Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig sighting

Because I paid for it and went to their play, A Steady Rain. Haha - gotcha *makes hands into the shapes of guns and alternates shooting you with each. Pew pew.*

Yesterday morning I went down to 45th street to "rush" A Steady Rain. This means I waited in front of the theater to buy student rush tickets (deeply discounted tickets to Broadway shows for students). I got there at 8:00 and was the first in line, joined about 10 minutes later by a fellow rusher. The line slowly grew after that. For two hours I sat on the lovely sidewalk, leaned against the building, and waited, proofreading two full chapters and watching Broadway wake up.

For this show student tickets were the last row of the mezzanine, which didn't hurt my feelings since I was getting Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig for $30.00. Much to my straight-female delight, the seats were good because the theater was small. We were in the center by the aisle, the premium student-rush seats awarded to the first in line (who could have slept in a little longer and still gotten tickets). Even in the back we could still see Joey's (Daniel Craig) eyes shift, see Denny's (Hugh Jackman's) (fake) tatoo, and see Hugh Jackman's angry face - my favorite Hugh Jackman face. And his character swore a lot, which was hot.

When given the option between character or plot, I'll always choose character. Ninety-two percent of the time I don't care what people do but why they do what they do. So, knowing that this play was just two dudes sitting in chairs and telling us a story, I was looking forward to a character-driven play. However, the story they tell is mostly plot-driven - they are cops after all, society's bastions of who cares why they did just that they did it and we can prove it. Joey and Denny's tellings of the story(ies) reveals character, of course, but because they tell us right out what motivated them to do what they did. What's the fun in that? Dear writer, let me figure it out so I can feel smart and intuitive! Joey's choices lent to some speculation, and Lenny's verbosity contained some subtext (dear writer, I love subtext), but it wasn't too hard to smoke out.

No writer is obligated to write complicated characters because not all characters are complicated, so my desire for more to "figure out" about Joey and Denny in A Steady Rain is more a reflection on me than on the writer. The play was not simple, though my postplay reflections probably make Denny and Joey more complicated than the writer intended. (But they are mine now, dear writer; you gave them to me. I may even throw in some homoeroticism.) But when reading a story or watching a television show/movie/play, I don't spend so much time wondering whether or not characters will have sex or kill someone or graduate high school but why they do or don't do these things. That's the fun part. I know, I'm so deep.

As expected the acting was astral, of the stars. (See? So deep.) James Bond didn't show up for a second. Daniel Craig was great as Joey, shoulders slumped, a higher voice, weak eyes. Hugh Jackman did a better job of remembering us up in the balcony, but this could be because Denny was more showy. Yeah, let's go with that. Wolverine didn't show up per se, but Denny had fits of anger worthy of Wolverine but far less complicated and minus claws. Yes, Wolverine/Logan's anger is more complicated than Denny's, but Hugh Jackman's angry face is the same. Yessss. I liked the directing (my favorite being when Denny stood in the dark while Joey talked), the lighting, and the few backgrounds that were used as the story progressed. I liked that it was a straight, no-intermission, ninety-minute show. I liked that twice the audience gasped in unison. I liked Denny's colorful descriptions of the world's bad things and people. I liked the Chicago accents they both successfully donned (epecially Daniel Craig). I liked the play. I'd watch it again.

In theory I'd actually like to see it played by American, not distractingly attractive actors, for what the deep people call verisimilitude. If they play were cast this way, however, on Broadway it would not be. If in real life I'm going to see it again, I'm going to watch Hugh and Daniel on Broadway. Now to figure out where can I cut $30 from next month's budget . . .