Kotas Reviews RED

Went to a play last night called RED. It is a semi-fictional tale about the painter Mark Rothko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko) and an unnamed assistant who works with him for two years while Rothko is completing a collection of paintings intended to hang in the Four Seasons restaurant. Yes, this is a 90 minute play with two characters who discuss abstract expressionistic art. Some folks might suppose this was not up my alley. Some folks would be ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.

My father-in-law expressed the opinion that it was going to be nothing but pretentious garbage about what “art” is and the like. Let me tell you, the first two thirds of this play were exactly that. The assistant is introduced when he walks in for his first day, and is stopped at the doorway for a few seconds while Rothko observes his current work (http://artobserved.com/artimages/2010/03/Mark-Rothko-Black-on-Maroon-Mural-Section-3-1959-The-Seagram-Murals-.jpg). A couple of seconds pass, and then Rothko gestures him in, and gives him the run down on what it means to work here. In short, Rothko is kind of a dick.

The next hour unfolds as we watch Rothko berate his assistant about “not really knowing art” and getting mad at stuff for no reason other than he is a disturbed asshole. The assistant seems pretty upbeat through most of it, though there is a completely unnecessary side story about how the assistant’s parents were murdered that attempts to inject sympathy and pathos into the tale but fails miserably. At this point I noticed my father-in-law looking at his watch and attempting to summon the courage to walk out of the place. I would have been right behind him.

Suddenly, there is a solid 15 minute scene where the assistant finally snaps (after Rothko insults artists in the style of pop art, like Andy Warhol and his contemporaries) and calls Rothko, in a beautifully crafted rant, an old irrelevant pretentious sellout. I was fucking STUNNED. First, this was a high quality rant in and of itself and second, it encapsulated all my thoughts about the character of Rothko better than I could have myself. The play only has 15 minutes to go, and the tale is wrapped up with Rothko refusing to sell the paintings to the Four Seasons and firing the assistant to go “find his own place in the world”, for...uh...reasons. I was still in shock from the rant.

The acting was pretty good, though the actors were essentially just doing the best with what they had. Overall, I give it 1 smiley face on a scale of 5 frowny faces to 5 smiley faces. I really didn’t like the play much at all, but that rant at the 60 minute mark was really, really well done. I also kind of like the paintings they displayed, even though I normally dislike abstract art. And hey, it gave me something to talk about!

Kotas Reviews Cirque De Solei's "O"

I finally went to a show in Vegas. Dave's business partner got us a pretty damn good deal on tickets to see Cirque de Solei's "O" at the Bellagio. The discounted ticket was $100, which was not quite half off, but close to it. This should give you an idea as to how much the show cost (I was originally quoted $180).

The show was held at the Bellagio, so we got there early, hoping to grab some dinner before the show. We ended up in some food court area full of overly fancily named places that essentially translated to "adequate food at ridiculous prices!". It wasn't bad, but I don't think I got my money's worth. We eventually moved into the theater proper. Our seats were in an upper balcony along the long edge of the theater, meaning we had a good view of the lower theater seats a well as a high angled view of the stage. Dave, who had seen this show before, said that he liked these seats, because they do a lot of stuff in the theater seat area and he couldn't see any of it before. We were to have an excellent view of these shenanigans.

The show opens with a couple of clowns dressed as sailors (sort of) doing a routine where they push a giant life preserver around the audience. That's kind of fun. The show then starts to spin up as they send in some acrobats and performers to interact with the audience as a elaborate contraption is lowered from the ceiling into the middle of the arena, so a single acrobat can do a neat routine while suspended from it. Then they select a victim from the audience to pull up on stage to read the opening "turn of yo damn cell phone and no cameras" announcement. Then he gets yanked behind the curtain and the show begins!

I will not spoil the majority of the show, but it was absolutely fucking incredible. The acrobats were simply a joy to watch as they flipped, dove, and swung from various contraptions. The contortionists were mind boggling, and Todd commented that they were the best he's seen. The really awesome thing was the stage. For most of the show, it was UNDERWATER. That's right, the stage converted into a 10 ft. pool at times. From our vantage point we could see divers (in FULL DIVING GEAR) moving out of hidden tunnels to do various things and keep the performers safe and sound. They even showed up on stage at one point, for some reason. The story line of the show was...confusing to say the least. There were several "got ya" moments including some really long dives into the pool from somewhere above the stage, lots of flips and dives into the water...and then the stage would drain in a few minutes, leaving an almost entirely dry surface in about 20 seconds for the performers to skitter over...and then it would turn into the pool again!

I loved this show. It was probably the absolute peak of my vacation in Vegas. I give it a well deserved 5 smiley faces on a scale of 5 frowny faces to 5 smiley faces, and I recommend that anyone who travels to Vegas see that show, or one of the many other shows that they have running.