Interesting tidbit in the Times newsletter on New York style: “The Show before the Show,” on the théâtre verité that occurs outside Broadway venues right before showtime. Here the cast is a bunch of theater-goers waiting to see Take Me Out at the Walter Kerr. The piece is ostensibly a musing on style, but it reads like the beginning of a short story. One of my favorite passages is this:
Four young men in a circle, each treacherously handsome in his own way, compared the sandals they had chosen for the evening with outstretched legs framed by shorts that may have looked casual, but seemed chosen with cold calculation.
Ooh, “treacherously handsome.” What a delicious phrase. Reading this whole thing reminds me that I really need to see Take Me Out. And get a new pair of sandals.
Take Me Out isn’t really all that great. Some really nice performances, but there’s that whole “plot” problem which affects so many nice ideas for plays. Ideally there isn’t a plot to this play, but the playwright unwisely chose to add one. sigh.
However, that’s not really why I wrote. When I saw TMO downtown (I hate it when people say “oh i saw that when it was downtown”) all the posing was in the audience. Lots of 50-60 year old men (my bf and i were the youngest guys there) all googley eyed over the naked boys. Some had opera glasses! I shouldn’t sound so shocked — since we were in the third row, we didnt need them.