La Guillotine, the empire waist, and the pennant race

I have a sense that this first post may not hang together all that well.

One might say that, thematically, it will be inconsistent - more of a drawing together of random elements in a mish-mash than a true blending of disparate ideas into a coherent whole.

But then again, it may work out okay....

If it *is* more the former than the latter, I apologize in advance and I promise that as this blog carries on in the coming months I will improve my style.

Right now, I'm just feeling the need to toss out into the cyber-ether some of the things that have been inhabiting the prominent space in my brain of late. The title of the post refers respectively to the gigantic new musical adaptation of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities that my theatre is going to be producing in about a month and a half, the lovely and wonderful movie Becoming Jane that I saw last week, and the fact that somehow it's now officially more than halfway through August and the Red Sox are still in first place in the A.L. East.

Tale is all-consuming. I have every expectation that it will be a wonderful production, and it is thrilling to see the progress from the scene shop as they build the mammoth set, and to talk with my artistic director frequently (he's also directing this specific show) about text notes for the script, which is still evolving slightly. It will be a massive production; a pre-Broadway engagement, which, for a regional theatre to do (especially one so geographically far from Broadway) is quite a coup. Actors and singers will descend on us from New York in about a month...including some who are fairly well-known "big" name types. Musicians and actors have been cast and hired locally as well, and everyone in the theatre is preparing for not one, but two opening night dinner parties of epic proportion. One night is London-themed with Derby wearing waiters; the other night, attendees will "go" to Paris, and the waiters will wear berets.

I'm actually very proud to say that the idea of the different themes for these dinners was my idea!! It'll actually be a really great way to give each night cachet and get our donors and VIPs extra-excited about attending. Although the excitement level around this project is sky high anyway....I wish I could say here just who it is we've gotten to play Charles Darnay, the virtuous and wholesome romantic lead....he's someone that would make you say "oh *I* know him!!"....I mean, you've definitely seen his face on TV a *lot* lately....but it hasn't been officially released yet, so I can't tell.....rrraarrrgh.

For all the good things about the show though, I can't pretend that it doesn't add a HUGE amount of stress to our season. Everything has been pushed up a month because of it, and people all over the building are stressed to the max. But hopefully it will all be calm very soon and we can just relax a bit and relish in the excitement of the cast arriving and rehearsals truly getting under way.

*~*~*~*~*

As for the Empire waist comment...I really don't have much to say about this one, except that seeing Becoming Jane was one of those experiences I have rarely had in the movie theater...where the movie I go to see is just *exactly* what I need when I need it. That perfect serendipity of the perfect thing at the perfect time to suit the mood I'm in.

I've had this experience a few other times...notably years ago in the movie theater in Union Station in Washington, D.C. when I went to see the Val Kilmer movie The Saint. At that time, I was having a bit of a rough patch in my first year of college and I really needed something feel-good and uplifting. The Saint was, ultimately, all of those things. The hero had identity issues, yet kicked butt and was goofy in an oddly endearing way all at the same time. Not to mention that that movie was cheesy. Oh, was it ever. But it was good cheese....and good cheese was what I needed at that moment in time.

Becoming Jane on the other hand is a bittersweet, achingly beautiful movie. In quality of acting and direction so vastly far above The Saint that talking about them both in the same post is *almost* silly. But the therapeutic effect they had on me was essentially the same. With all the job stress I've been having of late and the loneliness I often feel of being so far away from home, I was in the mood for something that could be an outlet for all these emotions that have been ricocheting around inside me, and this movie was it. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried at the end of it, and that the release that provided was welcome and a relief.

And, in addition to all of that, the movie was so good. It was well-acted, well-directed, and featured James MacAvoy in some really well-fitted knee-breetches. What more can a girl ask for, really? The cinematography of the English countryside was so lush, and the literary treats for those who have read Jane Austen's work are plentiful. The most brilliant thing about the film was the way that the people in Jane's life were shown as the forerunners of her characters. You could see the shades of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in her parents, the essence of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in her rich and meddlesome neighbor, and so on and so on. Also, if you've read Pride and Prejudice or some of her other works, you recognized lines from the books sprinkled into the dialogue of the movie, to give the idea that she really and truly turned her life into her work.

Another thing that amazed me about this film was that it took many "liberties" with the historical accuracy of the part of her life it portrayed....and yet, I didn't care. Usually, if a play or a movie is about a real person, I'm a stickler for being accurate and keeping the details as true as possible. Yet, there are two notable exceptions to this rule...and, perhaps not surprisingly, both of the exceptions are movies where the love story has been enhanced to greater intensity than what actual fact suggests (the other movie I refer to also has a Jane in the title - 1985's Lady Jane with Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes. An excellent, if very depressing, film). I guess that means that I'm a sucker for romance after all.

Hmmm...apparently I had more to say on that topic than I thought at first! Bottom line is that it's a great movie, and I highly recommend it.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Now, as for the last item in the title of the post - The Pennant Race - one must note that it is August 17. And the Red Sox are, for now, still in first place in their division.

One would expect this to be pleasing to a Red Sox fan such as myself.

And it is....

But...

It is also frightening.

Very frightening.

This is the part of the year where we are usually about 4 games behind the (evil) Yankees and wondering how in the world we'll ever catch up before the end of the season. Even in 2004, when everything finally finally went so well for us, we weren't out in front at this point in the regular season....not like this. Our grip on the division hadn't been firm for most of the season, as it has this year, and we were, once again, the Wild Card entry into the AL playoffs. We had to play our way up from the bottom of the playoff heap...slog our way through the rest of the teams in order to even get to the World Series. Not to mention putting ourselves way back in our ALCS against New York so that we had to come from way behind just to win *that* series.

Red Sox fans are notoriously comfortable with the underdog position....even in those (all too rare) instances when we come out on top. Being out in front is welcome, but very very scary.

It begs the questions: How are we going to screw this up? When are we going to screw this up? And just how spectacularly bad will the screw up be?

I hope that we can hang on....I'm rooting for them with all my might....but my stomach is tied in knots every time I look at the standings, and I think....only in New England, where history runs so very very deep....can there be such a Calvinistic, self-flagellating take on a BASEBALL TEAM.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

GO SOX!!!!!

-Sasso!