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Nov. 10th, 2019 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsThis weekend I saw two shows with @whalefern.twitter.com! The first, a musical version of Cyrano starring Peter Dinklage, we both had many opinions about refined through several thoughtful conversations, but I am going to wait to write it up until I actually have had a chance to reread a translation of Rostand's play, so stay tuned on that. (Though if you have Cyrano translation opinions, I would like to hear them!)
The second was Scotland, PA, a musical adaptation of the film adaptation of Macbeth set in a fast-food restaurant, and it was ... really unexpectedly charming for a musical that I'm absolutely sure must have been conceived when someone sat up in their bed at midnight and said "if Macbeth made a hamburger it would be a BIG MAC BETH!"
The cast, adapted:
DUNCAN - a mean restaurateur
MAC - a dreamy burger flipper who has been trying for ten years to convince Duncan to adopt even one of his innovative ideas like "chicken nuggets" and "drive-in windows"
PAT - Mac's wife, also a burger flipper, who is tired of it
THE WITCHES - a trio of stoned fortune-tellers who may or may not be all inside Mac's head
BANKO - Mac's stoner friend, whose ill-attended party provides an ill-starred alibi; overall annoying to me until his death scene at which point suddenly I cared and was sad, and did not understand why or how
MCDUFF - a tiny macabre vegetarian homicide investigator with big Kristen Chenoweth energy; charming, magnetic
MALCOLM - Duncan's embittered teenage son. "We like that terrible angry child," we said to each other at intermission. "Something about him is just very appealing!" Then in Act 2 Malcolm sang "Why I Love Football" while the first inklings of a smile dawned on his embittered teenage face, and we were retroactively impressed with our independent abilities to pick the one queer cast member out of a lineup. (The guy who sings the song in that video was not our Malcolm; our Malcolm looked a bit like Hayden Christensen circa Revenge of the Sith but carried twice the seething rage.)
So Malcolm and McDuff were both especially enjoyable, but the other thing that stands out about Scotland, PA is that Mac and Pat were the most genuinely loving Macbeths either of us had ever seen. Their big duet happens in Act II, well after Duncan's murder, and it's extremely romantic even though obviously doomed; the show makes it very clear that they're each other's strongest and weakest points, and the ending is genuinely moving as a result, which is impressive for a show that ends with someone impaled on the two points of the M in a giant fast-food-sign!
(It's technically not trademark infringement because the M is pointy instead of curvy.)
... so I mean obviously the other other thing about this show is the critique/parody on capitalism.
ME: I guess the difference is that Macbeth is mostly about the danger of ambition whereas, like so many shows, Scotland, PA is mostly about how the American dream is a lie.
@whalefern.twitter.com: And it's true every time!
I have not seen Scotland, PA, the film, but I definitely want to now so I can compare/contrast -- from the Wikipedia summary it sounds quite different! Anyway the musical's on for another month at the Roundabout in New York. They will sell you fries during intermission, probably not made in the murder fryer, but of course living dangerously is all part of the appeal.
The second was Scotland, PA, a musical adaptation of the film adaptation of Macbeth set in a fast-food restaurant, and it was ... really unexpectedly charming for a musical that I'm absolutely sure must have been conceived when someone sat up in their bed at midnight and said "if Macbeth made a hamburger it would be a BIG MAC BETH!"
The cast, adapted:
DUNCAN - a mean restaurateur
MAC - a dreamy burger flipper who has been trying for ten years to convince Duncan to adopt even one of his innovative ideas like "chicken nuggets" and "drive-in windows"
PAT - Mac's wife, also a burger flipper, who is tired of it
THE WITCHES - a trio of stoned fortune-tellers who may or may not be all inside Mac's head
BANKO - Mac's stoner friend, whose ill-attended party provides an ill-starred alibi; overall annoying to me until his death scene at which point suddenly I cared and was sad, and did not understand why or how
MCDUFF - a tiny macabre vegetarian homicide investigator with big Kristen Chenoweth energy; charming, magnetic
MALCOLM - Duncan's embittered teenage son. "We like that terrible angry child," we said to each other at intermission. "Something about him is just very appealing!" Then in Act 2 Malcolm sang "Why I Love Football" while the first inklings of a smile dawned on his embittered teenage face, and we were retroactively impressed with our independent abilities to pick the one queer cast member out of a lineup. (The guy who sings the song in that video was not our Malcolm; our Malcolm looked a bit like Hayden Christensen circa Revenge of the Sith but carried twice the seething rage.)
So Malcolm and McDuff were both especially enjoyable, but the other thing that stands out about Scotland, PA is that Mac and Pat were the most genuinely loving Macbeths either of us had ever seen. Their big duet happens in Act II, well after Duncan's murder, and it's extremely romantic even though obviously doomed; the show makes it very clear that they're each other's strongest and weakest points, and the ending is genuinely moving as a result, which is impressive for a show that ends with someone impaled on the two points of the M in a giant fast-food-sign!
(It's technically not trademark infringement because the M is pointy instead of curvy.)
... so I mean obviously the other other thing about this show is the critique/parody on capitalism.
ME: I guess the difference is that Macbeth is mostly about the danger of ambition whereas, like so many shows, Scotland, PA is mostly about how the American dream is a lie.
@whalefern.twitter.com: And it's true every time!
I have not seen Scotland, PA, the film, but I definitely want to now so I can compare/contrast -- from the Wikipedia summary it sounds quite different! Anyway the musical's on for another month at the Roundabout in New York. They will sell you fries during intermission, probably not made in the murder fryer, but of course living dangerously is all part of the appeal.
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Date: 2019-11-11 05:25 am (UTC)The 1950 film uses Brian Hooker's translation, so it was the first one I heard; it's blank verse and I think of it as the default in English, although it is famous for totally dodging the question of translating panache. Anthony Burgess did a rhyming translation in several kinds of verse that I have never seen performed but really enjoy reading. I have no opinions on their fidelity to the original French, which I have not read.
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Date: 2019-11-11 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-11 08:14 pm (UTC)He could have made it known!
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Date: 2019-11-12 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-12 03:15 am (UTC)I am one hundred percent in favor of re-reading Christopher Fry, as a life principle.
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Date: 2019-11-12 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-12 03:03 am (UTC)(Our biggest beef with the musical is that it translated 'panache' as 'pride', which changes the read of the entire play and not for the better. on which more anon!)
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Date: 2019-11-12 03:12 am (UTC)Hooker did not leave the word as panache, which would have made sense; he rendered it as the literal "plume," thus removing all double meanings from critical places in the text, like the last line. As a person who has occasionally published translations, I consider this a stupid choice.
(By "totally dodging," I did not mean "not translating," I meant "failing to think about how to render the double entendre even a little bit.")
(Our biggest beef with the musical is that it translated 'panache' as 'pride', which changes the read of the entire play and not for the better. on which more anon!)
I am intrigued! Also sorry.
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Date: 2019-11-24 11:58 pm (UTC)But I come to lay down two hot takes: the MacBeth relationship dynamics are weirdly like a combo of both the main couples in Hadestown AND ALSO the first half is like if Tracy Chapman's Fast Car took a slightly different turn towards MURDER.
Also, I was deeply invested in McDuff being queer in my heart if no where else and being Malcolm's queer small town role model post-play and him eventually joining her in partnership with the veggie restaurant because he realized he didn't have to leave to be who he is / be with who he wants to be.
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Date: 2019-11-25 04:04 am (UTC)...I did not expect to find any comparisons to Hadestown in this production but you know what, I can see where you're coming from. (What if, instead, Eurydice and Orpheus had just murdered Hades with a fryer --)
I'm definitely on board with your McDuff headcanons and would like to subscribe to your newsletter; while I feel like the show's ending implies McDuff is going to get caught up in some kind of terrible cycle of capitalistic fast-food violence, yours is the ending I want in my heart!