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. 

Old Friends (2025) (Broadway)

Stephen Sondheim's contribution to the American Songbook is incomparable. His music is harmonious and his lyrics witty. This posthumous tribute revue pulls all of the best songs from his musicals. They're great songs, divorced from the context of their shows. The comedy and drama of the songs don't land as impactfully as a consequence, but the music is beautiful nonetheless. Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga are two of the biggest divas on Broadway. Both are excellent. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that they're not in all the songs. They even cede the spotlight on some of the biggest numbers, The Ladies Who Lunch or I'm Still Here, songs made for divas. So I expected a little more of the two of them. I was surprised to find out afterwards that it was an unrecognizable Lea playing Mrs Lovett behind the cockney accent. 

Good way to spend a Wednesaday matinee off from work!

Pirates! The Penzance Musical (2025) (Broadway)

David Hyde Pierce was born to play the modern major general. His straight deadpan demeanor is perfectly suited to the notorious patter song. He's funny as always. There's lots of comedic wordplay and overall the humor worked for me. The play is not the straight Pirates of Penzance you know. There's a bit of a framing device, providing context for the show's original premiere in 1879. Pierce actually plays the composer playing the modern major general. This production also integrates several songs from other Gilbert and Sullivan shows. Songs from HMS Pinafore, The Mikado and Iolanthe. There's a fun washboard number. The ending recasts "He is an Englishman" to "We're All From Someplace Else", a rousing ode to immigrants that gives the production its raison d'etre in 2025. It gives the show some meaning beyond the loony plot. 

PS. the subtitle of the show is "The Slave of Duty" and in some ways that's about dharma, isn't it? 

Floyd Collins (Broadway) (2025)

Floyd Collins is a bizarre show. It's not about a particularly exciting subject. Collins was a real life cave explorer in 1920s Kentucky who got pinned under a rock in a narrow section of the cave. His predicament became a news bonanza, attracting people from all over the country with ideas on how to get Collins out. It was a media circus that became a real  above ground carnival. Spoiler alert, he eventually dies there. Very oddly, in this production Collins remains on stage basically the whole way through, sitting on a chaise lounge, not especially stuck-looking. It's an odd-choice, and there isn't a whole lot to make you feel like you're in a cave. The stage design leaves much to be desired. 

The bluegrass music is kind of nice. The yodeling and echoes looping/harmonizing with itself are interesting. I think the best part actually is the score.  The piano and harmonica parts are playful, quite complex. Adam Guettel is the composer, and for being one of his earliest works I'm impressed by the complexity. Also, I just learned that Guettel is Richard Rodgers's grandson. 

Andor (2022-25)

Andor is the best show on TV. It is the most important show of our authoritarian times. Don't be turned off by the Star Wars universe of it all. It has nothing to do with Jedi or the Force. It has everything to do with rebellion. It's about the spirit of revolution, about what pushes ordinary people to finally awaken to oppression and to do something to combat injustice. There are small actions and large, but everyone pays a sacrifice. An iconic quote from Luthen: "I burn my life for a sunrise that I know I'll never see." It's at once devastating and inspiring. It may take place in a galaxy far far away but the emotion is genuinely rousing nonetheless because we can sympathize. We're living through our own empire; it's not hard to see echoes of Ghorman in Los Angeles, Narkina 5 in our prison-industrial complex, Mina-Rau in our farms populated by Central American immigrants for the harvest.

It's a political thriller--a series of heist movies organized in 3-episode arcs (save for a 4-2 combo at the end of season 1). This gives the show a truly cinematic quality. It's like watching a series of Star Wars movies in which time passes between arcs but you're able to fill in the gaps anyways quite deftly. The action and cinematography and production/costume design look as expensive as the show cost. Knowing where this all ends (Rogue One) does not detract in the least from the suspense inherent in Andor. I also like that the show does not solely focus on Cassian. We get the Empire's side too, from the bureaucracy of the ISB. We see both the banality of evil and even hints of how a bureaucrat like Syril could eventually come to see the light. We see the face of the rebellion, and the shadows, the money and the power, the nice and the mean. Mon Mothma's crusade in the senate 

Season 2 Episodes 8, 9 and 10 are three of the most breathtaking episodes in quick succession.  Season 1 Episodes 6, 10 and 12 are also stellar. I'll say other moments that stand out emotionally: Nemik's manifesto and Maarva's last conversation with Cassian, inspired by Aldhani without knowing Cassian's role there, and Bix's final scene. 

Gypsy (Broadway) (2025)

The little I knew about Gypsy going into the latest revival was limited to a couple songs and an overbearing mother. Rose certainly is overbearing. No one else can barely get a word in. She's the original Dance Mom. It's sometimes painful to watch. As far as I know, Audra McDonald is the first black Rose on Broadway. And it adds a different dimension to the character, dreaming a delusional dream in the 1920s, dooming her children every time she denies them an opportunity to go to school. That both daughters eventually found success is a testament to their resilience. They humor their mother at their own cost. It's a tragedy, dressed (or undressed) in glitz at the end with a tinge of hope at reconciliation, but really tragic nonetheless. 

Audra McDonald is a treasure. She is capital-A acting in those book scenes, heavy accent, emphasizing words, throwing around her stage presence like no one else matters. I'm used to hearing her beautiful singing voice but here she strains her voice. It's not effortless. It's not pretty. It's pained. Her Rose's Turn and Everything's Coming Up Roses hit a register of her voice that's very uncomfortable. It's a tour de force. That's what musical theater is about--it's not just singing, it's acting singing. It's not about sounding good, it's about sounding a character. The power comes from her vision of who Rose is and her embodiment of the tragedy of her life.