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Dec. 21st, 2019 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsThis week, 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!
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Date: 2019-12-21 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-21 06:57 pm (UTC)-- okay, that's not true, I am a little bit disappointed, but only that we tragically didn't get picked to be Act II audience volunteers!
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Date: 2019-12-21 06:48 pm (UTC)Now I want to know if China Miéville has seen (or at least heard of) this musical.
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 .....
Great, I have feelings about that without even having seen the show.
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!
Yay!
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Date: 2019-12-21 06:55 pm (UTC)RIGHT? I've read a couple of behind-the-scenes interviews now and none of them answer this question. :( Honestly, that's part of the reason I'd love to see it in wherever its next venue is -- I'm so desperate to know what would be changed, and which things were brought in by the cast and which are in inherent to the production!
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Date: 2019-12-21 07:05 pm (UTC)Can you tell after the fact what was feeding into the musical from the science fiction vs. the source material and its secondary criticism?
-- I'm so desperate to know what would be changed, and which things were brought in by the cast and which are in inherent to the production!
I look forward to your report from New York!
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Date: 2019-12-21 07:31 pm (UTC)I definitely know what came from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and it's the chatty digressions that Daggoo and Tashtego have from the crow's nest, which I meant to mention in the main post and then forgot.
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Date: 2019-12-21 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 12:17 pm (UTC)(
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Date: 2019-12-21 11:07 pm (UTC)But the song's amazing and yesss I'd love to know about that monologue. I'd be willing to bet Malloy was pretty involved, at least. Based on nothing, haha, except my own experience of that kind of well-meaning going-through-it-learning-they're-white auteur. I am absolutely one of them, lol.
in the live show this was performed with the assistance of twenty audience volunteers wearing ponchos to protect them from the fake blood spatter.
YES. Ever since this great Lizzie Borden rock musical I saw (originated in Denmark for some reason and didn't do nearly as well as it deserved here, probably because most Londoners know little or nothing about the story) I've had a great fondness for musicals that give the audience blood-spatter-protection ponchos.
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Date: 2019-12-21 11:22 pm (UTC)I'm still a bit sad about that, though I did get to see the production of Measure for Measure that was touring with it, which was excellent fun even if there wasn't any blood spattering.
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Date: 2019-12-22 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 01:57 pm (UTC)Though it could plausibly have been the mechanicals (leaving aside the question of whether they'd be self-aware enough to warn their audience) because in this production they were dressed as modern tradies, with props and costumes for their show improvised out of tools and gaffer tape and rubber gloves and bin liners and so on.
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Date: 2019-12-22 12:21 pm (UTC)Blood-spatter ponchos are really a key tool in making the viewer feel like they're emotionally engaged in the story, I think. >.> (This set of audience volunteers also got to get into rowboats onstage and spin around in them like the teacups ride at Disneyworld, I was SO JEALOUS.)
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Date: 2019-12-21 11:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-24 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 05:47 am (UTC)Re: the whiteness thing, I think that is extremely true. I was a diehard Great Comet fan, and from what I could tell the show's ignominious end amidst a blowup about racism really took Malloy by surprise. And I know that he was originally going to play Melville in this show himself, but changed Melville to a bust to try to decenter whiteness. (Not sure that's…possible…in a show based on a book about the hunt for the White Whale? But what do I know. What did you think?)
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Date: 2019-12-22 12:49 pm (UTC)Yeah, I followed a little bit of the blowup - mostly because I had great hopes of seeing Okierete Onaodowan as Pierre and I was very sad that I lost my opportunity. :( As far as decentering whiteness ... hmm. I mean, there's a very metatextual line they're trying to walk of simultaneously decentering it and interrogating the project of attempting to decenter it -- like, Ahab, who is indeed central and destructive, is the only white guy on stage while the three mates (Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask) are all played by women of color, but the play makes a great effort to remind you that the characters are all white men (in contrast to the harpooners under their command, who are men of color played by men of color) and then Fedullah takes a bit in his monologue to be like "is this casting really effective or is it just self-congratulatory DAVE MALLOY??" And indeed, who knows.
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Date: 2019-12-22 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 07:12 am (UTC)And if the former, shouldn't he have been... credited somewhere for it?
The musical does sound amazing.
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Date: 2019-12-22 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 01:20 pm (UTC)Yours sounds much, much weirder, but mine also had the ultimate verdict of "Not as gay as Tumblr had advertised," ha.
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Date: 2019-12-22 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2019-12-24 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-24 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-22 06:04 pm (UTC)Dave Malloy's Woke White Man Monologue As Delivered By a Black Actor made me full-body cringe. :( But I didn't really enjoy any of the Ishmalloy parts.
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Date: 2019-12-24 04:51 pm (UTC)BRO'S NEST yes perfect.
hahahaha yeeeah ... Also the extremely long monologue about the souls of jazz musicians during the Pip sequence - "boy," I thought, after about ten minutes of that, "this is something I would have a lot more time for probably if I did not know it was written by a white guy attempting wokeness!" There were definitely points of the show where I really just wanted to raise a hand and go, "Dave I've been mostly enjoying this conversation but I feel like it's getting a little uncomfortable, and also, a little embarrassing."
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Date: 2019-12-23 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-24 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-23 11:55 pm (UTC)(as is Moby-Dick, which I love with all my heart)
Sorry to sail in with a contenteless comment, but clearly not sorry enough! I'm here via the friending meme.
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Date: 2019-12-24 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-24 01:59 am (UTC)I also very much have a love/hate relationship with Moby-Dick and with anything involving whaling, due to taking a semester-long course on Moby-Dick as part of my English major, so that's not helping.
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Date: 2019-12-24 04:38 pm (UTC)(Somehow I managed to escape a complete English major without any Moby Dick experience whatsoever! I'm still partially convinced that I should probably never actually read Moby Dick, and just try and build a complete portrait through as many weird ancillary materials as possible.)
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Date: 2019-12-24 06:12 pm (UTC)The Ray Bradbury stuff is excellent. "And then I read Moby Dick 500 times until I was Herman Melville."
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Date: 2019-12-24 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-24 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-25 05:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-25 10:49 pm (UTC)I wouldn't blame anyone for hating it though, it's a ... um. I mean. There's a lot to love! There's a lot to hate!
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Date: 2019-12-25 09:02 pm (UTC)Though not necessarily fascinated in a good way? My feelings are a) I LOVE Moby Dick, b) I absolutely adored Rachel Chavkin's work with Hadestown, c) Chavkin and Malloy's previous collaboration, The Great Comet, did not work for me at all. And for pretty much the same reason of "Dave is going through it with learning he's white I think", except with feminism.
Also, 2019 Moby Dick absolutely should have race as a theme! For as much as it is EXTREMELY a book written in 1851, Melville had much more interesting things to say about race than Tolstoy had to say about women. Melville is clearly trying to grapple with slavery, and the place of people of color in The American Story, and how the tragedy of people of color tends to be ignored in favor of the heroic white victory. And, I mean... he's definitely not always succeeding! But that stuff is there in the original, just waiting to be taken up. I mean, there's an entire chapter where Ishmael just talks about how white is the worst color, and lists a bunch of scary white things (polar bears, ghosts, Moby Dick the white whale). It's not subtle.
Anyway, thank you for this post, because I just can't read enough about everyone's take on this show!
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Date: 2019-12-25 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-27 01:44 am (UTC)Haaa, same! But all your description has made me even more interested in seeing this, so I've absolutely got to grab tickets as soon as they're announced in NYC.
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Date: 2019-12-31 06:47 am (UTC)Is this show really going to NYC? I Googled for deets after reading this but couldn't find anything.
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Date: 2020-01-01 06:46 pm (UTC)I've heard rumors from people who follow the theater scene that there's an off-Broadway booking -- that and knowing that most of the A.R.T.'s other stuff in the same vein ends up in New York -- but I too have also seen no definite announcement so I could be wrong in my blithe assumptions. I hope I'm not, though, I'd love to see this show evolve.
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Date: 2024-11-30 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2024-12-06 03:07 am (UTC)