Understanding adulation

Is applause the same thing as validation?
Hm-m-m, sometimes, I think. But you need to understand what’s being applauded.

An example: Last night, Mary, Daughter One and I went to a performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar by a local musical theatre company. There was a lot to like, believe me. For example, the young actor who played Mary Magdalen stunned me. She has two of the signature solo songs in the show and a key role to play but in all the productions I’ve been involved with either on stage or in the audience, I’ve never been satisfied by the portrayals of this potentially rich character.

Last night, Megan Tyrell changed that. Her Magdalen was passionate and nuanced and intense and best of all an actual, believable person who had her own back story and motivations independent of her allegiance to Jesus.

The young woman who played Judas was an incredible singer and a great actor and she gave us her all. And it didn’t work because casting Judas Iscariot as a young woman works about as well as casting a drag queen as Marian Paroo.

The director made some other questionable choices, including rewriting the book to take place 1,000 years in the post-apocalyptic future. It didn’t work. And am I the only one getting tired of every new story having to be post-apocalypse? Has it not become hackneyed?

Nevertheless, the show overall was quite entertaining and I could write a whole entry about the stellar individual performances. And our collective applause would seem to indicate I was not alone in that assessment. But what is the director (and libretto hacker) to glean from our enthusiasm? That she did a fantastic job casting, blocking, working the interactions, bringing forth some truly fine performances? All true. But at least in my case, I fear she might take my hand slapping and grinning as validation of her rewrite. I hope not because it was quite awful and I would hate to be guilty of encouraging her to similarly butcher any other author’s work.

I see parallels to this in the current presidential campaigns. Fifteen months from now we will have a newly inaugurated President. And that new President will be emboldened to believe that what (s)he promised to do, if by the time of the inauguration anyone can even remember all the promises, is what got him or her elected. Here’s the rub – there are so many issues present and so many affinity groups playing into the process this time, I defy anyone – no matter how expert they might consider themselves to be – to suss out just which issues will have determined the outcome. What will be the mandate for the new administration? How will anyone know?

Butchering a beloved stage show is a travesty but one that hurts only a relatively few eyes and ears. Wish I could say the same about electing the wrong person to national office.

NOTE: If you happen to be in Seattle tomorrow (Sunday the 4^th), you could do worse than the last showing of Seattle Musical Theatre’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Just don’t count on seeing the Tim Rice book, and you’ll be fine. The individual performances are (mostly) fantastic. And to be fair, I should admit One liked the rewrite. So who am I to say?