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Dec. 21st, 2019 11:30 amThis week, ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
genarti and I went to go Dave Malloy's Moby-Dick musical at the A.R.T. and WAS THAT EVER AN EXPERIENCE.
Q: Have you ever read Moby-Dick??
A: Nope! (genarti has, and I truly hope she will write her own, actually knowledgeable review.) At one point I cherished dreams of reading it before seeing the show, but then November and December happened in quick succession and just kept on happening and it became very soon clear that this would not be possible. But I have read China Mieville's epic work of YA Moby-Dick fanfic Railsea, and also The Whale: A Love Story, so I've at least absorbed some, like, general Moby-Dick ambience ...
Q: Is a full catalog of your ancillary Moby-Dick experience really relevant here?
A: YES, in fact it IS, because Dave Malloy has included an extensive bibliography for his magnum opus that indeed cites Railsea! So there!
Q: I don't see The Whale: A Love Story cited there.
A: OK, no, but the show does open with Ishmael delivering a monologue about Nathaniel Hawthorne's love for Herman Melville while leaning on a giant Nathaniel Hawthorne bust, so it was for sure there in spirit.
Q: Well, all that is interesting, I guess, but does it actually provide any idea of what the play is like?
A: To help with this question, I will also link Dave Malloy and the cast of his last musical singing a preview of absolutely-sure-to-be-a-top-hit number "The Squeeze Of The Hand!" Be aware that in the live show this was performed with the assistance of twenty audience volunteers wearing ponchos to protect them from the fake blood spatter.
Q: .... so it's pretty gay then.
A: Pretty gay! Not as gay as I was expecting, honestly. Queequeg/Ishmael is there but not as central as I would have been given to believe, given everything that I've seen about Moby-Dick on, uh, tumblr.
Q: Didn'tgenarti tell you that before you even went to see the show?
A: She did. I know. I'm aware.
Q: Just checking.
A: ANYWAY, what I'm saying is, if there's a main emotional throughline between characters, it's Starbuck and Ahab, and let me also seize this opportunity to say that Starbuck's actress is extremely good.
Q: What do you mean by 'between characters'?
A: There's also a very strong emotional throughline running between Ishmael/Ishmalloy and his own navel. I don't mean this judgmentally though! I'm given to understand that Moby-Dick is also a very navel-gazey book!
Q: ... are you trying to make a pun on naval books and navel-gazing here?
A: Yes but it's not quite working out so let's move on.
Q: Speaking of navel-gazing, what about the novel's inherent nineteenth-century racism? Does the show handle that well?
A: Boy, what about the novel's inherent nineteenth-century racism. To quote another esteemed friend and noted Dave Malloy scholar with whom I was discussing the show: "Dave ... Dave is going through it with learning he's white I think."
Q: Can you expound on that?
A: I mean, it's not ignored or left unaddressed, that's for sure! Let me put it this way: I'd give a lot to know whether the metatextual monologue that Fedullah's actor delivers to the audience midway through the show, in which he calls out Herman Melville for the racism of the original text and also Dave Malloy for his attempt at woke multiracial casting and also delivers some personal thoughts about race and religion as a black atheist from a Muslim family, was developed with the actor or .... written by Dave Malloy .....
Q: Okay, summing up: do you think the show was good?
A: I categorically refuse to answer that. It does have a lot of loving homages to Melville's poorly-sourced whale fact digressions?
Q: That is in no way an answer. Let's try this: did you like it?
A: It was wildly overstuffed, deeply meta, in some ways a whole mess, honestly very true to my understanding of what The Experience of Moby Dick The Novel is like, and by far the most interesting and ambitious show I've seen in a theater this year.
Q: Would you see it again?
A: In a heartbeat - which I probably can't in Boston, because I think it's sold out, but I believe it's going to New York next year!
genarti and I went to go Dave Malloy's Moby-Dick musical at the A.R.T. and WAS THAT EVER AN EXPERIENCE. Q: Have you ever read Moby-Dick??
A: Nope! (
genarti has, and I truly hope she will write her own, actually knowledgeable review.) At one point I cherished dreams of reading it before seeing the show, but then November and December happened in quick succession and just kept on happening and it became very soon clear that this would not be possible. But I have read China Mieville's epic work of YA Moby-Dick fanfic Railsea, and also The Whale: A Love Story, so I've at least absorbed some, like, general Moby-Dick ambience ...Q: Is a full catalog of your ancillary Moby-Dick experience really relevant here?
A: YES, in fact it IS, because Dave Malloy has included an extensive bibliography for his magnum opus that indeed cites Railsea! So there!
Q: I don't see The Whale: A Love Story cited there.
A: OK, no, but the show does open with Ishmael delivering a monologue about Nathaniel Hawthorne's love for Herman Melville while leaning on a giant Nathaniel Hawthorne bust, so it was for sure there in spirit.
Q: Well, all that is interesting, I guess, but does it actually provide any idea of what the play is like?
A: To help with this question, I will also link Dave Malloy and the cast of his last musical singing a preview of absolutely-sure-to-be-a-top-hit number "The Squeeze Of The Hand!" Be aware that in the live show this was performed with the assistance of twenty audience volunteers wearing ponchos to protect them from the fake blood spatter.
Q: .... so it's pretty gay then.
A: Pretty gay! Not as gay as I was expecting, honestly. Queequeg/Ishmael is there but not as central as I would have been given to believe, given everything that I've seen about Moby-Dick on, uh, tumblr.
Q: Didn't
genarti tell you that before you even went to see the show?A: She did. I know. I'm aware.
Q: Just checking.
A: ANYWAY, what I'm saying is, if there's a main emotional throughline between characters, it's Starbuck and Ahab, and let me also seize this opportunity to say that Starbuck's actress is extremely good.
Q: What do you mean by 'between characters'?
A: There's also a very strong emotional throughline running between Ishmael/Ishmalloy and his own navel. I don't mean this judgmentally though! I'm given to understand that Moby-Dick is also a very navel-gazey book!
Q: ... are you trying to make a pun on naval books and navel-gazing here?
A: Yes but it's not quite working out so let's move on.
Q: Speaking of navel-gazing, what about the novel's inherent nineteenth-century racism? Does the show handle that well?
A: Boy, what about the novel's inherent nineteenth-century racism. To quote another esteemed friend and noted Dave Malloy scholar with whom I was discussing the show: "Dave ... Dave is going through it with learning he's white I think."
Q: Can you expound on that?
A: I mean, it's not ignored or left unaddressed, that's for sure! Let me put it this way: I'd give a lot to know whether the metatextual monologue that Fedullah's actor delivers to the audience midway through the show, in which he calls out Herman Melville for the racism of the original text and also Dave Malloy for his attempt at woke multiracial casting and also delivers some personal thoughts about race and religion as a black atheist from a Muslim family, was developed with the actor or .... written by Dave Malloy .....
Q: Okay, summing up: do you think the show was good?
A: I categorically refuse to answer that. It does have a lot of loving homages to Melville's poorly-sourced whale fact digressions?
Q: That is in no way an answer. Let's try this: did you like it?
A: It was wildly overstuffed, deeply meta, in some ways a whole mess, honestly very true to my understanding of what The Experience of Moby Dick The Novel is like, and by far the most interesting and ambitious show I've seen in a theater this year.
Q: Would you see it again?
A: In a heartbeat - which I probably can't in Boston, because I think it's sold out, but I believe it's going to New York next year!
