Because I haven’t been generating much content recently, and because I
previously posted about the passage of Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’s initial online run, I thought I’d point out that it’s currently up and running on
Hulu.
For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Horrible is the most recent project from
Joss Whedon. It began out of frustration over the writer’s strike and over Hollywood’s failure to engage in exciting ways with emerging media and modes of distribution. (Ironically, perhaps, Hulu is a joint venture between NBC and Fox; hardly scrappy Robin Hood types).
Anyway: if you’re a Whedon fan, if you’re interested in the coming media wars, if you’ve heard about Hulu but never watched anything, or if you just want to hear Neil Patrick Harris sing, the videos are embedded below.
Adding Machine: A Musical, which I saw the other night and loved. May or may not write more about that later.
And one you don’t even need to buy tickets or leave or house to see: Joss Whedon’s strange and fun mini-project Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which is only free until midnight tonight. After that you’ll need to cough up a couple of bucks on iTunes or wait for the DVD. Turns out Neil Patrick Harris has kind of a pretty voice, so if you’re looking for a way to waste time or an excuse to avoid the nasty, humid, heat wave…
As Passing Strange is closing this weekend, I finally went to the Belasco and saw it for a reasonable price courtesy of their student rush policy. (It’s always fun when your $26 ticket gets you a seat between two people who paid $100 each for theirs.)
I wasn’t sure what to expect. The reviews have been almost unanimously stellar, but all of the clips I’ve seen (most of them of the song “Amsterdam”) have fallen a little flat. Theatre doesn’t always transfer well to video, though, so I was cautiously optimistic. (Besides which, I’m taking a PhD seminar about critical approaches to musical theatre in the fall and it was strongly suggested we see this show before it closed.)
I won’t run through a plot synopsis or full review here but I do want to say that the show is amazing, far better than I had anticipated. I often complain that commercial theatre is too often about bland competence, that it’s like watching people do their job for a couple of hours. I don’t generally like to pay to watch someone sit at their desk, no matter how impressively skilled they might be, but that’s how show after show has felt to me recently.
Not this one.
Immediate, exciting, energetic. The cast is accomplished and professional, but they are also fully engaged with the material. Each member of the cast has star-turn moments and each also knows how to be part of the ensemble when that’s what’s called for. Most of the praise has been heaped on star Daniel Breaker and on de’Adre Aziza, both of whom received Tony nominations, but I would suggest that the careers of all of these actors bear watching, particularly given how many of them were making their Broadway debuts. I was particularly taken with Chad Goodrich who, in addition to being a very sexy presence on stage, married discipline, precision and an infectious enthusiasm. As I left the theatre I heard several high-school girls talking about how hot he was and trying to decide whether he’s gay. But he was really good too.
And Stew, of course, is a rock star.
The material itself rocks in a way that no commercial musical since Hedwig and the Angry Inch has (and Hedwig, obviously, was never going to transfer uptown). What shows like Rent and Spring Awakening pretended to bring to Broadway, Passing Strange really did.
There’s lots to say about the identity politics of the play, the genuine excitement generated by seeing a story about a middle-class black guy as the protagonist of a major new show, etc. But I’ll leave that for another time.
I suspect that the last few performances will sell out. Spike Lee is filming the Saturday shows for HBO so I’m sure those audiences will be packed, whether artificially or otherwise. I’m also sure I wasn’t the only one who thought “Oh, shit; I’d better go see it” when the closing was announced. Still: if you haven’t seen it and can get a ticket I highly recommend it.
The show’s not perfect, of course. There are a few slack moments, a few jokes that are too easy, and a few moments of pathos that feel too manipulative. Perhaps most significantly, this musical that is in large part about navigating one’s way through and ultimately rejecting stereotypes ends up relying on a certain number of stereotypes of its own. Nevertheless: despite
all the talk about Passing Strange and Broadway being an incompatible match, a star-crossed idea from the star, if more shows like this made their way to Broadway more often I, for one, would see a lot more Broadway shows.
Still, the tracks I’ve heard from the cast album, the video clips on YouTube and the show’s official site, the talk show appearances and the Tony performance: none of these gave me any indication that the show would be so exciting, that I would be so impressed. Hopefully, Spike can capture Passing Strange a little more effectively than anyone’s managed to so far. If you catch it on HBO, I recommend watching it somewhere with decent speakers and turning them up. Loud.
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