If you act fast enough you can (maybe?) see this musical
I didn't read enough news or essays during GDC to have a things-I-read list to post today, but I did see a musical last night when I got back to LA... so if you're in LA today, and you act fast enough, maybe you could see it too??
It was Shipping: A Musical. It's a comedy musical about a woman on Nantucket in the 1800s who refuses to live by society's rules and would therefore rather become a whale. This is, of course, despite the fact that her entire society's economy is whaling-based. There is a very strong queer read to the thing, but it operates almost completely on the level of Jokes Only and tries to walk the tightrope of both being earnest and subverting its own earnestness relentlessly. The whole thing is extremely silly and very dense with gags, both of the dialogue variety and the physical comedy variety... it has a pretty deranged energy!
It's a very new show - apparently the one we attended last night was only the Third Show Ever. The first two performances were at the same theater last year. A friend of ours who saw it back then begged a bunch of us to see it with them this time around, partially because the play is so odd that they found it difficult to even describe to people.
I don't want to say too much about it in case any of you get a chance to see it someday... it might be the first musical I've seen in my life which genuinely surprised me! I really enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me a lot of the energy that we brought to a lot of camp activities back when I worked as a counselor at a camp for diabetic girls. This is a very deep compliment coming from me!
It's at the Elysian Theater and you can get tickets here. There's a show today, Sunday, at 3, and another at 7:30. I'm writing this at 12:14 AM and as far as I can tell there are still some tickets for sale.