Tuesday, 22 January 2008 02:18 pm
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deckardcanineLast Friday, I ushered Ella at the new location of Arena Stage in Crystal City, VA (still Metro-accessible, thankfully). The theater previously has shown movies, which should give you a fair idea of how it's designed. Not great for ushers. We had only two aisles all told, so some scheduled ushers went home with the promise to come another night. There wasn't much room to move around, there were far fewer seats, and we were hard pressed to get a good view from the back.
Just as well that the play doesn't offer much in the way of visuals. The protagonist is Ella Fitzgerald, alternately singing -- half the songs familiar to me, half not -- and talking, primarily to herself. There isn't much physical interaction between anyone.
I had figured that the play would be little more than a redux of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill: a concert with a little onstage drama thrown in. Instead, it turns out that we, the audience, are not supposed to be there. At the beginning, Ella's agent tells her to prepare to give her concert's audience a few words about herself. At first she thinks she's too much of a goody-goody to have an interesting past, but it becomes ever clearer that there are plenty of juicy details -- they just don't fit her public image. With plenty of drama and some laugh-out-loud lines, she grows to resent this image.
Far nicer stuff than Lady Day, if you ask me, but there is one awkward element in the stage direction. When Ella thinks about what a man in her past said to her, it gets narrated by one of the band members. That alone isn't so awkward, but a spotlight shines on the speaker. Some of us initially thought something like, "Wait -- is the drummer her ex-boyfriend?" I would have kept the band in the dark during those times.
Alas, as well-done as the first half was, my family and I decided not to stick around for the second. We were Friday-night-tired, had a ways to drive, didn't like our seating, and weren't sure how much longer it would stay entertaining.
One more thing: Previously, I has seen signs listing pairs of plays from the current Arena Stage season. One sign wrote "Ella" on the first line and "Well" on the next. "Ella Well." Say it out loud.
Just as well that the play doesn't offer much in the way of visuals. The protagonist is Ella Fitzgerald, alternately singing -- half the songs familiar to me, half not -- and talking, primarily to herself. There isn't much physical interaction between anyone.
I had figured that the play would be little more than a redux of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill: a concert with a little onstage drama thrown in. Instead, it turns out that we, the audience, are not supposed to be there. At the beginning, Ella's agent tells her to prepare to give her concert's audience a few words about herself. At first she thinks she's too much of a goody-goody to have an interesting past, but it becomes ever clearer that there are plenty of juicy details -- they just don't fit her public image. With plenty of drama and some laugh-out-loud lines, she grows to resent this image.
Far nicer stuff than Lady Day, if you ask me, but there is one awkward element in the stage direction. When Ella thinks about what a man in her past said to her, it gets narrated by one of the band members. That alone isn't so awkward, but a spotlight shines on the speaker. Some of us initially thought something like, "Wait -- is the drummer her ex-boyfriend?" I would have kept the band in the dark during those times.
Alas, as well-done as the first half was, my family and I decided not to stick around for the second. We were Friday-night-tired, had a ways to drive, didn't like our seating, and weren't sure how much longer it would stay entertaining.
One more thing: Previously, I has seen signs listing pairs of plays from the current Arena Stage season. One sign wrote "Ella" on the first line and "Well" on the next. "Ella Well." Say it out loud.