See What Dazrazzle Sees

This past Thursday, the sublime Dazrazzle and I attended one of the last performances of See What I Want to See, a two-act play based on the stories of Ryunosuke Akutagawa, at the East Village’s Public Theater. The production starred, among others, Idina Menzel, who won a Tony as the Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked and played Maureen in both the Broadway and recent film productions of RENT. Although it made perfect sense, Daz and I were quite startled to have an A-grade celebrity sighting at the show and as a shameless media/gossip junkie I began to compose a mental checklist immediately upon recognition for my very first Gawker Stalker entry. Friday morning I sat down at my desk at 8:30 on the nose and drafted a succinct summary of the encounter:

I was standing outside the Public Theater last night around 7:45 talking to a friend about RENT, the movie, waiting to see one of the final performances of See What I Want to See featuring Idina Menzel (Maureen from RENT) when Rosario Dawson walked past us and into the theater to support her co-star. My friend had just finished dispensing her opinion that "Rosario was obviously the weakest voice in the cast." Smooth timing on that. The big-screen Mimi was simply dressed in jeans and knee-high shearling boots and has an absolutely beautiful face. She was also sporting funky black hipster frames à la Colin Meloy and a chic, short haircut. She was very laid back and friendly and seemed to know a lot of people working at the theater.

I left out the part about Daz’s constant hyperventilating (“Stacey, I’m still a bridge-and-tunneler. I’m not used to this!”) and our hushed bathroom gossiping about the absence of Jason Lewis (only to find Miss Dawson at the end of the bathroom line - again, the timing...). Those tidbits I planned on reserving for the elite members of my blog readership circle. Turns out that my Gawker posting may be viewed only by the eyes of Miss Stacia fans as well because Gawker’s server keeps rejecting my damn email. So much for my Gawker Stalking dreams.

A few words about the show: Daz and I bought tickets the day of (for only $25! God bless the undated student ID…) and ended up with partial-view seats that were actually pretty amazing. The theater is a high, open space with a rectangular stage, flanked by the audience on three sides. Daz and I sat stage right, second row and our view was blocked only by a slim and fairly navigable support pole. Until the start of the second act that is.

The two acts opened with Idina and her lover in traditional Japanese robes seductively singing, purring and groping through numbers called “Kesa” and “Morito” (referring to the lovers’ names). Each song opened with the title character fondly describing to the audience the night on which he/she “kissed my lover for the last time,” and built to a striking climax in which passion and life peak and die in the same instant. These happened to be my favorite numbers of the show, partially because of the bewitching melody and flawless vocal performance of the actors, partially because of the passionately executed, sexual choreography (Side note to Idina: I’ve never seen anyone perform on his/her back with such impressive range. Bravo.). While singing, Kesa and Morito entangled their bodies on top of two deep rouge curtains that hung from the back corner of one side of the ceiling and draped forward diagonally across the stage, underneath the actors' twisted bodies. The effect of the fabric was quite dramatic, suggestive of bold, simplistic Eastern aesthetics when hung, and fluid as a bloodstained river when yanked down at the end of each act’s opening song. Too bad Daz and I were caught behind the curtain at the beginning of the second act. Hence the true nature of the partial-view classification:




The blockage only lasted a couple minutes and was probably even preferable to the raunchiness of Kesa and Morito’s forbidden liaison for the Daz who, unlike her crude companion, tends to get a bit squirmy around such displays. But most of the partial-view crew was less than thrilled by the crimson partition, however temporary. As the curtains were hoisted to the ceiling in front of us during intermission Daz’s flamboyant and overly social neighbor cracked a groan-worthy, “Instead of See What I Want To See, they should call this play, Can't See What I Want To See.” Har har har.

The rest of the night was chock full of the usual amusements including a barrage of quips from Daz about her heritage (“I feel ashamed. What Jew hasn’t seen Fiddler?”), her out-of-control Law and Order addiction (“I think I recognize that guy from Law and Order! Oh my god it says here the other guy was on Law and Order too! I’ve totally seen that episode!”), and her uncontrollable disgust at one actor’s inability to control his body’s various secretions (“He spits on EVERY syllable Stacey.”).

To be fair: The spitting actor – who also starred in both Mighty Ducks sequel blockbusters, D2 and D3 – could not get a sound out without projectile spitting all over his audience and co-stars. Not to mention the disturbingly sweaty (as in dripping onto his partner’s bare chest) sex scene. Poor wet, slimy Idina.