humble mumble.
Without You: A Review.
i chose this as my very first london show and of course it didn’t disappoint. clearly i’m biased - massive RENThead that i am - but i think even someone who’s never seen RENT would enjoy it. it’s about much more than the musical; he weaves the story of his mother’s death in seamlessly. after seeing it, it’s plain to see that RENT and her passing lined up in his life the way that it did for many reason. which was one of the biggest messages: you can’t stop life from happening the way it’s already decided it’s going to.
anthony is a natural at one man showmanship, especially when it comes to voices. the 5-piece band was on point. the theater was intimate, which was perfect for the subject matter. other than the one moment where the lighting almost blinded me, i loved it. i laughed, i soaked in all the anecdotes about the early days of the show, i smiled when he mentioned things that i already knew, i mouthed every word to every song he sang from the show, i teared up. it just made me love the movement that is RENT that much more, which shouldn’t even be possible at this point. but somehow my love for it continues to grow. standing o, anthony. jonathan has got to be massively proud of you.
yesterday, a longtime friend i haven’t seen in awhile stayed at my place. it was a last minute stay; she came into town to audition for an upcoming musical workshop / lab. i’m your standard introvert, but i also happily and readily open my space up to friends who need a short term place to crash. we ended up staying up late into the night catching up on each other’s lives and recent news from our mutual friends. we eventually started talking about our moms, since we grew up together in the same church and our moms still see each other all the time while we’re off in the world doing our thing. it was such a great conversation. about how our relationships have shifted as we get older and how we’re still working to define them. clearly, this is a theme in my life right now, given that i posted about it the other day. i guess i need to keep paying attention.
this morning i got her to where she needed to go, then headed to work. she was so grateful for my help and hospitality, but i was just as grateful to her for asking and including me in this latest development in her path toward the stage. i’m not meant for the stage myself, but i lobster love the theater and what it stands for, and happen to know quite a few people who are in that world. i’m usually just on the fringes being a fangirl, so it felt awesome to be able to talk about it with someone who lives it. for a hump day morning, i went into work feeling better than i have in a long time, and while i know it had to do with this gorgeous new york weather, it also had a lot to do with me feeling like i was contributing to something i believe in and seeing this cray city through the eyes of someone who isn’t living here yet but is just as fascinated by it.
there’s nothing quite like reconnecting with friends, cheerleading a dream, or gaining new perspective.
Tom! I wanted to thank you for your recent post “The Great Whiter-Than-Ever Way,” (http://www.apoorplayer.net/2012/01/the-great-whiter-than-ever-way) which is now being commonly referred to as the “Is it so bad to admit that theatre is for white people?” post. It’s a brilliant expose of the banal, but still incredibly insidious, dangerous, modern-day racism that lies beneath the innocent-looking façade of your average friendly, innocuous, white university professor chairing a third-rate theatre department in the middle of nowhere. I’m blown away by the courage it must have taken to reveal not only your native disdain for all cultures, races, and concepts besides your own, but also your incredible intellectual barren-ness – what some would even call thunderous stupidity! And to think – you’re a college professor! You work with impressionable young minds EVERY DAY! It’s just incredibly brave to reveal that you’re living your life half-asleep - something that could, in fact, SHOULD, cost you your job! Bravo, sir.
I only have one quibble with your post. When you use the word “admit” in what has become the de facto title of your post, I think you may have overstepped your bounds, even within the huge leeway you give yourself. You see, an “admission” is generally a revelation of a hidden fact – now, that fact can of course be your personal opinion, as in “I admit that I feel like black people are beneath me culturally” – but the fact you purport to reveal is that the theatre is for white people.
This, unfortunately, is not a fact.
I enjoy theater, and I’m not white. I basically had a religious experience when I saw The Lion King a few weeks ago, when “The Circle of Life” played and I saw all these African-descended people being glorious and singing in Zulu all the colors and it was beautiful. Just how rare it is to see folk who look like me, a cast who is majority full of people who look like me, at that, and how wondrous they were and flaw free and amazing. And then for this Tom person to basically be okay with the institutional racism inherent on The Great White Way? Yeah, no.
Also, re: the bolded, shout out to the Glee fandom right there.
this tomfoolery right here is the exact reason i can’t stand statistics.
he should’ve gone with that “uneasy” feeling and kept this post to himself.
i am a black woman, and one of the main reasons i moved to new york is to have the world of theater at my doorstep.
i’m also extremely happy that in the 5 years i’ve lived here, there has been a growing (albeit slow) number of shows that appeal to me as a black woman.
i saw the mountaintop about a month ago.
this week i am seeing porgy and bess AND stick fly (excitement is not even the word).
and i will continue to post my opinions of what i get the chance to see in an effort to block out the ridiculous ignorance of the aforementioned post.
“The Africa They Never Show You” — Actors from the new opera “Winnie” based on the early life of Winnie Mandela (South Africa)
danny boyle. naomie harris. KINGSLEY SHACKLEBOT george harris. brit theatre. colorblind casting. all on a movie screen near me.
these are a few of my favorite things. GOING.
