19 Nov TIO NYC: “Orgy & Bess” & “Let’s Love”!
The first two of the productions on our schedule were the Heart Beat Opera’s “Orgy & Bess” (closes 11/8, but the season continues) at the Judson Memorial Church at Washington Square and The Atlantic Theater Company’s “Let’s Love,” written by Ethan Coen. Scheduled to close 11/22.
“Orgy & Bess: Deep Throats & High Notes”
Overview: Heartbeat Opera presents its 10th Annual Drag Extravaganza, an hilarious, irreverent party at the bold intersection of drag and opera! ORGY & BESS takes off from Porgy and Bess, but goes on to skewer the entire opera canon. What happens to Bess after Porgy? She stumbles from the 1920s into 2025 NYC, and the first person she meets is Cio-Cio-San from Madama Butterfly. Then it’s Lucia from Lucia di Lammermoor. As more characters travel through the magical glory hole, the orgy heats up, and Bess learns about the trap of being a trope. Together with her new sisterhood, she takes a journey to radical self-love through a whirlwind of arias and numbers from Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Norma, Lucia, Carmina Burana, Lohengrin, The Mikado, The Wiz, Rent, and more!
Thoughts: The term “drag opera” suggests a delightful collision of grandeur and camp. But rather than a joyous camp explosion, the show was fun to look at – but nearly impossible to navigate.
Why?
For one thing the seating at the Judson Memorial Church has zero elevation. So good luck if the person in front of you was wearing a feathered hat. (The audience did indeed dress for the occasion, particularly Gen X, Y & Z). Also the production was over-amped, which buried the lyrics in a tsunami of high notes – though the voices were indeed very good.
And there were moments of undeniable flair. But between the self-aware winks, the costume changes and the relentless volume, connection for us was in short supply.
What was missing was not enthusiasm — the cast gave its all, often more than the material deservesd — but coherence because the director mistook excess for expression.
Still, there was something weirdly admirable in the sheer nerve of it all.
Orgy & Bess may not quite know what it is saying, but it certainly said it loudly and campily – if not clearly.
Let’s Love
Aubrey Plaza & Chris Bauer, courtesy Deadline
One good thing we can say about “Let’s Love ” is that Audrey Plaza has fabbie legs. (Also true of the cast in “Orgy.”)
The Coen Brothers are renowned for their distinctive blend of dark humor, sharp storytelling, and genre-bending in American cinema. They are laureled for their unique artistic vision and creating timeless classics like “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski,” and the Oscar-winning “No Country for Old Men.” And their work is instantly recognizable for its quirky, literate and ironic sensibility, memorable dialogue, and exploration of themes such as fate, morality, and the absurdity of human existence.
“Let’s Love” brought that absurdity front and center – and almost gets there.
Almost…
It is a little heartbreaking when the great mind of a Coen mistakes self-amusement for wit. “Let’s Love” was meant to be a sly riff on desire and delusion, but it mostly plays like a reading of half-remembered Coen tropes stripped of their signature, pitch-perfect timing.
Yes the dialogue had that familiar Coen-clipped cleverness – but without brother Joe’s ballast (or any real directorial gravity), the rhythm breaks down into a kind of arch smirk. But rarely the belly laughs associated with Brothers Coen. It was as though Ethan was trying to prove he can still make hay with Americana without his brother’s moral compass. Instead we were left with a sketch-night parody that felt smug – and/or way too pleased with itself for its own good.
“Let’s Love” might fancy itself a send-up of cisgender dating clichés, but what it really exposes is the danger of thinking cleverness – delivered in language that would make a sailor blush – was enough to sell a show.
A pity, really since the Coen name once meant alchemy. Here, it was little more branding served up in a half-empty glass – although the cast did its best with the material and to a person was very strong.
“Let’s Love.” Not bad. Just not as good as it we have come to expect with the Coen name attached.
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