As it’s snowing this looks like a don’t get out of my jammies kinda day. I have food and for once I have milk and eggs. I always seem to run out of them when snow is coming and then have trouble finding them as people think that if it snows there will never be food deliveries again.
Yesterday my blogging was interrupted by a surprise trip to Broadway to see Scotland, Pa. Kevin had an extra ticket and asked on Facebook if anyone wanted to go. I can’t pass up a chance to go to the theater, unless it’s something I know I have no interest in. This is a Musical Dark Comedy based on Macbeth set in 1975 Pennsylvania. That sounds like it’s very much up my alley. It was. Many parts reminded me of Little Shop of Horrors. It’s the tale of an innocent driven to commit murder to achieve financial success for the woman he loves. Both shows feature a Greek chorus trio, the Urchins in Little Shop and the Witches in Scotland. Oddly if you map Scotland onto Little Shop Pat, Lady Macbeth maps on to both Audrey, the object of affection, and Audrey II, the tempter.
The songs are not memorable, like almost every show I’ve seen in the last 35 years I didn’t come out of the theater humming them. I can’t think of a single song. I can say the same about a show as acclaimed as The Producers. As the Producers proves, that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the show. Scotland, Pa is not a classic but it’s very funny and enjoyable. What maps onto Scotland in Macbeth is not the town of Scotland but the hamburger join, Duncan’s, that Macbeth transforms into an eponymously named fast food restaurant with a drive-thru. Any similarity to MacDonald’s is purely intentional. There was a Q & A after the show, and someone asked what MacDonald’s reaction was. I talked about that with Kevin during intermission. I figured it was probably covered by fair use. The M in the Macbeth’s logo was pointed, a key plot point, not rounded like McD’s.
There was one piece of minor but inexplicable unpleasantness. I arrived at the theater just five minutes before curtain. Kevin was waiting for me in the aisle. When we went to sit down a person between the aisle and our seats announced, “I’m not getting up, you’ll just have to squeeze past me.” Now if it was, “I’m sorry, I have a health problem and have difficulty standing;” I’d be fine with it and understand. This made it sound like staking out a claim to being selfish. It’s that, more than the difficulty of moving past, that made it unpleasant. I always try to figure out what is going on in other people’s minds when they do something unusual. I can’t come up with anything for this person. I didn’t notice any difficulty in standing during intermission or when the play ended. Do you have any idea what the person was thinking?
I had my usual after-Broadway dinner of Nathan’s. I’m a high roller with fancy taste.
I had more high art when I got home and watched The Irishman, prime Scorsese. It had the standard Scorsese rep cast, DeNiro, Pesci, Keitel, Paul Herman, Welker White, Bo Dietl, Garry Pastore, etc. In all there were 23 cast and crew that worked on both Goodfellas in 1990 and The Irishman 29 years later. I kept on recognizing actors and having to see where else I’ve seen them. As is Scorsese’s trademark, the film showed the banality of evil. When the characters aren’t being monsters, they are people much like everyone else.
Perhaps I should have saved that for today as I’m not going out. On the other hand, that’s more incentive for me to spend hours reading. I need a day like that. That might require more coffee.
Wise Madness 