Wednesday, April 13, 2005
If You Don't Want To Lie, Why Did You Go To Law School?
Spent Sunday night in Chelsea. The night before had gone late enough that brunch was forsaken for dinner at Suenos. Everything I'd heard about it was wrong. They don't do brunch anymore. The service is fantastic. We did the chille tasting menu. Each of the five courses was based around a different chille. Everything was wonderful and plentiful but we still had room for a pastry in a sweet chille sauce for dessert.
Afterwards was David Mamet's new play, Romance. I haven't seen any live Mamet since Oleana, more than ten years ago, and I had avoided the reviews of Romance so that I would go in without knowing what to expect. Would it be the double-crosses of Glengarry Glen Ross? The perceptive sexual comedy of About Last Night?
It turns out that Romance is pure farce, a hilarious, in-your-face politically incorrect farce. Most reviews I've subsequently read through spoil a good number of the jokes. This is a shame, because the play is funny in large part because it contrasts so sharply with the ultra-serious tone of most courtroom dramas. The more surprising the exact contours of that contrast, the funnier it seems.
I imagine the totality of my surprise is one reason I was laughing harder than anyone else in the audience. Or maybe it was the tequila from Suenos.
The Chelsea theater is a wonderful place to see a performance. It's small and simple and I don't think there is one bad seat in the house. Although I did notice Phillip Seymour Hoffman outside during the intermission, and was pleased that I had better seats than he did. Small wars, simple pleasures. We take them where we can get them.
Afterwards was David Mamet's new play, Romance. I haven't seen any live Mamet since Oleana, more than ten years ago, and I had avoided the reviews of Romance so that I would go in without knowing what to expect. Would it be the double-crosses of Glengarry Glen Ross? The perceptive sexual comedy of About Last Night?
It turns out that Romance is pure farce, a hilarious, in-your-face politically incorrect farce. Most reviews I've subsequently read through spoil a good number of the jokes. This is a shame, because the play is funny in large part because it contrasts so sharply with the ultra-serious tone of most courtroom dramas. The more surprising the exact contours of that contrast, the funnier it seems.
I imagine the totality of my surprise is one reason I was laughing harder than anyone else in the audience. Or maybe it was the tequila from Suenos.
The Chelsea theater is a wonderful place to see a performance. It's small and simple and I don't think there is one bad seat in the house. Although I did notice Phillip Seymour Hoffman outside during the intermission, and was pleased that I had better seats than he did. Small wars, simple pleasures. We take them where we can get them.
