As I consider what this blog will be from NY, one of the obvious formats would be a critical forum posting my thoughts on the many shows I see here (about 50 a year these days, not counting concerts, movies, readings and so on). But I don't wanna. Here's why.
Two nights ago I saw the new play by a downtown writer/director I admire a lot. His early works were some of the best I've seen in the last decade or so, formally inventive and really exciting. But lately he's been going down a bum road. Where once he found intriguing depth in the banal, colloquial verbiage of daily life, nowadays he's exploring a sticky poetic dialogue that's a pretty hard slog. I just don't think it's his strength. I respect him for trying to break out of what had become a reliable formula, but I hope he finds a new direction soon. (And I've still enjoyed the recent plays OK, they just haven't had many of the sweet shocks of his earlier stuff.)
And last night I saw a pretty good play that got better and worse in the second act. The writing came together nicely, but a crucial performance took a serious nosedive. As a result, what had been a prettyimmersive experience became one of those annoying bi- or tri-level evenings. Instead of just watching one good play, I wound up watching the play being presented by a good (minus one) cast, and then imagining the play as it was written, as well as how it might have been with a knock-out performance in that role. In the end, I was mostly satisfied, but not transported.
If I were going to write up blog entries about those two plays, I'd have to name names and air my disappointments and regrets, and I just don't want to do that. Here's where I'll get as New Age-y as you'll ever hear me. Refunfuño notwithstanding, I hate the idea of adding any more negativity to printed world. I don't mind at all sharing a poisonous opinion among friends, or even in an e-mail, but posting it here ("publishing" it, for what it's worth) feels like adding another twig to the bitchy inferno we call home. Or, to mix my metaphors, I feel as if negative writing gets packed into spiritual suitcases we all have to schlep with us wherever we go.
So,I'll leave this blog for commenting on oddities, noting my occasional (and probably ill-founded) insights, and extolling things I like, which, of course, could be a play or a movie or a book or whatever. And, yes, I'll keep complaining about things that get under my craw, but most of them probably won't have names attached (though whoever designed that stupid NYC Taxi logo might be exempt from my negativity ban. Sometimes you just have to fan the fire...)
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