Irresistible Imagination: Gatsby and the Chaperone

By coincidence, The 3-D Great Gatsby opened the same weekend I headed down to Raleigh for my planned-months-in-advance excursion to see Clay Aiken in a limited engagement of The Drowsy Chaperone (featuring Beth Leavel reprising her Tony Award winning performance as the title character).

You're already supposed to know the Gatsby story; if you're as unfamiliar with DC as I was, the short version is: Lonely musical-theater-loving Man in Chair (Clay) escapes into the fantasy of one of his favorite cast recordings, a 1920s frolic about a spotlight-loving ingenue (Paige Faure as Janet Van Der Graaft) torn between love and stardom.

The banality of Man in Chair's life is made poignant as he is interrupted by the phone, or by the lights going out, and he reflects on the failure of his less than perfect marriage. Do you leave (escape) or live with your decisions?

The decision to live with it can be reversed; he ultimately has "leave" thrust upon him by the divorce lawyers, and it is his escapist life he lives with. (The show that this story actually reminds me of is The Purple Rose of Cairo, with Mia Farrow as the drab-life-liver escaping into Depression Era silver-screen fantasy.)

Clay Aiken in rehearsal, The Drowsy Chaperone, photo by Corey Lowenstein, News Observer

Clay Aiken as Man in Chair, The Drowsy Chaperone. Photo by Curtis Brown

The over-the-top farcical world of Drowsy Chaperone's Roaring Twenties is a stark contrast to director Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby, a nonstop over-the-top orgy, where the one thing unifying the classes is decadence. Hey, see it in 3-D to get the full over-the-topness.

Musically, I'll give the edge to Jay-Z in bringing the Gatsbian Jazz Age into the modern ear. Drowsy is as light as air, and fairly forgettable (except among those of my friends who went for multiples last week).

Acting: well, I love Clay, so there you go. He delivered a memorable character. If Man in Chair touched me, it's because he is far easier for someone like me to relate to than Jay Gatsby, whether performed by Robert Redford or Leonardo di Caprio.

They both created fantasy worlds: As Daisy Buchanan puts it, Gatsby's world is a "perfect, irresistible imagination." So is Man in Chair's.

I already live in the Man in Chair's world: I'm Auntie Hosaa on a Sofa, occasionally found hanging over the railing in the dress circle, binoculars trained on my favorite showman, engaging me with his irresistible imagination.

It's F. Scott Fitzgerald's Gatsby I never quite understood. Our fictional chaperone, Nick Carraway, is too simplistic: Gatsby had inextinguishable hope; Daisy (and Tom Buchanan) were careless people. And no matter who is cast as Daisy, be it Mia Farrow or Carey Mulligan, I just don't get the attraction, let alone the obsession.

But then, there are people who don't get my obsession with Clay Aiken. So there you go. It's just that perfect, irresistible imagination he elicits.

Life After School, or, How to Be a Grown-Up

(For Rachel)

Since you don’t think anything has changed in the one whole entire week since you graduated from college, let me assure you that it will.

It’s already different for you than it was for me, because you’re starting life with a husband. You’re completely out of your parents’ house and making your own home together (whereas all my future husbands married other women, leaving me to fall in love with fictional heroes and gay celebrities. At least they don’t cost much).

When I graduated from college, Mom (your grandmother) picked me up and drove me back to her new house in Louisiana, so I didn’t even have my old high-school friends around for mutual support. Mom did get me a job interview with one of her friends, an education consultant, so at least I had (minimum wage) employment. It is very good to get your first real job any way you can.

It didn’t last, so I did sort of bounce around until I found graduate school and a real profession. You don’t have to bounce, and you don’t have to go to graduate school. Just keep your mind busy. You’ll keep learning even without school.

You want tangible suggestions, so here goes:

1. Volunteer or get an internship. Pick a business or organization that looks like it could use some help and offer to do whatever you can. When you get there, do more. Always be willing to pitch in. “Let me do that for you” is my favorite employee expression.

2. Read for at least an hour a day. You need the quiet time, and you need to focus on something unrelated to your daily routine. History is good; biographies of inspiring people are good. Don’t waste your brain on “just for entertainment” trashy kind of reading. (Exception: Anything by P.G. Wodehouse. You know I love me some Jeeves stories!)

3. Once a week, try a kind of food you’ve never had before. The supermarket is full of unusual stuff, and they’ll often have free recipe cards nearby. Buy only a little in case you don’t like it (or so you don’t eat too much of it if you do).

4. You can talk to strangers now! You know how (and whom). Ask questions. Figure out, as soon as you possibly can, what you have in common. Even the most “opposite” strange new person you come across will have something you can relate to.

5. Get the Sunday newspaper. (Yes, the print edition.) Open it up and spread it out all over the floor and find at least one whole article to read. (You were a business major, so go for the business section first.) You’re probably getting most of your news headlines already just by getting on the computer, but an in-depth, well-researched, written, and edited article is worth paying some attention to.

6. Start saving money. Your grandma’s trick: Each week, deduct (without withdrawing) $10 or $20 from your checking account and record the amount somewhere else. If you don’t see it, you don’t spend it. After six months, you can turn your “set aside” money into a CD or a savings bond or even start investing it (your dad can talk to you about that if he hasn’t already).

7. Stretch. You don’t need yoga or pilates classes; just do slow stretching moves on every part of you that can be stretched. Then move: walk, run, swim, bike, dance. Then cool down by stretching a little more.

8. Be outdoors at least part of the day.

9. Daydream. No time limit, but no multitasking. It is not good to daydream while you’re talking to strangers (number 4 above).

10. Call your folks once a week. But you’d do that anyway.

That’s probably more “advice” than anyone can tolerate. You want to keep your hands busy, too, so I have a couple of projects to send you.

And by the way, you don't have to call me "Aunt" anymore. We're both adults.

love and "turtle waves" back at you!

The Darks and Lights of Winter

The Winter's Tale at Shakespeare Theatre Company is a rocky rollercoaster ride of emotions, beginning with the king's irrational jealousy.

In my opinion, the production relied a little too heavily on the lighting to show Leontes's (Mark Harelik) inner turmoil--the actor could convey it just fine. But unlike Othello, Leontes has no one feeding him bad information about his divinely warm (and very pregnant) wife, Hermione (Hannah Yelland). So Harelik's fiercely uncompromising passion in throwing away this wife (along with her son and the daughter to come) made the character almost wholly unlikable.

Hannah Yelland as Hermione, Mark Harelik as Leontes and Sean Arbuckle as Polixenes in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of 'The Winter’s Tale', directed by Rebecca Taichman. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

The darkness of Act I is a stark contrast to the lightness of pastoral Act II--and in this production, the transition between those contrasts is eased at the end of the first act with the abrupt and very funny image of the gloriously goofy Clown (Tom Story) crossing upstage, running and screaming like a frightened child.

If you've been here before, you already know about my obsession fascination with Tom Story. 

Tom Story via About the Artists

I realize I haven't seen all he's done, but I love his ability to mold that serene moon face into a range of expressions. From the first act seriousness of a palace aid (Cleomenes) without much to do except look serious, he transmogrified into the happily clueless son-of-a-shepherd, oblivious to the pickpocketing rogue Autolycus (the other half of Harelik dual-role assignment).

Actually, a very funny bit between them ensued during the IDR (invited dress rehearsal) when the zipper on Tom's turned-around fanny-pack wouldn't close after Autolycus stole the money in it. As Autolycus pulled and pulled on the stubborn zipper, the young shepherd's obliviousness grew increasingly implausible, and the smile just kept blossoming on his giddy face. At last, Tom moved the plot along with a sweet "You must abandon it, sir." Snort! I hate to say it was my favorite part of the play, but the moment called to mind the best crackups with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway from the Carol Burnett Show. (And it happened again when Tom as clown was imitating the rogue's wildly ridiculous lisp.)

This levity, this lightness, was all in keeping with the pastoral Act II. Sets, costumes, lighting all conveyed such contrasting warmth against Act I's frosty shadowy harshness. But the seamlessness of the transitions were as magical as the Queen's rebirth at the end, from discarded wife to treasured love.

Overall the production is as good as it gets at Shakespeare Theatre Company, which is pretty damn good. It did run long, but I imagine an earlier start time than the IDR had will keep people from dropping dead at 11. (Us old people, that is.) 

I thought it was interesting that the staging of this production, with actors not in the scene simply sitting to the side but not going off stage, was so similar to the Wandering Souls' engaging (and economical) 2009 production of The Winter's Tale. The Wanderers' 90-minute production remains one of my favorite Shakespearean experiences ever.

The only thing I would have liked would have been a longer why-I'm-forgiving-you speech from the queen Hermione, but Shakespeare apparently didn't provide one. 

Heather Wood as Perdita, Mark Harelik as Leontes, Hannah Yelland as Hermione and Todd Bartels as Florizel (background) in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of 'The Winter’s Tale', directed by Rebecca Taichman. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Just another one of those irrational emotions the Bard gives his characters and expects the audience to accept. But as I said, Harelik's Leontes was so thoroughly irrationally enraged with jealousy that I personally couldn't have loved him after such abuse. Just me?

The Winter's Tale, Lansburgh Theatre, opens May 14, 2013

Director: Rebecca Taichman

Set Designer: Christine Jones

Costume Designer: David Zinn

Lighting Designer: Christopher Akerlind

Cast:

Mark Harelik (Leontes, King of Sicilia; Autolycus, a rogue)

Hannah Yelland (Hermione, Queen of Sicilia)

Sean Arbuckle (Polixenes, King of Bohemia)

Heather Wood (Mamillius, Prince of Sicilia; Perdita, Princess of Sicilia)

Brent Carver (Camillo)

Ted van Griethuysen (Antigonus; old shepherd)

Nancy Robinette (Paulina; drunken shepherdess)

Tom Story (Cleomenes; young shepherd, a clown)

Todd Bartels (Dion; Florizel, Prince of Bohemia)