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Photo by Don Kellogg

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Top Girls

Let me start off by saying I completely enjoyed the acting of the gals on stage. Kudos to your talents. That's the only good thing I have to say about this train wreck on 47th and 8th.

A thoroughly painful evening at the theater. A complete turn-off and complete fraud thrust upon the audience.

I'm completely disappointed at Manhattan Theater Club's choice to present this show. At the first reading of this play Caryl Churchill they should have thrown it in the trash bin and burned it. It's revolting. It's absurd. It's unacceptably long and boring. There doesn't even seem to be a point to anything that occurred on stage the entire evening. Shame on you MTC!

MTC seems to hype this show and provide a description of the plot which doesn't even jive with what transpires on stage. Only one of the many scenes takes place at the Top Girls employment agency in London. It happens to be one of the better scenes (take them where you can get them). Is this show really about the values of the leading lady? Values?? I think not. Choices, maybe, but values? No.

When I see over 1/2 of the audience leave their seats by the end of the show (3 unbearable acts with two intermissions and over 2.5 hours!) it's usually a hint something is not kosher. But there's nothing more telling than the leading lady politely bowing, but then rolling her eyes as if to say "Oh boy, we've cleared another house again", it's only validation that even the actresses seemed to regret their decision to perform in this show.