Theater notes

"Bad Jews" was phenomenal. It was, above all, compelling. The dramaturg's note said that the stakes couldn't be higher, which isn't really true, but it felt like it was.

The other day, I wrote that Tony Kushner's "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures, by Tony Kushner" was not compelling.

The show ("iHo" for short) was mostly watchable but less than compelling. It was "Rock and Roll" (Tom Stoppard) meets "Major Barbara" (George Bernard Shaw) meets "Torch Song Trilogy" (Harvey Fierstein), with a tinge of "Osage County" (Tracy Letts). Torch Song was longer than "iHo" but didn't feel like it; it flew by. "iHo" dragged... and dragged... and dragged, without adding any value. It was over three hours of people--family--arguing. Which gets really, really old, even if it's the point. It's like pauses: use them sparingly in theatre, as a few seconds' pause on stage can feel like an eternity. Three hours of bickering is too much bickering. I don't regret having seen "iHo," but I wouldn't have missed much if I hadn't seen it. There were some great lines and some very entertaining moments, but not enough--absent a compelling plot--to carry the play.

I would have regretted not seeing "Bad Jews;" "iHo"'s stakes were technically higher, highest--i.e., life or death--but you didn't think for a minute that anything the characters said or did could influence them. The characters were just bickering and spewing philosophy, and that academic babble got in the way of the story, nearly drowned it out. "Bad Jews" was based on philosophical disagreements, but the characters lived them; it didn't feel like they were just saying things (even though you could tell that they were saying variations of those things their whole lives). And the "Bad Jews" actors were strong; they carried it.

Both plays were marked not only by family squabbling, but over broadly unsympathetic characters, each insufferable in his or her own way. It would have been too easy to take sides in "Bad Jews," to identify with Daphna were she less racist and judgmental, even if she were just as overbearing. For better or for worse, she took on the role--the trope--of the substantive woman against (the trope of) the uncomplicated one. It's "The Way We Were" all over again (even though, here, it wasn't about dudes): straightened, sleek hair vs. crazy curls, blonde vs. brunette, ambitious vs. ditzy and worshipful of the man who would support her. We've seen it over and over--I saw it in another, forgettable Studio play a couple of years ago--Holly Twyford was one of the complicated ones--"Time Stood Still." And the opposite trope--the basic, agreeable (younger) woman--was literally defined by the way she didn't overthink the menu when she went out to eat. With the complicated women, everything is so... complicated. Who needs that $hit?

In "Bad Jews," the complicated woman was especially shrill,the simple one was especially airheaded.

Note: both plays were written by men. But so was Biography by S.N. Behrman, decades ago, and he'd successfully avoided that trope (I blogged about it at the time because I was so pleasantly surprised).

That issue aside, "Bad Jews" reminded me why I love theater (whereas "iHo" reminded me why I started opting out).