{"id":100948,"date":"2019-10-11T00:25:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T04:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/male-mediocrity-goes-to-seed-in-linda-vista-review\/"},"modified":"2019-10-11T00:25:25","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T04:25:25","slug":"male-mediocrity-goes-to-seed-in-linda-vista-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/male-mediocrity-goes-to-seed-in-linda-vista-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Male Mediocrity Goes to Seed in \u2018Linda Vista\u2019: REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

Male Mediocrity Goes to Seed in \u2018Linda Vista\u2019: REVIEW<\/b><\/p>\n

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A man<\/a> is breaking up with a woman<\/a> over dinner. She\u2019s a life coach, and he is \u2014 to use a label he hates but is most accurate \u2014 a hot mess. \u201cYou don\u2019t listen to me,\u201d he says callously. And yet, up to this point the audience has, for nearly two hours, listened to him say things like, \u201cI\u2019m kind of a snob. I like old Hollywood movies,\u201d and, \u201cI don\u2019t like many modern bands, or old bands\u2026 I like jazz,\u201d and let\u2019s not forget, \u201cWhere was I when Ali MacGraw was addicted to sex<\/a>?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This man<\/a> is (as you may have guessed) white, middle-aged, and newly divorced. As the protagonist of Linda Vista<\/em>, which opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes tonight, he\u2019s difficult to root for, and not just because he embodies so many cliches as to seem like the product of a dude-bro formula (add misanthropy and subtract stable female<\/a> companion). That he\u2019s also a failed photographer and waxes righteous about objectivity seems an absurd irony for a character whose head is so firmly planted up his own ass<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And maybe that\u2019s the point. A man<\/a>\u2019s journey to self-realization \u2014 through divorce, sex<\/a> with multiple women<\/a>, a locker room chat<\/a> with what seems like his only friend \u2014 could be a worthy, if wholly unoriginal plot. Men, particularly those who fit this description, are having a rough time of it lately. But playwright Tracy Letts isn\u2019t offering an indictment of misogyny, nor (thankfully) is he leading some misguided rehabilitation tour. If anything, Linda Vista<\/em> feels like the play form of a male<\/a> ego sucking its thumb (or self-pleasuring another appendage). No surprise then, that it\u2019s dramatically DOA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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For this to be a believable story about a man<\/a> (this one played by Ian Barford) who by the end learns something about himself and the world, the women<\/a> with whom he interacts would have to be, well\u2026 women<\/a>. Here they are foils, sometimes of questionable self-respect and almost always in distress, who are inexplicable as characters outside of the function they serve along his way. The one he cruelly dumps in public (Cora Vander Broek) begins as a blind date in a karaoke bar, where she responds to his broad denunciation of popular music by saying, \u201cYou have a strong point of view. And the ability to express it. That\u2019s impressive.\u201d Is it though?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The women<\/a> of Linda Vista<\/em> (named for the San Diego apartment complex in and around which it\u2019s set) have a habit of making pronouncements the playwright suggests are true while his text plainly proves they are not. Take the man<\/a>\u2019s much younger neighbor (Chantal Thuy) with pink hair and boy<\/a> problems, who winds up crashing on his couch and, eventually, incredibly, falling into bed with him. \u201cThis is not your wet dream. And I\u2019m not a doll, I\u2019m not a sweet Asian flower,\u201d she says afterward, as if hedging on Letts behalf against the fact that all of the above are true. How else to explain why she moves in, decides to keep her ex-boyfriend\u2019s baby, and raise it with a man<\/a> she clocked as a deadbeat the first time they met?<\/p>\n

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Linda Vista<\/em>, originally produced at the Steppenwolf in Chicago, Letts\u2019 creative home, is difficult to square. His Tony and Pulitzer-winning play August: Osage County<\/em> teems with indomitable, broken-down, fiery female<\/a> characters. His most recent, Mary Page Marlowe<\/em>, follows one woman<\/a> through decades of her life in attempting to see her from every angle. (As an actor, he even played Lady Bird\u2019s dad!) \u201cVista\u201d is defined as, \u201ca view or prospect, especially one seen through a long, narrow avenue or passage.\u201d Masculine myopia certainly seems like a fair diagnosis, but it doesn\u2019t just afflict the protagonist. As director Dexter Bullard\u2019s production continues to rotate on itself, the feeling that both play and playwright are running in place is hard to escape.<\/p>\n

Recent theatre features\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
Beyond the Breaking Point in \u2018Slave Play\u2019 and \u2018Heroes of the Fourth Turning\u2019: REVIEW<\/a><\/em><\/strong>
Broadway\u2019s \u2018Moulin Rouge!\u2019 Is a Dystopian Glitter Bomb of Empty Excess: REVIEW<\/a><\/strong><\/em>
At First I Didn\u2019t Think \u2018Fairview\u2019 Was for Me: REVIEW<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
Broadway\u2019s Sensational \u2018Hadestown\u2019 Wrenches Myth into Modern Times: REVIEW<\/em><\/strong><\/a>
Temptations Musical \u2018Ain\u2019t Too Proud\u2019 Makes a Play for Soul on Broadway: REVIEW<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

photos by joan marcus<\/p>\n

The post Male Mediocrity Goes to Seed in \u2018Linda Vista\u2019: REVIEW<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Male Mediocrity Goes to Seed in ‘Linda Vista’: REVIEW<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n