"bare" (draft)

I went to see "bare" at The Space on Friday. Bill The Carpenter came with me for Act I, but the excellent music at the show got him pining for his own compositions and he bailed out at intermission in order to go home and continue working on his own album (that's the strangest form of praise I've yet encountered - an itch to leave!)

"bare"'s rich harmonies reminded me of "Rent". In a sense, with its intimate coed Catholic school setting, "bare" has much of "Rent"'s appeal, but pitched to a younger age cohort. Since we tend to be most affected by art expression aimed at our age group, it didn't surprise me that several people I talked to were seeing the show for a second, third, or even fourth time. One person even said "bare" now superseded "Les Miserables" and "Rent" as his favorite show.

(Of course, this age appeal thing doesn't always work. For example, TV sitcoms about folks in their fifties trying to pay off mortgages don't particularly catch my interest, even today. But I do remember just how gripping I found the (then new) science fiction novel "Dune", which I read in 1971, when I was fourteen. And how old was the protagonist of the book, Paul Muad 'dib, Wormrider, he of the indigo-colored eyes, when he captured the Spice Trade and became Master of the Universe? Well, he was fourteen! I liked that book: I liked that book a lot!)

But it works the other way too. Several older people I talked to found the show somewhat offputting. "I don't know what I think about all this homosexual grab ass," one person said, which sounds like they know exactly what they think about all this homosexual grab ass, but just won't say it. Another person called the show "angsty - very angsty" (which brought to mind Woody Allen).

Before I saw the show, I heard a specific complaint about the staging of 'Portrait Of A Girl' which featured (Ivy) Kelly Daniells singing as a pair of dancers cavorted behind her: "That was very distracting!" Since I like dancing, I was tempted to counter-interpret this statement to mean Kelly's singing was interfering with perfectly good dancing. But when I saw the show, I realized the different actions weren't meant to clash, but rather complement each other, in a modern musical way, which has been heavily influenced by the sort of quick cuts and simultaneous singing/dancing exemplified in music videos. If you aren't a fan of music videos, or haven't been inured to their ways, you won't like the staging.

The show was amazingly crude at times, which is all part of the fun, of course. Everyone looks so - how shall I say? - sexy! (Netty Carey melts steel, Kelly Daniells can cause accidents, and if I played homosexual grab ass I'd be in heaven.)

I was a little disappointed the Catholic angle wasn't worked harder - papier mache gonads distract from philosophy. Scott Martin makes a fabulous confessional priest (particularly in 'Two Households'), but his character needs to break out more from the confessional box. Rewrite please!

The actors in the show were all top notch. Ian Cullity was just amazing as Jason. Lucas Blair was sensitive and tortured as Peter. Kelly Daniells was energetic as Ivy. Joelle Wirth's acidic interpretations of events were very funny!

(more to come)