not a play

My experiences with pandemic-era streamed theater productions have not been good. I liked the first one I saw, which was a video of the last in-person performance of a production of Amadeus before it was shut down, but the ones performed without audiences have not appealed to me. It's not just that there's no audience and consequently that which should get a reaction - not just laughter - falls flat, and the actors have nothing to build their energy off of, but also that the absence of an audience enables the cameras to be closer in than they were for that Amadeus. And since stage actors perform for a large room, get too close to them and they'll look like they're overacting.

In particular, I've got to learn to stop being tempted by Terry Teachout's rave reviews of various regional theater productions. The latest one I was burned by was a comedy called It's Only a Play by Terrence McNally, set at the opening night party of a new Broadway play which turns out to get terrible reviews. The author is there, the star, the director, the producer, a critic, various other hangers-on. They're all lovey-dovey to each other's faces and biting behind their backs, and they're all frantic to convey the farce in a script which isn't really all that funny. It might have been better with some audience laughter, but even then not all that much better. Teachout says the cast have "contagious zest," but I found it deadly and could only watch a few minutes at a time.

What I found most interesting, and even amusing, was the transcription once I turned the close captioning on. One character exclaims bitterly, "I'm no good" several times, which came out in the caption as "I know God." Then he mentions several works for the stage, whose titles were transcribed as adipose wrecks, waiting for couture, and libel whim.

You shouldn't have any trouble guessing what the first one really was, and the second shouldn't be too difficult either. But if the third one stumps you, what the speaker actually said was, La Bohème.