The Play’s The Thing

I am thinking (still thinking, no decision has been made) of buying a series of theater tickets for ACTs upcoming season. I’ll call it a birthday present to myself which will justify a purchase I should not be making.  It is much cheaper to subscribe to a series, so if you think about it, I am being financially responsible.  You really have to think about it to see it that way. 

The smallest package you can buy is four plays.  My first choice (which plays the week before my birthday) is The Quality of Life with Laurie Metcalf, JoBeth Williams, and Dennis Boutsikaris.  It pairs a religious mid-Western couple with a couple from my part of the globe—it stands to be an interesting ride.  Number Two is John Guare’s Rich and Famous which is described as a twisted “funhouse maze.”  I like twisted, as long as it isn’t so twisted I need someone to explain it to me (Naked Lunch comes to mind).

Another one at the top of my list is Souvenir for which Judy Kaye was nominated for a Tony award.  She is reprising her role as the lead, a (real life) socialite who despite her complete lack of vocal talent saw herself as a great diva, and somehow managed to get a gig at Carnegie Hall.  I thought Kaye was fantastic (do not tell Patti I said that) in Sweeney last year and wouldn’t mind seeing her again, and I enjoy stories about the deluded.

If you are keeping count, you will see I am up to three—I need to pick another one.  It can’t be Tom Stoppard’s Rock and Roll since that is only available in five or seven play packages.  This leaves War Music by Lillian Groag, which is based on poet Christopher Logue’s translation of The Iliad; Boleros for the Disenchanted by Jose Rivera, which seems to be about unrequited love, a machete-wielding father, and moving to America; and Peter and Jerry, a play that is comprised of Edward Albee’s The Zoo and a brand new first act which acts as a prequel to the original story. 

Edward Albee is weird, so that works for me, Boleros sounds sexy and I’m not opposed to that, and War Music would mean I could see the play rather than actually read The Iliad.  Any thoughts? 

By the way, four plays in dress circle (third best seats, or third worst depending on your outlook) are one hundred eighty-two dollars—that’s a pretty good deal with theater tickets being what they are these days.  I am looking at the order form right now, and I believe that includes all the taxes as well.  And I am just now seeing that if you buy a package, you get upgraded seats at one performance; that’s a nice bonus.   For fifty dollars less I can get tickets in the second balcony and that would make my purchase all the more responsible.  In fact, at that price, tickets to four plays would be about what I paid for my ticket to Gypsy.