Shining City

Imagine this. A phenomenally reviewed play, nominated for multiple Tonys, described to be like your ideal play - dark, edgy, funny, scary. It boasts stars like Oliver Platt and Brian F. O'Byrne, who can basically do no wrong on Broadway. This play could basically get away with anything, I was so excited for it. There was nothing that could turn me against it...And then I saw it. I'd like to think I had just built up so much expectation for it, that it was just disappointing. But no. It sucked. Sucked is such a harsh word. But I guess it's appropriate. Yeah, pretty much. Like after some shows, I want to run and post about it because it was so good. This one took me like four days. And I have no job. And absolutely no responsbility or anything to do during the day. Like I had to choose between posting about Shining City while watching "Password Plus" reruns on Game Show Network or just focusing 100% on "Password Plus" reruns on Game Show Network. I chose the latter. And I have TiVo. So I could have rewound if I missed anything. But no. I wouldn't even do that. It was that bad.

Okay. The basics. Plot summary: N/A. like literally. It consists of Brian F. O'Byrne talking to three different characters that really have nothing to do with each other, and bring no point to the entire play. It leads to this "shocking, horrifying twist of an ending" or something that reviewers say that apparently translates to "predictable, not scary, and basically a culmination of pointlessness." I'm sorry. I mean I only dozed off for a little bit a couple of times in one or two of the gigantically long (and pointless) monologues, but I think I pretty much caught everything. I mean if it wasn't Oliver Platt doing a wonderful job delivering the pointless monologues, I probably would have been out like a light the entire show. And that's hard to do when you're sitting in the dead center 5 rows back. I mean you can't sleep in seats like that unless the shows THAT bad.

Now people have said to me, "Really? but Brian O'Byrne was soo good." This I am not denying. Neither am I denying that Oliver Platt was good. I thought they were both excellent. I blame what they were saying. I don't know how Irish people talk for realy, but apparently everyone, no matter who they are and how different they are from each other, they say "You know" about four times a sentence, which I believe is MORE than my humanities professor freshman year, who only said it twice a sentence, or about 133 times a lecture (I tried to contain myself and did not count them during the show). And anyway, in the case of the younger boy, it wasn't really "You know," it was more "Yoo Gnaoooww," which made it hard to count or pay attention or not cover your ears and cringe in annoyance. Apparently Irish accent = Nasal accent in some acting schools.

Am I being mean? Maybe. But whatever, every other reviewer gave it rave reviews, so it can deal. I mean, it did build me up for nothing. And it did suck. So I guess I don't feel too bad. So yeah, not such a Shining City. Switch the starts of those words around. Much better. Now, you may like it, just like all those reviewers. But if not, don't say I didn't warn you.