{"id":3012,"date":"2011-02-10T12:54:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T16:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/?p=3012"},"modified":"2011-02-10T12:54:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T16:54:00","slug":"theatre-33-variations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/theatre-33-variations\/","title":{"rendered":"THEATRE: 33 VARIATIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"

33 VARIATIONS<\/em><\/h1>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I got the opportunity to see Jane Fonda perform in person, I jumped at the chance. Here\u2019s a woman I aspire to look like when I grow-up (which means I better get cracking on her old school exercise vids!,) and I wanted to witness her up-close and personal for inspiration. And her looks, especially her thin frame, did not disappoint. Unfortunately, the play did.<\/p>\n

Judging by the reactions of the opening night audience, though, my friend and I were in the minority for not enjoying 33 Variations <\/em>at the Ahmanson Theatre. I felt like the little girl I used to be when my parents took us to oh so many Broadway and other productions, and I just could not understand what was moving the assemblage so. (In this case, there was much hearty laughter throughout and a roaring standing ovation at the curtain. Who are all these intellectuals and from whence did they come?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

All photos by Craig Schwartz.<\/p><\/div>\n

That being said, I was thrilled to see Jane Fonda, a true show business icon, live on stage for the first time in my life! (Until she started this play almost two years ago, she had not been on Broadway for almost half a century!) And even though she lived in Santa Monica at one time, I never saw her in person, period. I\u2019ve even run into Elizabeth Taylor <\/em>at the pharmacy, for goodness sake!<\/p>\n

So, for that reason alone, you might want to take a gander at this play. But that, and the very interesting Tony Award-winning set designed by Derek McLane, are the only two reasons to see it, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

As depressing as the topic is, (a woman scholar is deteriorating from ALS while researching Beethoven, her life\u2019s passion,) the only depression I felt was that the second act was never-ending. As much as I dread anything to do with death, I was secretly wishing she would go already, so we could, too\u2026out of the theatre. (Shameful of me, I know.) I was also wishing that Beethoven had composed only twenty<\/em> variations.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, though, I would just close my eyes to hear that famous Jane Fonda speech pattern that I\u2019ve always found so satisfying since I was a little girl; it\u2019s kind-of like she\u2019s trying to hold something in her mouth, and it\u2019s just really rich, full speech. It always fascinated me, and there it was, live! I felt fortunate for that experience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The only tad bit interesting thing about the actual <\/em>play, though, to me, is the juxtaposition of the two worlds–Fonda\u2019s musicologist\u2019s disease and strained relationship with her daughter, and Beethoven and his assistant wrangling with composing thirty-three variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli back in the early 1800s in Vienna. The latter storyline, though, made me feel like I needed to run out in the middle of the play to go back to music appreciation class to understand just what the heck was going on!!!<\/p>\n

My suggestion is to do some research on the topic before you go to the Ahmanson. I\u2019m not kidding. I try to never even know the subject of plays and movies before I see them because I want to just experience them as they are, but this time I was regretting that decision a little. All I knew beforehand was that it was Jane Fonda and the Ahmanson Theatre and those two were draws enough for me. But a little Beethoven back-story would have helped a lot here.<\/p>\n

The question that kept coming into my head all night was–why would anyone choose to produce this play? I\u2019m sure there are many wonderful scripts out there that make this seem like such an odd choice. Half the time, we were watching someone do music research, which is akin to the proverbial paint-drying. (I did enjoy the same author\u2019s, Moises Kaufman, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar <\/em>Wilde about a decade ago at the Mark Taper Forum, so I could not have guessed how boring his writing would be this time.)<\/p>\n

Hey, speaking of paint, I did love the set! Very clever, and with basically no color. It gave me something to occupy my mind during particularly boring scenes–wondering just how they did it all. If there had been the usual after-party, the set designer is the individual I\u2019d head straight for to give him kudos in person. [Note: I usually say \u201cprops,\u201d meaning \u201ckudos,\u201d but in this case, you guys might think I was talking about giving the guy actual set props, so I went with \u201ckudos.\u201d]<\/p>\n

And speaking of loving the set, I absolutely hated <\/em>the basically colorless wardrobe choices! The daughter is supposed to be a costume designer, but I\u2019ve never seen nerdier clothing on a stage character. Little Orphan Annie was put together hipper than this poor woman. The dark purple tights with a horrible flowered dress, with not a hint of any purple hue anywhere on it, by the way, accompanied by shoes that actually made me a little nauseated, was the worst outfit.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, there was an absolutely lovely touch of having an outstanding pianist, Diane Walsh, to the side of the stage, performing many of these variations as the show went along. Just beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I hesitate to voice this criticism, so that\u2019s why I saved it till the end. Here goes: I was not blown away by any of the performances. The three actors in the old school segments (Zach Grenier, Don Amendolia, and Grant James Varjas,) were working pretty hard, especially Mr. Grenier, but I felt that the modern-day cast was sort-of phoning it in. When I realized early on that Ms. Fonda\u2019s character had Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease, I was wishing I had worn waterproof mascara because I was anticipating a performance akin to Daniel Day-Lewis\u2019 in My Left Foot<\/em>, (a film whose topic I also didn\u2019t know going in. How shocked was I in that <\/em>movie theatre???) But I felt nothing for her worsening condition nor her relationship with her daughter nor her musical revelation. Nada, nil, nothing. That made me sadder than the story did, although I was glad that my eye make-up stayed-put.<\/p>\n

On a happier note, it was very interesting to see Jane\u2019s little bro, Peter Fonda, sitting just a couple of rows in front of me! I loved that! And Anjelica Huston passed right by me at the valet parking, post-show.<\/p>\n

I have a feeling that no matter when you go see it, there will always be a celeb or two joining you to pay their respects to one of the most famous actresses of our time.<\/p>\n

33 Variations<\/em> running through March 6, 2011
\nAhmanson Theatre 135 N. Grand Ave. 213-972-4400 www.CenterTheatreGroup.org<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

33 VARIATIONS \u00a0 When I got the opportunity to see Jane Fonda perform in person, I jumped at the chance. Here\u2019s a woman I aspire to look like when I grow-up (which means I better get cracking on her old school exercise vids!,) and I wanted to witness her up-close and personal for inspiration. And<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-theater-to-events-to-the-circus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}