Not just physically crippled

I am embarassed. I took my friends, Nik and Esther, to catch a production of Richard III, the crippled and conniving king, in the East Village. I should have known it was bad when two people saw us come in and asked if we were there for R3 and excitedly expressed their great joy at our arrival. 20 minutes later, we were out the door in search of beverages. What's that you say? R3 is like 3 hours long? Oh, sure, if we stayed for the whole thing it would have been, but 20 minutes was almost too long to watch the most amateurish production of any Shakespeare play (even in grade school). R3 didn't know his lines. He toted around the text of the play and swore everytime he forgot his line: "Fuck! Sorry.... Fuck it! Sorry again, I'm sorry." Damn right he was sorry. They all were. There was no real direction, no real blocking, and the staging was god awful. When R3 bares his breast for Anne to strike him, he unbuttoned his shirt... gingerly... wtf? And hey, if you're making R3 a cripple with a limp, remember which leg we're limping on. We were told in our amazement at how awsul it was that this guy was the understudy and just got the part the day before. Um, as the understudy, isn't he supposed to know the lines? Isn't that what an understudy does? If there is one thing I cannot abide, it is a group of performers trying to put on a show that obviously isn't ready for public consumption. I was always taught, if you have a paying audience, you better give them their money's worth and not waste their time. It is rude and unprofessional. And let me add, not only was R3 sad and more than enough reason to cancel that performance, but the actors backstage decided it was okay to chatter loudly while their fellow castmates were performing. Holy Jesus! STFU! So whatever you do, avoid the Gene Frankel Theatre's Richard III which is showing through the first week of May. I'm working on getting my money back.

I'm off to Boston to see Sierra, Kelly, Jen, and my Friendster, Neil. I'm dying to see the BMFA exhibit on dragons, specifically Asian art with dragons as the main theme. I'm Year of the Dragon and strangely obsessed with them. Tonight, a party at Pravda with the HBS admits. Beantown, here I come!

Reading: Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich