Has anyone seen this heaping pile of dog s hit? Or does anyone want to witness a baffling, over-produced attempt to cash in on the "immersive" theatre market right now? Then have I got the show for you.
Holy hell everyone. I feel bad for everyone involved, especially Dusty Ray Bottoms. Everyone in it is incredibly talented--especially all of the leading characters and I have no doubt they will all blow up and have great careers, they were that good. But not even Cleopatra's reanimated corpse could save this incomprehensible mess. The tone is all over the place--with Dusty Ray Bottoms it feels very campy and she is hilarious, there are audience members doing walks on the runway, there's a lot of voguing and nods to drag culture--but then the rest of it becomes almost Hamiltonesque with all of the leading characters rapping melodramatic lyrics and forgettable tunes to each other without a wink of irony. And then of course, Octavian's first few appearances are by an actor in all black holding a puppet of a man in a puppet suit that looks like it was ordered on ThePuppetStore.com and is completely distracting and bizarre.
Oh--and it bills itself as "immersive" but the immersion factor severely lacks, outside of taking audience members up to the stage in some moments. At a certain point, all I could do is laugh because it was trying to do so many different things, and failing at all of them and the plot completely dissipated. Also whoever costume designed this show had the strangest take on what Egypt should look like--ripped jeans, camo pants, fanny packs, spiked bras? (Although the set and lighting were well designed).
Tickets start at $59 (thank god I was comped) and the bar is pricey too. I have no idea what I would even compare it to, but I imagine that this level of confusing must've been like what seeing Via Galactica or Dude was like. If you can grab a comp, or have the money to see a total hot mess with Dusty Ray Bottoms--do it. Otherwise, stay away.
One of my pet peeves is shows like this calling themselves "immersive." Other than some limited audience interaction - pulling a few people on stage briefly - the only other thing that makes it "immersive" is that you have to stand for the entire show. And no reason for that - all the action takes place on the stage and there's no need to move from the spot you're standing in.
Saw this at Theater for the New City in an earlier incarnation and thought the dance vocal songs were very catchy - would totally love a soundtrack for this. No intermission & the show flies by!
I was curious when I first heard about it. I could go for something that had a glamorous campy disco vibe. But the clips they've released were wildly confusing. I was shocked to hear a song that gestured at the writers having done a bit of research (not much, but a bit). It seems like it would be much easier to do what Company XIV does and just vaguely gesture at a plot with pop music (original or not). Do you have to focus on the lyrics to follow this? Because it was bad enough when I drifted a few times during Ordinary Days. I can't imagine it would be easier with whatever audio set up is going on for Cleopatra. It'll probably be closed by the time I have time in January so I likely won't see it anyway.
I'm so curious what this was like a Theatre for a New City. Was it "immersive" then?
Company XIV would've done a much more competent job and I'd be fascinated to see what they could do with it; I am still baffled as to how this thing got as far as it did, one of the most bizarre projects I've seen on a commercial level in NYC. What's hard is that it tries to be plot and character driven, and clearly wants us to emotionally invest in the characters (even at the end Dusty Ray Bottoms was leading the company in a very solumn, serious ballad which was very odd) but the lyrics are so bad and nonsensical that it's hard to follow, so even if you tried (like I did) you'd just give up after a bit.
joined:9/13/11
joined:
9/13/11
Posted: 11/9/18 at 7:20pm