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Yesterday we did the first performance of the Summer Mini-Tour for "2010: Our Hideous Future, The Musical" in Providence, RI.
It was also my first performance as a member of the cast (except for one previous workshop performance).
For the uninitiated, 2010 is a nerdy, cyber-dystopian, queer-friendly musical romantic comedy. If that doesn't intrigue you, I don't know why we're friends.
The purpose of this post is twofold:
Purpose the First is to pitch the remaining dates of the tour, particularly Salem MA on 7/21, which is both the closest to my friends in the Boston area and the one where I think we have the fewest local connections with which to draw an audience.
Dates and tickets for Salem and NYC are here. We've also just confirmed that we will be performing at PiCon 8/17-19 in Enfield, CT (exact day/time TBA).
Purpose the Second is to talk a bit about my personal history with the show, and specifically about this most recent revision.
I was in the audience when 2010 debuted (guess what year it was), and I've been at every major performance since then. This probably makes me sound like a massive fanboy of the show, but it's actually more complicated than that. When I first saw it I thought 2010 was... a decent first musical; I left with a net-positive impression, but it was more of a cool, and ambitious thing that my friends had done than a great musical in its own right.
Actually, no, even that description is too simple. I think my main impression was that the show was inconsistent. It wasn't that it was an ok-to-good show throughout, rather the pendulum of quality swung between some pretty low lows and some remarkably high highs. And yet when I got Andy and Carl, the authors, to autograph my program and said "I suspect these may be worth something some day" I wasn't just flattering them. From the beginning I saw a lot of potential in the show; some genuine bits of diamond poking through the coal.
For example, from the moment I first saw Kamela Dolinova and Emily Taradash sing "I Don't Do Love" their characters, Kate and Dehnise, have been one of my favorite on-stage romances. Even listening to that song and that scene for the umpteenth time last night, now from backstage, I still got a little something in myremaining organic eye at the end.
Since that debut, Andy and Carl have revised the show repeatedly, and I think each time the show has gotten better. Most recently they even went so far as to hold a private read/sing through with a specially-invited audience of local writing, music, and theater types, complete with feedback forms. This resulted in the biggest rewrite yet, which is what we're currently touring.
What this all boils down to is a realization I had while listening to the show backstage at Providence. I think 2010 has now moved from diamonds in coal to being a genuinely great show. There are still things I would change or trim if it was me in charge, but in this revision the good parts got better and much of the stuff that dragged before has been revised or removed altogether, and the fact is that the audience, even people who weren't our friends, really seemed to universally dig the show. Especially if you haven't seen 2010 since its debut or the performance at Arisia'11, I think you'll see a real difference.
Of course, it's also possible that I was just in a good mood because I look pretty fab in my costume. :)
Plus, some of the folks involved in the wonderful MIT original musical Hack, Punt, Tool (sidebar: how cool is it that I have two separate groups of friends who have written and produced their own musicals??) not only drove out to Providence, but cosplayed (and lo, there was much squeeing in the dressing room during intermission)!
There was even a Narrator cosplayer! (she looks different because her costume is based on that of the original actor to play the role):
It was also my first performance as a member of the cast (except for one previous workshop performance).
For the uninitiated, 2010 is a nerdy, cyber-dystopian, queer-friendly musical romantic comedy. If that doesn't intrigue you, I don't know why we're friends.
The purpose of this post is twofold:
Purpose the First is to pitch the remaining dates of the tour, particularly Salem MA on 7/21, which is both the closest to my friends in the Boston area and the one where I think we have the fewest local connections with which to draw an audience.
Dates and tickets for Salem and NYC are here. We've also just confirmed that we will be performing at PiCon 8/17-19 in Enfield, CT (exact day/time TBA).
Purpose the Second is to talk a bit about my personal history with the show, and specifically about this most recent revision.
I was in the audience when 2010 debuted (guess what year it was), and I've been at every major performance since then. This probably makes me sound like a massive fanboy of the show, but it's actually more complicated than that. When I first saw it I thought 2010 was... a decent first musical; I left with a net-positive impression, but it was more of a cool, and ambitious thing that my friends had done than a great musical in its own right.
Actually, no, even that description is too simple. I think my main impression was that the show was inconsistent. It wasn't that it was an ok-to-good show throughout, rather the pendulum of quality swung between some pretty low lows and some remarkably high highs. And yet when I got Andy and Carl, the authors, to autograph my program and said "I suspect these may be worth something some day" I wasn't just flattering them. From the beginning I saw a lot of potential in the show; some genuine bits of diamond poking through the coal.
For example, from the moment I first saw Kamela Dolinova and Emily Taradash sing "I Don't Do Love" their characters, Kate and Dehnise, have been one of my favorite on-stage romances. Even listening to that song and that scene for the umpteenth time last night, now from backstage, I still got a little something in my
Since that debut, Andy and Carl have revised the show repeatedly, and I think each time the show has gotten better. Most recently they even went so far as to hold a private read/sing through with a specially-invited audience of local writing, music, and theater types, complete with feedback forms. This resulted in the biggest rewrite yet, which is what we're currently touring.
What this all boils down to is a realization I had while listening to the show backstage at Providence. I think 2010 has now moved from diamonds in coal to being a genuinely great show. There are still things I would change or trim if it was me in charge, but in this revision the good parts got better and much of the stuff that dragged before has been revised or removed altogether, and the fact is that the audience, even people who weren't our friends, really seemed to universally dig the show. Especially if you haven't seen 2010 since its debut or the performance at Arisia'11, I think you'll see a real difference.
Of course, it's also possible that I was just in a good mood because I look pretty fab in my costume. :)
Plus, some of the folks involved in the wonderful MIT original musical Hack, Punt, Tool (sidebar: how cool is it that I have two separate groups of friends who have written and produced their own musicals??) not only drove out to Providence, but cosplayed (and lo, there was much squeeing in the dressing room during intermission)!
There was even a Narrator cosplayer! (she looks different because her costume is based on that of the original actor to play the role):
