MIXED REVIEW FOR THE SHOW I'M IN
Apparently, I'm no longer the man. Alas!

From the Baton Rouge Advocate:

‘Metamorphoses’ production tackles tough scenes

There are other places where this show is just an inch off. What could be a really funny scene in which Mark Jaynes as Phaeton complains to a pool-side shrink (Anna Richardson) about his sun-god dad, Ron Reeder, drags. Jaynes is a good comedic actor, but Reeder’s scat jazz accompaniment adds nothing to the scene. Richardson, good in the other roles she plays in the show, is not the actor Jaynes needs to play off in this scene. Jaynes is going 90 to nothing only to be slowed by Richardson and Reeder.

Click here for the rest.

Ouch.

While I may disagree with him, and, of course, it stings to take the brunt of this particular criticism, the reviewer does make a reasonable point. The script actually calls for Apollo to be singing Mozart's Un Aura Amorosa, an aria from his opera Cosi fan tutti. The director made the call to change it to jazz, and I had absolutely no disagreement with him when he did so. As longtime Real Art readers know, I love jazz. But we did depart quite heavily from what the playwright wrote, and that always entails certain risks. I can't help but wonder what the scene might have been like if we'd stuck with the opera stuff. Further, it's not out of bounds to assert that, even if we'd done the scene as written, there may simply be too much going on. That is, Mark's got some pretty funny speeches here, and the playwright, Mary Zimmerman, may have overplayed her hand. So this is definitely fair criticism.

It would have been nice, however, to have gotten the "good in the other roles" phrase that Anna got. Aw hell, I've gotten nailed in reviews before, and I'm sure I'll get nailed again. It's part of the job.

On the other hand, I respectfully disagree with him. At the very least, I'm having a damned good time up there, improvising and riffing on classic jazz tunes every night. A long-time New York actor who comes to see our shows gave me some good advice earlier this evening for dealing with a negative review: "Fuck him!" Heh. Really, this Advocate guy's just doing his job, calling it like he sees it, but I can't let that get to me.

So I'm going to fuck him. I hope he's a nice guy.

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