Swept Away in Times Square

Times Square

Times Sqaure

Jerry Orbach Theater Poster

"The Fantasticks" Playbill.  Inside, they noted that Ben Stiller is performing in "Playing House", to "a limited engagement."  I assume that to mean that they want us all to know that a privileged few get to watch Ben Stiller live, even though we are not part of the privileged few. 

Not everyone goes to Times Square to see a play or celebrate New Years. Robert works there, in one of the tall and important looking buildings. So people work there, or use it as a point of reference for the Subway.  Any time I want to go to the east side, I take the Subway to Times Square and 42nd St and then most places on the east side are in easy walking distance from there.

It is still the number one place to see theatre.  We went for the first time as New Yorkers last Saturday.  We were able to use our ever-shrinking military resources to score half price tickets, and for front row seats no less.  We went to the Jerry Orbach Theater and saw "The Fantasticks".  We were both struck by the modest size of the theater, seating maybe one hundred people.  The stage was at floor level, our feet were actually on it when we sat down.  Because of this, we got quite the intimate close-up of the production.  Maybe that's why I got swept up in the drama unfolding before us, as if the storyline parallels a true mystery of life, not just some writer's careless thoughts that he scribbled down after he drank too much.

"The Fantastics" is yet another story of two adolescents falling in love.  First of course they pledge themselves to one another in the innocence and ignorance of their youth.  Then life happens: in real life this might be people growing apart due to changing careers, personalities etc.  It's awfully boring but common and realistic.  In the play it was these two old guys popping out of a box at different times in the story like Dr. Seuss characters, only wearing torn long johns and having missing teeth like hillbillies.  They added to their ridiculous costumes whatever they needed to push each scene along, like feather headbands to stage an Indian attack, or a pirate cap for enticing the young man into partying on far off islands away from the girl.  They spent most of their time bumbling around the stage and making the audience laugh, but still managed to take the characters on separate escapades. In the end, their fantastic adventures always lead to one or both of the young lovers getting hurt.  The young man got beaten and robbed, and the young women had her precious jewels stolen and her heart broken.  In the end, the two lovers found each other again, only this time they were mangled and pathetic instead of young and virile. They mutually agreed that their new love was better than what they had when they were younger because it was less "hollow".

Amidst all the foolery of the play, as it was rich in humor, I did find myself looking for the moral of the story.  Then when we left the theater, and the spell of being in close proximity to the charade wore off, I chided myself.  How often are these things written by some guy who used to be a best-seller but is now too insane to come up with any real work of art?  Who knows if this was the case, but getting caught up in the moment of the drama before me is what I'm sure draws others to the theatre scene as well.