Monday, February 9, 2009

Wait, Tennessee Williams is funny?

Over the weekend, I saw A Streetcar Named Desire at the Walnut Street Theatre... and it was WONDERFUL! Streetcar is one of my favorite plays (not my favorite... Vieux Carre is my favorite... it's okay that you've never heard of it. It's not a well-known Tennessee Williams play. One of his first.) and my college did it while I was there. When my college did it...I was amazed by the acting abilities of my peers and thought it was so incredibly well done, and such a heart-wrenching serious piece of theatre.

And then I saw it at the Walnut...and laughed. A lot. I never laughed at this play in college. I never laughed at it when I read it a dozen times. I never saw this play as funny...but it is. It's really really funny. The actor who played Stanley is unbelievable and I've seen him in probably a dozen plays in Philly. Most recently (besides Streetcar) I saw him at the Arden Theatre in Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. The range of this guy is incredible. If someone had told me that Jeff Coons was in Streetcar, I would have said "Oh, is he playing Steve?" not "Oh, is he playing Stanley?" But he was amazing as Stanley.

The only downfall of the evening was the box office. I've never really had a bad experience at The Walnut, except that time that I almost got into a fist fight with this woman, but she was a patron not someone who worked there. So that's different. I am a season ticket holder and had my tickets switched from Saturday matinee (because I had a knitting class that day) to Friday evening. I was told that i needed to pick them up at the theatre, because it was too late to mail them. Which was fine by me since my father's address is the address listed on the subscription and he lives in Jersey. I went to will call to get my tickets, and he curmedgeon in the box office said "What makes you think that your tickets are here?" To which I responded with, "The person I spoke with on Tuesday told me that it was too late to mail them and that I had to pick them up at the box office prior to the show. I have my original tickets with me, would you like them?" I just couldn't believe that someone who worked for the Walnut would be so rude to a person that they know is a subscriber! A little hint... you want to keep your season ticket holders since not a lot of people are going to the theatre anymore. It's probably not a good idea to be very rude to your subscribers, because they might not be subscribers any more.

Luckily, the rude box office guy wasn't enough to ruin my evening. My friend Deb and I had a lovely dinner in a little Chinese restaurant on Walnut that looks a little strange on the outside, but has very good food. And we had a lovely time at the play itself. And I got to see my friend Megan who works at the Walnut. All in all, a nice date night with my friend. She really needed a night out, anyway.

5 comments:

Joanie said...

I'm glad you invited Deb to go with you! Sorry the box office person was a dickhead though. Now I want to hear about the woman you almost got into a fight with. (I know I ended with a preposition but I didn't know how to word it correctly :) )

Unknown said...

That would be "I want to hear about the woman with whom you almost got into a fight." TECHNICALLY that's gramatically correct, even though to us Philadelphians it sounds weird. We like to end sentences with "with" and I'll continue to do it.

becklette said...

hey, man, fight or no fight-- we had FUN!

so, i take it you didn't see jeff coons as charles lindberg? cause if you told me jeff coons was in streetcar, i'd say "oh, he's stanley?"

Jenny Girl said...

Ack that guy was an idiot!
Glad you had a wonderful evening.

Joanie said...

OK, so you corrct my grammar (thank you for that), but you don't tell me about your almost fist fight? What's up with that? Spill!
my word verification is fucom... hmmmmmm