't necessarily like. For some people, that can add up to a good experience even if it was difficult. There is a cathartic element to Wings at its ending, and I think that's the part that makes it work.
I can sort of see where you're drawing the comparison, but I think it's a stretch; The Scottsboro Boys is using the Cabaret formula to tell a story, and it's able to put forth for the audience a very disturbing topic in a way that's still often fun and entertaining. Yes, it's also not a happy subject matter, but past that I think the shows are like apples and... not even oranges. You're dealing with a large historical and cultural event versus something that's going on inside one person's head. It's a totally different kind of fear, and the way you approach that for an audience is, IMO, also totally different.
I thought what they did with Wings at 2ST worked, for the play. It did what I think it should most effectively do. But that's not an easy thing to experience, and therein lies the complicated question of, well, why do this play?
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