Vir Das: Hey Stranger (2025) (Off-Broadway)

Lincoln Center Theater is doing a cool comedy series in the Claire Tow Theater upstairs, an intimate 100-seater room. I brought my favorite Indian-American comic Vivek to see the most famous Indian comic Vir Das do a 90-minute set. Das has a western sensibility, in both his references and in his comedic style. I don't know if his stand-up, which is quite open and vulnerable in the style of modern American Netflix specials, really translates to an Indian audience but I think he's primarily performing for us. Which makes his set all the more poignant, about belonging in America, and his pivotal decision about whether to move back here. It perhaps most reminded me of the kind of quiet sincerity that Hasan Minhaj hits you with in his specials to get a more emotional response out of the audience. And I think it largely works, especially in the confines of a small space. 

We went on Linctix night, which included snacks and drinks after the show. I don't know why we've not gone to that more often. Great perk. 

Don Giovanni (Opera) (2025)

Mozart has grown on me in my old age. I used to find his music kind of boring. But in its simplicity is actually musical perfection as God divined. Even when writing about womanizers and their conquests his music is gorgeous. The Cattalog aria sung by Leporello is my favorite in the 3.5 hours. The music itself is interesting in that it's sometimes just singing over a sparse harpsichord line. It's kind of odd harpsichord against the brutalist backdrop of the Ivo Van Hove set. There are three pieces that rotate very slowly, so slowly and subtly that you don't even notice it until it reaches its final position. In the climactic scene when the Commendatore's ghost (or Mozart's father according to Amadeus) drags Don Giovanni down to hell there are these intense projections that look as though they're on a screen, but all of a sudden the projections turn off and I'm told they're projected straight on the set. It's a trick of the eye. From the heights of the family circle, I had a hard time telling the female characters apart. They were all dressed kind of similarly and I'd forgotten my binoculars. Could not tell that Federica Lombardi (Donna Anna) dressed in basically a nightgown was so pregnant she is just a couple weeks away from maternity leave. The singers are all universally excellent. 
 

Stereophonic (2025) (West End)

I missed Stereophonic on Broadway, but we caught it in its West End transfer, which apparently isn't selling so well anymore. We bought seats on the upper rung. We got upgraded to seats in the orchestra because they didn't open the balcony. With the room only half full, we benefited with excellent seats. I loved the single set, two levels, sound-canceling glass in between like a real studio. Sitting at the real sound board, the actors have their back to the audience. The music is written by Will Butler from Arcade Fire. He does a good job at imitating Fleetwood Mac; the band similarly falls apart. The music is actually something I might listen to. I thought there would be applause after the musical numbers but the audience was dead silent until the end. All that said, the play does not need to run 3 hours and 15 minutes. It's way too long for only one intermission/interval, being opera length. 

My Neighbour Totoro (West End) (2025)

My Neighbour Totoro is the classic children's movie by Hayao Miyazaki. The show feels like it's made for children but the audience was mostly adults, who were very into it. The stage adaptation was supervised by the legendary composer Joe Hisaishi, whose iconic score takes center stage second only to the delightful puppetry. We sat on the extreme far right side, next to the conductor, with a significant part of the stage obstructed. It's not a musical but there are a few songs, all sung by an onstage singer rather than the actors. The puppeteers are dressed in black veils, not hidden exactly but inconspicuous. Just like the movie, the show is quite slow. It lavishes in slowness, enjoying the wonder of the visuals and spirituality. There are a few different puppets we see before we catch the first glimpse of Totoro. The sheer size of Totoro is awe-inspiring, matched only by the inflatable cat bus, which as an inflatable isn't as impressive but does elicit laughs. The young children are played by full-grown adults, a 4-year-old to be exact. It's a little weird but honestly quite convincing. It's that Japanese kawaii cutesy anime voice. And the antsy running around. Dad may not admit to liking it but I did hear him react quite a lot. Maybe they're not Lion King-type artistic puppets but they're wondrous in their own way.

Oliver! (2025) (West End)

At the Gielgud Theatre, the seats at the back of the stalls/orchestra are sold as restricted view because of the deepest balcony overhang I've ever seen. For most of Act I, it's not really a problem. But in Act II, we do miss the climax which happens too high above the stage. The other British thing is that you don't get a Playbill on the West End like you do here. Not inherently a problem except the role of Oliver rotates between several kids and I'm not sure which one we saw. I also didn't realize that Oliver isn't technically the lead role. He wasn't even the second billed. Fagin and Nancy take their bows after Oliver. Nancy has the iconic As Long As He Needs Me which Ava Brennan sings powerfully, on Nicole Scherzinger level. I was expecting a showstopper standing ovation but she quickly left the stage to move onto the next thing. The orchestrations are beautiful. Oom Pah Pah and Consider Yourself are also fantastic high-energy scenes. This production by the way is directed by acclaimed choreographer Matthew Bourne. I wasn't all that familiar with the story of Oliver Twist but it's way darker than I expected. I knew he was an orphan but it's quite the downer. Who knew he lived in a funeral parlour and was trapped in a coffin? 

Merry Wives of Windsor (2025) (Globe Theatre)

After a long day of work in London, and not feeling well, I got back to the hotel around 6:30pm. I took a quick thirty minute nap. And when I got back up, I was summoned back to work. Everything is an emergency. So I was late to our 9:15pm dinner reservation but the Uber got me to dinner around 9:30. And we had a nice dinner, waiter's choice. We had drinks at the pub (or actually on the sidewalk outside the pub) until it was time to head to the Globe Theater for the midnight matinee. For starters, insane that midnight matinee is even a thing. They could end at midnight and still call it that, but no this actually starts at midnight and they do an unabridged performance for two and a half hours. Didn't get back to the hotel until 3am. But the seats in the Globe (authentic to the time) are so uncomfortable I couldn't even fall asleep like I usually do. At least we got seats! They sell standing room tickets right in front of the stage for 5 pounds. And I don't think I could've stood for 2.5 hours at midnight after a long day, though the peasants were having a grand ole time. We got seats in the gents boxes, which are a little behind the stage. So we're actually in full view of the audience; it's where the pretty noblemen would go to be seen. We did pay double what we should've because the empty seats next to us in the box (all the boxes were empty) were considered restricted view and we should've just bought those. But anyways, from behind, you don't catch all of the actors expressions. The expressions are kind of an essential part of Shakespearean comedy. The laughs are not just in the words themselves but in the acting. And they got serious laughs.

I loved the period band that sits on the second level balcony above the stage. They play french horn, percussion, tuba, trumpet--and there's even a sousaphone. I will say the plot itself I could not follow, even though I've seen the play before. There is famously a Welsh character, whose accent was totally unintelligible to the American viewer. There is also a part where they go into the audience and interact with the standing folks. They wear Eyes Wide Shut masks and scare people. It's a good fun time. 

Mahabharata (Summer for the City) (2025)

Why Not Theatre's ambitious experimental production of the Mahabharata is performed in two parts. I went on two consecutive nights, but this weekend it's playing back to back in a single day, which is a bit much. But I kind of loved the idea of coming back the second night, after having the opportunity to read up on the synopsis in between. The plot is super convoluted, with many characters, all major. Not only that but the actors play multiple parts and play in drag so it's hard to follow. We are warned early on by the storyteller to not be daunted by the plot. It's about the morality lessons derived from the story. It is about how to live or not live a dharma life that is righteous. And there's something profound about that. 

The first part is backed by a band, that starts well before the official curtain time. They sing traditional Indian music and continue to back the narrator. It's a beautiful combination of storytelling and music. The music is my favorite part. There are also dance interludes that showcase different means of telling a story without words. The band doesn't come back for part two, but instead the backdrop is a screen on which we see live projections Jamie Lloyd-style. There is a 15-minute Sanskrit opera retelling the Bhagavad Gita. The scale of the production is honestly impressive and it permits the troupe to do more experimental things for scenes at a time. 

PS. I spotted Philip Glass coming out of the bathroom on the first night. Didn't see him the second night but the opera is reminiscent of his own Satyagraha, with a libretto also drawn from the Sanskrit Bhagavad Gita.