I will fully confess that while I have become an adamant fan of live theater, it mostly is in regards to musicals. As the past few months have shown, I pretty much consume a soundtrack so thoroughly that I find new favorites popping up every other day it seems. I just love the way that a good song has this catchy melody, intricate lyrics, and progresses a story. It’s the quintessential form of storytelling condensed to three minutes, and that is what my English-majoring self has been clamoring for this entire time. I want to find an accessible way to tell a story that people care about, wanting to hear over and over.
Which I guess brings a fair question: why then am I not as consumed with the dramatic side of things? Okay, I will confess that a lot of musicals I like have a central dramatic arc. But when you take out the music, present me with these actors earnestly pouring out their heart, I am not as drawn to it. Musicals are the pageantry, the full potential of what a stage can produce. A drama meanwhile is often the minimalist, forcing us to use our imagination that conjures up images that the stage is too limited to achieve.
Basically, whereas I could recall the collected works of Stephen Sondheim or Robert Lopez, I can only kind of tell you what’s the deal with Arthur Miller or August Wilson. I honestly have no idea what the plot is of Death of a Salesman (and don’t tell me he dies for two hours).
I guess it’s because when I want *waves hand* ACTING!, I often turn to the cinema for these complex narratives. Short of bootlegs, there are very few ways to sell a drama short of just going with your gut instinct…
That is why I want to extend a hearty thank you to the folks at National Theatre Live. Much like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Show Must Go On, they have been putting a lot of their recorded shows up on a weekly basis, allowing audiences a chance to see these high-end productions for free on YouTube. Before this moment, you had a few options: go to the shows, go the Fathom Events of said shows (which were cheaper, but not by movie theater standards), or buy/rent them IF they were ever made available
As someone who tended to stray from dramatic shows, I never found much reason to attend the Fathom Events version. The only one that I expressed interest in was the fabled Frankenstein production that featured Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating roles between Dr. Frankenstein and The Creature. As a die-hard fan of the Frankenstein mythos, I still kick myself that life had to get in the way, that I had to miss BOTH nights. This wasn’t like a retrospective of a title that I could stream on The Criterion Channel. I genuinely got to stand there and watch it potentially fade into the void forever, save for an occasional Fathom Event that always had some reluctant obstacle.
So I became curious to check out “National Theatre Live at Home” and fill my life with culture The one thing that I hope I’ve been transparent about in my social media is how much of my week is consumed with watching musicals. I am getting antsy to sit in a room and watch this performance overwhelm me. I figured that I could expand my tastes, especially since they were the prestigious company that only put on the best of dramatic theater, and I wanted to see for myself what made them special.
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| Antony & Cleopatra |
I have seen four of their five shows that have aired so far (I missed Jane Eyre), and while I can’t claim to like them all, I will totally confess that I am infatuated with what they have accomplished with a stage. So long as I have interest in the title, I mark it off on my calendar that sometime over the weekend (they are available for a week starting on Thursday afternoons) I will sit there and take it all in. Whereas I haven’t quite gotten on board with The Show Must Go On, I would label this as essential quarantine viewing for theater fans.
To the best of my knowledge, they don’t do conventional adaptations of these shows. I will start with their most recent show: Antony & Cleopatra. While it’s a William Shakespeare show to its core, you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at it. The 2018 production takes a lot of liberties with the imagery that you’d expect this show to have. Cleopatra looks more like Beyonce during the Lemonade (2016) era than wearing anything that even the Elizabeth Taylor adaptation had. Antony wears everything from unbuttoned Hawaiian shirts to military jackets to depict the act of war. The war room looks like it’s straight out of The Pentagon, and the “fighting” uses contemporary missile seeking radars.
Of course, Shakespeare has had a knack for being updated with each new generation. Even if this 2018 edition feels more like it comes from the George W. Bush-era, the point is still made loud and clear. This is as much a study of power as the couple’s internal life. Similarly, their Frankenstein adaptation is loosely based on the Mary Shelley novel and begins with The Creature writhing on stage for almost 10 minutes, indecipherable in its infantile yelling that slowly evolves to a more resonant form of communication.
Rarely have I seen dramas that were this willing to invest in a proper set, rotating and evolving with the plot. Of these four performances, I remain impressed with how they brought Treasure Island to life not only through sets onstage but by using hanging lightbulbs from the ceiling to symbolize stars. This was an immersive experience, and one that I could only imagine was more awe-inspiring in person. The stage was multi-tiered, with another level of stage appearing from underneath the floor. It made you realize how limitless thing is when you have professionals who could expertly navigate this landscape to keep the story going.
As you can guess, I don’t know too many of these actors by name. There are a few that immediately stand out: James Corden (One Man Two Guvnors), Ralph Fiennes (Antony & Cleopatra), and Frankenstein. For these shows, I have come away with a deeper appreciation for what dramatic gifts they have when allowed to chew into a meaty role. I am compelled by every performance, making me feel foolish for neglecting the dramatic art form in the past.
I am so glad that these videos exist because I honestly don’t know how interested I would be in seeing these shows if they came to me locally. Whereas musicals have this predictability as to what you can expect (they have to play x song or else), I don’t know that I’d be willing to pay an equal price for the same production of Treasure Island blindly. It could only work on a professional stage. Since I mostly inhabit local theater, it would be terribly scaled down to the point that half of its appeal is lost. Because of National Theatre Live doing this, I am reminded of the potential of a stage.
More than anything, the value of watching these shows is a reminder of why the arts are and should remain important when we enter a post-quarantine lifestyle. There is a value to expression and telling these stories that enliven the imagination. It’s one of the few things keeping me going, and National Theatre Live has introduced me to such a rich variety of theater that I come out of every show grateful. I may have found One Man Two Guvnors to be tedious, but because of this rare circumstance, I got to see a show that I knew nothing about. My knowledge got to expand just that little further, and now I can start looking for similar shows.
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| One Man Two Guvnors |
The other thing that makes them a little bit more welcome than Webber is that they usually announce their shows in advance. Webber has a bad habit of doing so the Monday before his Friday premieres, and it’s always a crapshoot as to what he’s putting on. National Theatre Live at least gives you time to anticipate and look forward to shows. Also, their diversity cannot be beaten. Their next few shows will be:
Barber Shop Chronicles (May 14)A Streetcar Named Desire (May 21)This House (May 28)Coriolanus (June 4)
As someone who has been eager to watch more Tennessee Williams outside of the cinematic landscape, I am especially looking forward to seeing what they do with A Streetcar Named Desire. I’m sure that it will be faithful, but I am sure that there will be some clever staging that makes me see the story in a whole new light. Similarly, I wonder if Coriolanus (starring Tom Hiddleston of Thor (2011) fame) will follow in Antony & Cleopatra’s shoes and contemporize its themes in a way that makes us understand the timeless nature of Shakespeare.
Though if you’re like me, this upcoming week will be a lot of fun. I don’t know a whole lot about Barber Shop Chronicles, but the title alone makes me suspect that it will be one of their liveliest shows yet. I imagine that it will be the upbeat comedy that we need after dealing with some heavier-themed shows like Frankenstein and Antony & Cleopatra.
Other than that, I love how this has gotten me so eager to see theater on a timed basis. With all due respect to streaming musicals, there is something lost in not having an immediacy to them. I can watch Pacific Overtures on YouTube, but it will be there in a month if I’m so desperately wanting to see it again. I miss the feeling of live theater where you have a small window, and then it’s gone for a while. Even if I can’t get the full experience from them, I will greatly appreciate putting these shows on and feeling the surprise of a medium I barely understand coming to life in ways that I never expected.
Even if I prefer musicals wholeheartedly (why do you think they’re the final award at the Tony’s?), National Theatre Live has given me a deeper love of the dramatic art form. I may not understand it all, nor what makes certain techniques so exceptional, but I do know that the sense of discovery is unsurpassed in the viewer’s experience. That is what keeps me coming back, and I hope that this gets you on board. If not for these great shows (which if I can be honest, are also better shot than most other professional productions), then for the limited time that you can see them for less than $15 a head in a theater. I hope it reminds you of why we need theater in our lives. It has definitely done that for me.
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