Monday morning roundup

Activists succeeded in getting Alexandria's coal-fired plant to close. Now the city has more pressing business: choosing a town crier.

Reality is more ironic than fiction. This is one of those events that makes me side with a fast food company.

Okay, I have something to say and I don't know where to start, so I'll start with a question: am I an idiot? Am I incapable of appreciating musical theater? Hardly. I loved 'Stomp'; I loved 'Title of Show'; I even loved 'Hairspray'. And maybe I would have loved 'Oklahoma!' had it been less hyped, but given Hilton Als', among others', drooling over it, I sucked it up and bought a ticket, fully expecting it to blow my mind. Instead, I was just entertained. Which isn't a bad thing, but I can be equally or more entertained for much less money, and usually with more insight and social commentary, at just about every other theatrical event in DC. So why won't everyone stop talking about Arena's 'Oklahoma!' as if it were as revolutionary as the original 'Oklahoma!' performance itself?

I had let this go when I first saw the musical over a month ago, but they won't let it go. Peter Marks just brought it up again in his otherwise informative article for the Post's Fall Arts Preview. So tell me: what is so f*ing great about 'Oklahoma!'? What? I. don't. understand. it. In fact, I was ten times more impressed with Source's production of 'Ramayana', which was all the more amazing given the spacial and budgetary constraints.

But let me digress, on purpose. In searching for the online version of Mr. Marks' article, which I read in the print edition last night, I came across this gem, which takes on Mr. Marks' alleged habit of focusing on what's going on in New York. For the record, he did have a job in New York, which he left for a job in DC, but apart that, the open letter makes an excellent point, and makes it colorfully:

Now you'll probably say, "This guy's just got a beef because he's jealous of the attention NYC is getting." Well, I'm sorry, but what on Earth does any fan of DC theatre have to be jealous of? If I wanted to see corporate chorus boys lip-synch their way through a mass-market piece of shit musical that is just going to close in two weeks and tour the red state boonies, or freeze to death in some Lower East Side dive watching yet another emaciated one-act that basically regurgitates the playwright's last ten therapy sessions into an unrecognizable tumor of soon-to-be-forgotten theatrical trends, well, I'd either shoot myself in the head, or, grudgingly, move to New York, and, once again, avail myself of someone who doesn't write for the Washington Post. Here in Washington, I get to see plays by actual masters, with world-class directors and actors who aren't aging themselves into an early retirement and who probably won't light out for fucking Weehauken the minute Van Helsing on Broadway! closes.

Word.