It’s less hot, but we are still under a pollution action warning, and we’re well into the orange. Not the idyllic summer days we might have imagined.
Not the timeline we might have imagined either, but that’s another thing.
But before we get to any other of the other things, thank you so much, TellusTales, for the coffees! They were a day brightener for sure, even through the haze of whatever that is outside. I also only just realized I wasn’t following you. Story of my life. Who knew?! Anyway, thank you, so very much appreciated!
And back to Monday, as we must.
This weekend, I went to see Iceboy! With some friends and my dad, and as I started writing about it I realized I didn’t ask if the friends mind being mentioned so I’ll leave it at that and let them speak up if they want to.
It was, perhaps, the most bizarre musical I have ever seen, one I would almost say was absurdist. And yet there were times I genuinely could not stop laughing from the oddness of it all.
Here’s the description from The Goodman Theater:
A musical 40,000 years in the making.
Broadway’s brightest star of 1939, Vera Vimm (Megan Mullally/Will & Grace), is at the top of her game—until she adopts a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal discovered frozen in the Arctic. As Iceboy thaws, he unexpectedly becomes a theatrical sensation, inspiring Eugene O’Neill (Nick Offerman/Parks and Recreation) and challenging Vera for center stage.
I. Mean.
The cast was utterly spectacular, and also included Cedric Yarbrough, whose familiar face was a surprise to me when he arrived on stage. They often let Megan Mullally sing in things, including Bob’s Burgers, but what a voice when she gets to give it her all.
Anyway, we went to a matinee, which was so fantastic because we still had a meal out and a show and an evening left when that was done. I may be a convert.
And it felt so…normal. Even with the rain that stopped just in time, even with the pollution warning. All until the waiter at the restaurant said that a lot had changed since the pandemic, they no longer had a theater prix fixe, they’d made other changes.
And I think it included the food.
It reminded me how long it’s been since I sat in a theater.
So it was normal and not normal, a mixing of two worlds, the beforetimes and the after, a world quite literally on fire and the earlier time it was merely smoldering.
The planet’s changed, we’ve changed, and maybe that’s why the idea of a 40,000 year old caveman defrosted into 1939 felt so…weirdly relatable? In the least likely sort of way?
The world was on a precipice, it’s hard to ignore the choice of framing, even if the work on this play started quite some time ago.
The world is on precipice and some of us are only now waking up to it.
If you are in Chicago or near Chicago or heading to Chicago, I’d absolutely recommend it, if you can get in, and while seeing Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman was spectacular, I wouldn’t let it hold you back from seeing the show in the dates Nick isn’t there. Everyone in that cast is outstanding.
Iceboy! is not something that can be explained, it has to be experienced. I felt a kinship with the writers, truth be told, because I now know it’s not just me who becomes amused by her own what ifs.
Some people stage an entire musical.
Anyway, that’s it for me on this bleary Monday, I hope you have a great start to your week.
A Bit to Read 
Leave a comment