Anybody who roll like that gotta have backup dancers!

Is it just me, or does all the great work by living, breathing playwrights get produced in March, April, and May? It’s just me, of course… I’ve seen plenty’a great, new works at other times of the year; I very much enjoyed Alan Berks’ new play at Gremlin Theatre just this past February, for example. But here’s the thing: I saw the most amazing show a few weeks back. I can’t stop talking about it because in is the antithesis of everything that goads me about American theater. Point of Revue at Mixed Blood Theatre packed ten little play-lets into a two-hour show for the ADHD sect. Many of you have already endured my raving about that production, so I’ll leave it at that. But, you should go see it!

Here’s something the show brought to mind: The fact that many contemporary theater companies are turning their backs on good, solid playwriting. Now, of course, the written word is not central to the vision of every theater company. Many think of themselves as having a more “visual aesthetic”–you know the ones. But even among these companies, there ought to a responsible person who knows the difference between adjective and adverb. Another pet peeve: over-funded playwrights who pen saccharine sweet and/or predictably PC scripts!

I also saw Mefistofele at Jeune Lune this past weekend. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should come clean about the fact that I worked at Jeune Lune for three years in and about the time of my mid-twenties. And I worked there because I loved their work. Still do, pretty much. I can’t get enough of all that low-tech trickery and flash. It seems to me that an empty theater is to Dominique Serrand what a blank canvas is to your average painter… But I didn’t much care for Mefistofele. I have generally loved Jeune Lune’s operas. (Figaro was the exception. But I worked there when that show was going on so I couldn’t tell anybody. Ah… La liberte! La liberte!) But the thing about Mefistofele is that there just isn’t much to hook your ear on. I’m no expert on opera but the libretto seems, well, anti-lyrical. The pictures were pretty as hell, though. Worth seeing just for that.