Monday, December 30: 7 pm
This was always likely to be a
problematic show. It was, originally, scheduled to be the very last
one, and an awful lot of spoiler group people were coming – not
that having everyone there was a problem, in fact, I very much
enjoyed meeting people at the Sawyer's Arms beforehand and in the
queue a little bit later. But it would be a sold-out show, packed to
the gills, and most of the audience would be experts – or so I
though. More on that later.
At this point, there was only one
character I felt I absolutely needed to see: Andy. There were other characters that I
had never done a loop with (William, Marshall), but that I had
largely covered while following other characters (or, in the case of
William, would have largely covered after doing Andy). There were
also other character/performer combos I wanted to see, and there were
pieces of loops I was missing and would someday like to catch – but
Andy was the only one who remained more a mystery than not. I was
hoping to see Rob McNeill in the role, as he was Andy throughout
most, if not all, of my September trip, but a glance at the cast
board revealed that Tomislav English would be playing the role. I
thought about waiting one more day, in the hope that Rob would be
playing him on New Year's Eve, but ultimately decided that I didn't
want to have this hanging over me going into the final show – so I
started the evening off with Tomislav's Andy.
As with many other town characters, I
couldn't find him right away, and spent several minutes circling the
floor trying to track him down only to suddenly stumble upon him out
in middle of the street, as if he had magically appeared there. I
seriously don't know where these people hide sometimes.
Andy's plot function is essentially to
be “the best friend,” and he is very much the embodiment of that
– the archetypal best friend. He's a mensch, an all-around good
guy, concerned primarily with the well-being of William and
Mary (with brief diversions into hitting on the ladies and some
illicit business with Miguel and Badlands Jack). It is in this
aspect of the character that Tomislav's appearance serves him well –
his boyish, earnest face plays into it in a way that Rob's more
intense demeanor does not.
Andy's loop was sparsely attended at
first – it was, after all, “magic hour.” Not too far into the
show we wound up at the hoedown, and I was pleasantly surprised to
see that Andy was one of the first characters to arrive – which
meant that I, for the first time ever, had a front-of the crowd spot
for the festivities (come to think of it, was he in there a whole
scene ahead of time? I can't remember when his solo bar dance
happened, but it may have been immediately pre-hoedown). It's a
little scary up close – a lot of flailing limbs and swinging
around. When the Drugstore Girl (Isabelle Cressy) spun and collapsed
right at my feet, I don't know how she managed not to kick me in the
face. Andy also took the opportunity to knock me on the nose of my
mask with his beer bottle mid-dance.
After the hoedown, and the fight that
followed, Andy and William (Omar Gordon) reconvened at the fountain
in town. This scene is, of course, a counterpart to the post-orgy
dressing room scene with Andrea and Wendy, and I find the contrast
very interesting. Both scenes begin with a phase where Andy/Andrea
attempts to comfort William/Wendy, before it turns to more of a
struggle and argument. For Andrea and Wendy, the first portion of
the scene is very close and touchy, with lots of hugs and reassuring
hands on shoulders and such – then, as their thoughts begin to
diverge, so too do they pull apart physically. On the other hand,
Andy and William spend the first portion of the scene seeming to barely
acknowledge each other – Andy provides some degree of comfort
simply by sitting silently next to William. Then as the disagreement
grows, they begin to grapple, growing physically closer. It's an
interesting illustration of the difference between your typical (or
sterotypical, I suppose) male/male friendship vs. a female/female
friendship.
Lest you think that Andy sounds a bit
too distant, rest assured that he cares very deeply about the murder
– enough so that it drives him completely mad. Up to the desert he went,
spinning, spinning, spinning. If there's one word I would associate
with Andy, it's that: spinning. Nearly all of his dancing,
particularly his solo bits, centered around him spinning wildly,
nearly out of control. In this instance, he traveled through the
desert, stopping in each spotlight to spin some more, and flinging
fistfuls of sand off into the darkness (or, in one instance, pouring
the sand into my hand). Eventually he collapsed in front of Mary's shrine at the scarecrow funeral, after which Miguel took him to his
tent to recover. Having done so, Andy paused briefly to shove a
small object into my hand and beg me, desperately, to “find her.”
He took off at full speed for the stairs right after that, so I
didn't have a chance to look at the object right away – but it was
easy enough to guess what it was: a small, crumpled photo of Mary
(Laure Bachelot). I think that was the moment that endeared him to
me the most – lost in the throes of madness, his last rational
thought was to beg someone to make right his failure to save the
unhappy couple.
It's always a little strange to see the
beginning of the loop right after a reset, as characters return,
however briefly, to the mundane and/or happy phase of their day, so a
lot of the remainder of Andy's loop didn't make nearly as much of an impression on
me, although there were still some highlights – William's episode
as he and Andy clean the boardroom table, the pursuit of Miguel
through town, and, of course Bulldog. It was at the conclusion of
that scene that I left Andy, since we were nearly to the point where I had com in, and he had led me to approximately the
location of my next character.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the
decision to follow Tomislav's Andy. I can't really say whether I
would have preferred it if I actually saw Rob's version, but I know
that what I saw was terrific. Besides, I was about to get a full
dose of Rob McNeill in a very different role. By the time Andy's
loop ended, the audience situation had changed dramatically from
those first few blissfully deserted scenes. The crowds were thick,
but more than that, they were remarkably poorly behaved. It was
definitely the most hand-holders, mask-removers, and phone-users that
I had ever seen in a single loop. In contrast to my earlier
expectation, it was not a show full of expert fans, but uninvolved
(and curiously aggressive) newbies. They didn't seem very interested
in what was going on, obviously – but at the same time, they still
tended to want to be at the front of the pack. It's like people who
drive too slowly on a single-lane road, then speed up when it expands
to two lanes so that you can't pass them. Why? Why? Argh.
Given my observations of the makeup of
the crowd, I thought it would be a good opportunity to check out a
side character who largely eluded me in September: the Doctor, played
by, as I suggested above, Rob McNeill. I'm not sure it was a good
choice from an audience-avoidance perspective, as he was pretty well
mobbed – but then, I didn't see what things were like around the
main characters. Perhaps it was even worse.
I had seen a bit of Rob's Doctor in the
past while following other characters, and he didn't really seem like
a good fit for the role – too young, too small, the suit didn't
seem to fit right – but as has happened too many times to count,
seeing him up close was a whole different story. He seems very
otherworldly compared to some of the other doctors, with this
bizarre, incredibly creepy way of breathing and a tendency to speak as little as possible. Much of his time was
spent slowly walking around the exam room or pacing up and down the
hall behind it, staring at first one white mask, then another. Each
time, it looked for all the world like he was about to take them for
a 1:1 – but I only saw him take two people, despite having those
“almost” moments with literally dozens, myself included. After the first couple of instances, once I figured out what was going on, I started to really enjoy the way he was toying with everyone. The crowd at this point was insanely thick – during some of the
hallway pacing bits, there were a good 20-25 people just in the
hallway itself. Insane. Nonetheless, I again got the impression I
was dealing primarily with newbies that were not super-engaged.
Given the crowds, I probably should
have tried somewhere else, but I can be stubborn at times – I had
decided to follow the Doctor, and that's precisely what I was going
to do, damn it. In the end, I think it worked out pretty well – it
turns out that, despite what I saw in September, the Doctor does
indeed have a lot to do besides 1:1's. The thing that stood out the
most to me was the whole series of interactions he had with the
Seamstress (Kathryn McGarr) regarding Romola. It had always seemed
to me like all of the manipulative characters were working on some
bizarre instinct or carefully pre-formulated plan, each of them doing
their part at the right moment because they somehow just know to do
so. But in fact, at least in this instance, there was a lot of
actual plotting going on behind the scenes. Very interesting to
watch.
Other highlights/revelations included
the way he chased Dolores (Jane Leaney) into the exam room with his
pen lights (is this a newer addition? The only other time I would
have seen it was the first loop of my very first show, too far back
for me to remember clearly. It felt new to me) and the end-of-loop
scene with Stanford (Sam Booth), which demonstrated to me just how
different my recollection (from show #3) was from what actually
happened.
Shortly after that, the Doctor
disappeared with another white mask for the mannequin reset 1:1.
Incidentally, this was the closest I came to intersecting with a very
interesting aspect of the night: there was no PA. It would have been fascinating to see how they made the story work without her, but
alas, I managed to go all night without seeing a single scene that
she should have been a part of. I did get to hear some interesting
stories about it later on, from both audience and cast members, but
if I were to list off my regrets (which are fortunately few) about
this batch of shows, that would be right near the top.
While the Doctor was locked away, I
took the opportunity to make another attempt at spending some time in
studio 3. The crowds were so thick in the rest of the show that I
figured it was the best time to do it, as I was starting
to get irritated enough with them that I thought a break would be a
good idea. I found a few spoiler group friends hanging out there,
and actually managed to stick around for three songs, but that was
all I could do. In fact, I was ready to go back after two songs, but
then the singer launched into Bulldog and, well, it was Bulldog. You
know how that goes.
Watching the Seamstress with the Doctor
earlier reminded me that I had never really spent much time with her,
so I decided to finish out the night in her company. I found her in
her office, but almost immediately, she headed through the clothing
maze to her shop in the town. So far, I've never attempted to
navigate the maze without a character guiding me, which is probably
for the best – even with a guide, I still have a bit of trouble.
In the shop, she immediately set about
selecting a charm from a tin full of them, pausing only to accept
Conrad's dress from the barman (Francois Testory). Once the charm
was selected, she set about tying it on to a piece of thread, to hang
around the neck. Throughout the process, she periodically looked up
at me and gave me a smile that managed to be friendly, alluring, and
ominous all at the same time. This was a moment where the crowd (and
there was one – at least 10 of us in that tiny shop, probably more)
may have actually enhanced the moment. It's always great when a
character notices you – but if they pick you out of a large group,
it does feel a little more special. Once she finished threading the
charm, she stood up and made as if to slowly saunter back into the
clothing maze – but instead, she suddenly grabbed my hand and
rushed us both inside, before anyone could move. At the first turn
she slammed me up against the wall and hissed into my ear, “Do you
have any idea what you're in for here?” She put the charm around
my neck and then, more calmly, whispered, “You'll need this to keep
you safe. If you're lucky.”
At that, she took off briskly through
the maze, back into her office. A lot of the material that followed
was not really new to me – most of it consisted of her. . . I guess
I'll call it her “day job,” dressing and making up the stars of
the infidelity ballet and, yes, Bulldog. I also got to see her
scheming with the Doctor again, which took on a different, more
enthusiastic tone when seen from her perspective. The seamstress is
quite the nasty piece of work, when you get right down to it.
Eventually Romola (Katie McGuinness)
showed up, which meant we were getting close to the end of the show.
After putting on Romola's car crash makeup (“Wouldn't want to
forget that,” she told me with an evil smirk, as she wrote down the
Doctor's instructions for the makeup), the Seamstress led her out to
meet the doctor, and then headed off to the 1:1 room, as I had seen
her do a few shows before. I had managed to stay reasonably close to
her throughout the loop, with some exceptions, but with the size of
that hallway, and the magnitude of that crowd, I was defeated. When
we got to the door, I was multiple layers back, barely able to see
her as she paused in the doorway. Happily, though, after looking
over the hordes of white masks, she reached through them, pointing
directly at me.
“You can come in,” she said.
Surprisingly, the 1:1 was quite
different from the one I had with Kate Jackson in September, and left
my lips tingling and burning for nearly an hour afterward. At the
end, she quickly changed into dancing shoes, handed me a rose, and
took off at top speed for the stairs, pulling me along behind her.
We rushed down to Studio 2, but just as we emerged from the stairwell
on the ground floor, we heard a familiar crescendo and release of the
music. She stopped short and turned to me, with a panicked
expression.
“That was it!” she said. We
hurried into the Studio, where everyone was rushing over to the
stage. Yep, we had missed the murder. I might have been
disappointed, if I hadn't already seen Marshall die a good thirteen
times (eleven finales, plus two interim loop murders). The
seamstress led me down to the woodchips, then shrugged
apologetically.
“Well, enjoy the party,” she said,
before rushing off to join the action on the stage. I still had my
rose. When I made my usual stop at the pools, post-finale, I
considered leaving it in the water with Wendy and Marshall, but
decided against. Too bad, as it would have been a more fitting place
to leave it than the hands of the friendly-but-firm black mask who took it from me a few minutes later.
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