The Coast of Utopia Marathons
The Coast of Utopia Marathons
#0The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 1:53amTickets go on sale Sunday and I'm trying to decide if I want to see one of the marathon performances of this trilogy. It would be 12 hours (with intermission(s)) 11am to about 11pm. Could be interesting. Anyone have any experience with one of these marathon plays?
#1re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 1:55amI'm buying my tickets on Sunday too. I haven't decided either whether to do a marathon day or 3 separate.
"Winning a Tony this year is like winning Best Attendance in third grade: no one will care but the winner and their mom."
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
VeuveClicquot
Broadway Star Joined: 11/2/04
#2re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 1:58am
Yes, I saw "The Kentucky Cycles" in a marathon session, and I wouldn't do it again. Stoppard is a killer playwright, and my best bet is to go see the shows one at a time so as to process them, if you have the chance.
I can't wait by the way. I love Stoppard, and this sounds fierce.
#3re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 1:58am
Looking at the performance dates, there are some days where you can see all three parts separately on two or three consecutive days. But the marathon seems more exciting.
Updated On: 9/9/06 at 01:58 AM
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#4re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 2:03am
The couple of people I know who did the marathons of this play actually told me they wished they'd done them on separate nights -- Stoppard was just too dense and overwhelming and by the last play they found their concentration waning and that they were exhausted.
By the way, I've heard that the three marathons are close to sold out (if not totally sold out by now).
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 9/10/06 at 02:03 AM
#5re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 2:08am
Haha, I was more concerned about how much my backside would ache after sitting in the theatre all day. 
I hadn't even thought about "procesing time" between parts. Sounds like a marathon isn't the best way to fully appreciate the work. Maybe I'll do the three consecutive days. An extended marathon.
VeuveClicquot
Broadway Star Joined: 11/2/04
#6re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 2:11am
Exactly, it's really a "backside" question.
But Margo illuminated it well: Stoppard IS dense. He requires afterthought. Let the plays breathe, is my advice.
And your "backside" will probably thank you.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#7re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 2:13amThat's so interesting, but a long day for the actors. How does that work in terms of pay? Do they get paid more for those days or how does all that work? That must be horrible on the actors.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#8re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 2:26am
There's also the fact that this play deals with the lives and ideas of several of the great Russian philosophers, scholars, revolutionaries and writers of the mid-19th century. If you -- like most of us -- don't have a great deal of familiarity with the work of Bakunin, Belinsky, Turgenev, Herzen and others who are the main characters in the plays, then it may be difficult to digest all of the theories and ideas they discuss and express in one 9 hour sitting.
The plays' director Jack O'Brien says in an interview:
"[Audiences] might ask themselves: Do we gulp it all down at the same time? Or do we see Part One, read a little bit, then see the second part, then read a little more, and see the third one? That's what I'm hoping. The real aficionados, the historians, for example, will want to see it all in one day, which we're doing at the end of the process."
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#9re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 2:33amThe schedule sets up the three plays in rep such that towards the end of the run when you can see all three plays on consecutive days or in a single marathon day, the actors still never do more than 8 performances in a single week. In weeks where there is a Saturday three-play marathon, there are never more than 5 other performances of the various plays during the rest of that week, so no, there's no extra pay (and the actors actually end up with more days off during the rest of the week).
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#10re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 11:39pmoh okay, thanks Margo, I figured you'd have the answer. That's still a really long day for the actors. To be in "the moment" for that long, takes a lot of skill. Hats off to the cast and crew.
#11re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/9/06 at 11:44pmNevermind, found the answer myself.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
Updated On: 9/9/06 at 11:44 PM
Wanting life but never knowing how
whatever2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/25/06
#12re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/10/06 at 10:31am
agree with a lot of what's been said, but i'd be more worried about my ass than my brain here ...
true, stoppard can be dense, but once you embrace the learning curve there's not all that much difference whether you're cramming for one play or the whole trilogy.
i've done other marathons (kentucky cycle in DC, tantalus in denver, druid synge this summer), too, and fanny fatigue is definitely a consideration here. im hoping that the protracted breaks will make a difference.
finally, keep in mind there can be an immense satisfaction at the end of a marathon ... i think it can heighten the experience. it was actually communal at synge this summer --almost a bonding experience amongst the audience, and even between the audience and the cast at the end. everyone was applauding each other.
unless your schedule can accommodate a matinee, COT's schedule for serial performances struck me as less accommodating than i would have hoped. i say: go for the marathon!
"You, sir, are a moron." (PlayItAgain)
Updated On: 9/10/06 at 10:31 AM
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#13re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/10/06 at 11:59amCan you tell me more about the druid synge cycle? How was it?
whatever2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/25/06
#14re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/10/06 at 2:43pm
i thought it was a wonderful production, and a fulfilling experience. as i suggested, fanny fatigue was a factor, but in the end it was entirely worth it.
there was value in seeing all of synge's works at once, but i think the real pleasure was seeing how one company chose to treat them ... the actors, the sets, the direction managed to create a relatively unified vision out of what is a frankly somewhat disparate body of work. and the production values were absolutely superb.
i will say: i found the accents a challenge (and ive lived in ireland!). for a small country, there is a wide range of dialect; i'd no sooner keyed into the patois of a dublin jackeen when that play ends and suddenly we were in the wilds of mayo, where things sound markedly different!
"You, sir, are a moron." (PlayItAgain)
#15re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/10/06 at 2:44pm
oh man!
I would LOVE to go to one of these.
Tom Stoppard? All day!? SIGN ME UP!
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
jennite
Understudy Joined: 5/6/05
#16re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:12pmIs anyone planning to read the plays before going to see Utopia? If so, how about some sort of book club discussion? Am getting the feeling that pre-reading, not just of the plays but also around Russian history & philosophy, might be helpful in absorbing the ideas...
Visit the Jennifer Ehle fan blog, currently obsessively tracking The Coast of Utopia news: press, blog and forum reviews, interviews with cast and crew, photos, Tonys buzz, etc.
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#17re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:45pmI bought a copy of Voyage from Theatre Circle yesterday.
#18re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 12:50pmIs anyone else having a problem with the student tix?
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
#19re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 1:06pmi bought my studentix for all three yesterday. i was having a problem early Sunday morning (right at 12:01am), but then when I got on again at 7 in the morning, it worked fine.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#20re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 1:31pmThanks, whatever. My school's doing Playboy of the Western World right now, and it's def. challenging and I'm just wondering if the southern audiences will be able to understand the Irish dialects.
#21re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:01pm
I bought my tix to Coast of Utopia on Sunday morning (about 8am). I didn't both trying for the marathons (I'll probably only be able to see this once, and I'd rather spread the wealth than be tied down to one day with the marathon). My only "problem" with StudenTix was that while the general sales went up sometime Saturday evening, the StudenTix pages were still inactive until Sunday morning sometime.
Were you able to get anything Munk? I spent about an hour playing around with dates, trying to get the best seats available, but lost patience with it after a while, so I just settled for my one (very far to the side) orchestra seat and a pair of loges and called it a day. Hope you were able to get through, because it seems like the sales have been pretty strong, thus far.
But when did New Hampshire become--Such a backward wasteland of seatbelt hating crazies?...I mean, only 40 people actually live there. The others are just visitors who come for the tax-free liquor and three inches of novelty coastline. John Hodgeman on The Daily Show (1-30-07)
#22re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:03pmThat's exactly what I got, Mabel. I got a side orchestra seat for Voyage and two loge seats for Shipwreck and Salvage. I'm going on October 20th, December 8th and February 2nd...all Friday evening performances.
RentBoy86
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/15/05
#23re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:12pmWow, looks like these actors will be employed for a long time. This is such an incredible thing. I hope it does well.
#24re: The Coast of Utopia Marathons
Posted: 9/11/06 at 2:17pmNot that long, it's a limited engagement.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
