friday evening i had the pleasure of seeing strawdog theatre company's BIG LOVE.
what: big love by charles l. mee
where: strawdog's space, 3829 n broadway.
accompainiment: dustin!
drinkability: beer & wine for purchase at the space. wine for me, champagne of beers for him.
show length: 100 minutes, no intermission.
out of four: three and a half/four
i've been excitedly curious about this show since i got strawdog's season announcement postcard in my mailbox many many months ago and saw my talented pal michaela petro laughing wildly in a wedding dress and wielding a chainsaw. i knew nothing about this show, but i knew i couldn't miss it. so, i nabbed a couple of tickets on hottix (love me some hottix) and headed to the theatre.
big love is the story of fifty brides on the lam from greece from their fifty grooms...who also happen to be their cousins. (you can now imagine why these fifty brides have fled on their wedding day.) the 'fifty' are represented by twelve women (and conversely 12 men are their grooms) with three women mainly highlighted from their group: olympia (played by sarah goeden), thyona (played by michaela petro) & lydia (played by stacy stoltz). they stumble into the home of piero in italy who reluctantly takes them in for dinner & a promise for a short stay. soon after the grooms find their brides and come in in tuxes, demanding to be wed. thus the struggle of the show. should these brides give in and marry their grooms? should they wait for true love? should they marry at all?
the biggest thing i loved about big love was all the commentary on men vs women, marriage, love, and equality. i'm about two and a half months away from being married myself to a man whom i chose (big love's marriages are arranged sometimes even before a child is born) so it was extra interesting to not only watch the show itself but walk out and have so much to talk about.
the only confusing part to this show was the addition of songs. i most definitely wouldn't call it a musical. i almost hesitate to call it a show with music. there were a handful of songs (both original as well as mash ups of popular contemporary jams...which were definitely decided on per strawdog as 'call me maybe' was not around in 2000 when this show debuted) peppered in which definitely added to the show in an interesting way...but in the end confused me as to what their role was and why mr. mee (or simply strawdog?) chose to add them in...and not make it a musical or the songs more prevalent.
standouts for me in the show were the performances by michaela as thyona...a woman who knows what she wants (and better yet: knows what she doesn't want), clad in fishnets and military boots she urges the women around her to stand strong and isn't afraid to threaten death to any man who gets in their way. she is manipulative, smart and cunning, but when she breaks...you break with her.
her groom counterpart, constantine (played by shane kenyon) came off as a bit cheesy and overdramatic when he led the grooms on stage for the first time. he appears as a playboy who has no control over his temper & is consistently being held back by his 11 other teammates. later on in the play in an exhaustive scene with the two grooms paired with the leading females, he gets the chance to go on an exhilarating tirade of the expectations of men in the eyes of women/society. my opinion on the over-the-top-uncontrollable-unlikeable character totally shifted for me. (you know its a good sign of a good performance when dustin can sense i'm so impressed that he tells me to put my acting boner away)
the ending was sudden for me... mostly because i was left wanting more. cheers to the cast of big love and to strawdog for this show. go see it, you only have 1 more weekend.
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upcoming may shows:
saturday may 25, 7:30pm: the hypocrites' ivywild
join me, will you?
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