Leaving Broadway’s Booth Theater after seeing the often very funny Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, “Radio Song” by R.E.M. came to mind. The particular lyric: “the world is collapsing/ around our ears/ I turned up the radio/ But I can’t hear it.” The song was a call to action for artists and DJs to communicate more important messages to the masses. In this comedy, Taylor Mac has created a similar rallying cry to artists about the pervasive savagery within our world. “Do we pause or spur it on with centuries of applause?”
Having never seen or read the Shakespeare play, I decided to watch the Julie Taymor film Titus in preparation. The film is overlong; intermittently fantastic, campy, violent and boring. I am glad that I watched the movie before sitting down for this sequel. While not a requirement, additional background adds some understanding (and fun) to these shenanigans.
Julie White plays the renamed Carol, a fairly small character in the original tragedy but part of a major scene. Knowing her backstory adds to the merriment onstage. She opens the play with an absolutely hilarious monologue which sets the tone for the raucous grotesquerie that follows. In the smallest part, Ms. White nearly steals the show from her costars Nathan Lane and Kristen Nielsen.
When the curtain rises, the aftermath of war is everywhere. Gary (Lane) was a clown but now has been assigned to the cleanup crew. Dead bodies have accumulated. He comes from a long line of clowning: “it was inherited, like religions.” Ms. Nielsen’s Janice is an experienced maid. This current mess is “not my first massacre.” She tutors Gary in the fine art of body disposal.
Santo Loquasto designed this set which is a character unto itself. Dead bodies and limbs are everywhere. Look, that one was really a stud! The slaughtered women and children are hidden under a large tarp. We don’t really need to see that. Or do we? Through this bawdy exercise, judy (Taylor Mac’s preferred pronoun) is going to make a lot of political points about the brutality of mankind and our passive acceptance. R.E.M.’s “I turned up the radio” morphed into “I sat in my theater chair.”
Perhaps judy could not hear enough voices screaming out in the artist community. A very successful performer who often performs in drag, judy was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. That extravaganza skewered the heteronormative narrative of America’s history. Never-ending violence and oppression of all minorities were confronted in an anarchistic political convention replete with sequins and titillating humor. That 24 hour show was an extraordinary achievement.
Filled with gallows humor, Gary contains many, many laughs. In a metatheatrical way, judy has created the genre of a “fooling.” Both the play and the characters who inhabit it are clowns putting on a show. As directed by George C. Wolfe, the best individual moments slay. The messaging is clear and appropriately in-your-face. Unfortunately the proceedings occasionally get bogged down like a battalion tramping through a muddy quagmire. The play loses focus and momentum at times.
The three performers work hard to bring this outrageousness to life. Mr. Lane’s Gary is certainly a fool. As a man, of course he is the most important person and naturally should be in charge. Ms. Nielsen’s maid is darker, edgier, angrier and the more accomplished. She is pissed off about her station in life. The performance fuses her trademark acting style and line deliveries with a ludicrous situation. Her character is probably the heart of the play; the window through which people see how the 1% impose themselves on society.
Then there is Julie White who shows us all how to get nominated for a Tony Award. Obviously all of this talent has enabled Gary to be mounted on Broadway despite its downtown sensibility. In a big traditional venue, Taylor Mac has put our society and our artists on trial. judy cannot hear you. Listen. Laugh. And, hopefully, be inspired to create art that speaks to today’s atrocities. Dead bodies are simply a case of history repeating itself.
theaterreviewsfrommyseat/a24decadehistory/part1