Partner and I saw the latest Brown theatrical production, “A Perfect Wedding,” on Saturday night.
These college kids are talented! They can act, they’re funny, they can sing and dance and play instruments. Most of them (by the laws of averages) will almost certainly not be going into entertainment-related careers. (This is sort of a shame, in a way, because most of them are just as talented (if not more so) than most of the people in movies and TV.)
Then there’s the youth effect. Partner put it best: “I like going to these shows,” he said, “because they’re all so energetic, and it makes me feel young too.” Ditto for me.
So: this show. Some negatives first (which feels harsh, like bopping a puppy on the nose for making a mess on the carpet): the play was far too wordy. Too many endless repetitive speeches. A little too much overacting here and there. Lots of peculiar stage accents, which did not make for a terribly comprehensible evening.
And long, dear Jesus, the show was long. The first act was ninety minutes, with only a few good laughs in the whole thing. Partner and I commiserated with one another during intermission; we were trying to make the best of it, but we were both moodily considering how long the second act was going to be, and whether we’d be home by midnight.
But the second act was the payoff. It began with some terribly long/wordy scenes too, but the atmosphere quickly changed: there was a bizarrely concocted funeral scene, with cymbals and bagpipes and conch shell, and a procession with a coffin.
And, finally, the play took flight.
The whole thing ends with three dynamite musical numbers, each as different from one another as night from day, and all of them done with that raw college-student energy and talent that makes the whole enterprise worthwhile. (I won’t tell you what the musical numbers are. If you see it – and I hope you do – it would spoil it for you, I think.) All I will say is that everyone is romping around, dancing, leaping, playing instruments and singing. The choreography is good, and the staging works beautifully.
We were promised audience participation, and we got it. We even got something to eat and drink (which was perfect for me, as I was starving). During the wedding preparations in Act Two, one of the characters came over and politely asked Partner to help him change clothes, and they worked together like professionals, and carried on light conversation the whole time. (And a cute little bugger the actor was too.) Whenever I hear “audience participation,” I think of getting drenched with seltzer water, or dragged on stage to be part of a Theater of Cruelty bondage/torture session. In this production, the “audience participation” was light and funny and harmless. “What side of the family are you on?” the character asked Partner. “Groom’s side,” Partner said smoothly, without missing a beat.
We got home at eleven p.m., giggling, having had a wonderful evening at the theater.
I need not tell you that the play is partly about sexual politics, and gay marriage, and straight marriage, and the meaning of marriage in the first place. These issues are beside the point. It’s about love, and commitment, and the rituals we use to commemorate both of those things.
The play could easily be thirty minutes shorter. And maybe less screaming.
But please keep the musical numbers just as they are.
It’s running through next weekend: the last performance is Sunday April 22.
Those of you in southeastern New England should come see it.
It will bore you a bit at first, but it will leave you laughing and singing.
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