Dog Laughs; Regrets It

Who the hell do I think I am anyway; giving my opinion/reviews about theater and movies? Do I think I actually influence anybody to see or not to see something? I guess I secretly do although I really, really hope people don’t take me too seriously and lay out big bucks on my say so. My newly found humility is founded on a hitherto admirable blog I’ve been particularly drawn to for a while. This would be Joe.My.God and, up until now, I’ve found his opinions and exploits entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking and a window into a life that’s interesting and varied, although nothing I would (or could) aspire to at this stage in my life. A bud told me that he knows this Joe guy and that he’s an “A-List Bear,” whatever the hell that means.

Anyway, what got to me just today is that Joe saw Evil Dead: The Musical and loved it! I was fairly appalled and was fairly appalled that I was fairly appalled. I thought the thing sucked and who does this guy think he is anyway, giving his opinion/reviews about theater? Of course I’m wrong. Maybe that’s what hurts. No, I’m not wrong about the show; it truly does suck, what I’m wrong about is thinking Joe shouldn’t hang-ten with theater reviews when he obviously has zero background to do so. The man has only seen one Sondheim musical in his life, for goodness sake, and that was only a couple of weeks ago out in the boonies somewhere. Somehow I think he liked Evil Dead just because he doesn’t know jack shit about theater and was thrilled and delighted to learn just how great the live stuff can be. Well, welcome to Broadway, Joe, another loud voice can’t hurt.

Through some sort of mismanagement of my time I saw two Broadway shows last week. One I liked, The Little Dog Laughed (by Douglas Carter Beane), and one I sort-of liked, Paul Rudnick’s Regrets Only. They are somewhat similar in that they are just as clever as all get out, are gay themed and are zinger-loaded. And they both have leading ladies who will probably be in competition come Tony time, Julie White in the former and Christine Baranski in the latter. I think Julie has the edge on the strength of sheer glibness even though Baranski’s comic timing, as expected, is right up there. I could be wrong about both of them, though, since roles in modern comedies rarely fare well against the heavy hitting dramas, both new and old. One thing I do regret is that I didn’t get my thoughts down on paper before the shows opened so I could really be honest with myself about them. Now I find myself wanting to respond to the reviews rather than the shows themselves. Reviewing a review is really mindless and counterproductive (see my take on Joe’s Evil Dead above) so, other than these few sentences, I’m opting out. Please accept my apologies--bartender, an apple manhattan please, hold the granny smith.