| re: SCHMIGADOON at the Kennedy Center | |
| Last Edit: writerkev 09:39 am EST 02/08/25 | |
| Posted by: writerkev 09:30 am EST 02/08/25 | |
| In reply to: re: SCHMIGADOON at the Kennedy Center - theOtherJames 05:05 pm EST 02/07/25 | |
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| I saw “Schmigadoon!” last night and thought it was pretty adorable. I was intrigued by your reference to “Downstate” at Studio. I saw that production too and didn’t see it in NYC. If I hadn’t seen it, I would’ve assumed your reference to unpleasantness was simply about the subject matter. But no, it’s actually a really queasy play morally. It seems to take the sides of the sexual criminals almost fully and with little justification, actually arguing in the mouth of main characters to diminish the seriousness of their crimes and basically pooh-poohing the emotions of the victim. That final test of the victim to remember whether his abuser was cut or uncut to prove his story?? That was perverse. Not to mention the fact that it made no sense. If a molester forced himself on a boy, um, he’d probably be erect, so the boy wouldn’t know if he were cut or uncut. And to disbelievingly ask that victim decades later to prove whether it happened like that? Ew. Beyond that, I thought the playwriting craft was pretty weak in many ways. (Come on, that final reveal, for one thing. So blatantly telegraphed throughout the final scene.) I was very surprised this play received the strong word of mouth and critical acclaim in had, both in NYC and DC. I’ve liked other plays of Bruce Norris’s, including his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Clybourne Park.” But with “Downstate,” I think he got credit for his bold choice of subject matter, but I don’t think he made anything of value with those materials. I’ll watch a play about any topic under the sun, and I can have empathy for any human; I have no issue with any of that. But you have to make a good play out of it. I seem to be in the minority thinking he really did not with this one. Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I couldn’t engage with discussions while the play was at Playwrights Horizons, so I took the opportunity about this production we both saw. |
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