Disenchanted

[kevin_standlee]

After work yesterday, I parked the RV in my usual overnight parking spot, walked over to the light rail station, and caught a train heading for downtown. I had a ticket for the 7:30 PM show at 3Below Theatre of Disenchanted, a musical about Disney Princesses — but one that does warn people that it's probably not a great idea to bring small children, because it deals with the less-glamorous aspects of "happily ever after."

I was afraid that I would end up missing the curtain (and glad that I'd caught one train earlier than the scheduler told me that I needed) because for reasons I never quite determined, VTA closed light rail and terminated our inbound train at Metro/Airport. The driver promised that a bus bridge would be set up, but when I saw how many people were already waiting, I figured I'd better start walking. (A light rail train carries a lot more people than a bus, despite what a bunch of people seem to think.) By the time I made it to the next station south (Gish, which was once my "local" when I lived around the corner), trains had started running again, so I caught the next one going my way and made it with plenty of time to spare.



Here's the set as seen when walking into the theatre.



The view from my seat in row D, just before I shut off my phone before the show started.

It was a fun production, with some entertaining performances and laughs, but also some zingers in there about "the princess complex" and what a negative message it ends up sending to women. I was particularly taken by Natasha Drena's turn as Sleeping Beauty, whose number "Perfect" sent the message that you're perfect just the way you are.



As usual with 3Below productions, the cast came out and chatted with the audience in the lobby. I was at the back of the queue, but just before she escaped to the dressing room, I talked with Shannon Guggenheim (here in her Little Mermaid costume, but whose turn as a stern German Rapunzel was a hoot) for a couple of minutes. I told her that if I hadn't seen her in daylight when I was one of those who volunteered to help haul the old RetroDome's stuff into storage, I might have thought she was a vampire, because every photo I've ever tried to take of her with me has come out all blurry. This time, however, I was able to ask the person who took it to hold still until the button on the phone's screen stopped spinning (part of the low-light detection) and the picture came out. (I reciprocated by taking photos of the woman who took mine for me.)

As ever, my thanks to Shannon, Scott, and now Lily Guggenheim (their daughter, credited as Assistant Director on the production), the performers (I thanked as many of them as I could, including one of the musicians) and all of the rest of the people at 3Below who worked to make another fine entertaining show. I even stopped to thank the sound engineer for not over-blowing the sound. Too many people seem to take a "We may not be good, but we're loud" attitude, and I'm glad he wasn't one of them.

If you're within reach of 3Below (it was where Worldcon 76's film program was held, if that helps you find it), you have two more chances (tonight and then tomorrow) to catch it before it closes. I'm very glad that my medical appointments, work schedule, and SFSFC board meeting attendance could all be rolled together to make it possible for me to see this show.

I definitely wasn't disappointed by Disenchanted.

Comments

[garyomaha]

Sounds like fun. Your thanking everyone reminded me of what we always try to do at stage musicals, and that's hang around until the very end of the closing music by the band/orchestra, when we (and often a small group of others who stick around) give them a hearty round of applause to show our appreciation.

Yes, we also often stay until the last moment of a movie, too. I wonder when the mad dash began at movies and most live shows to exit, as if "FIRE!" was the final word on the screen before the credits.

[kevin_standlee]

I try to thank everyone who works on our Match Game SF shows as well, although sometimes we do a poor job of getting names as we rush to set up, and therefore they don't make it into the closing titles. I'm fully aware that in this sort of thing, the people on stage are only part of the iceberg, and that without all of the other people working invisibly, the magic never happens. Now I've got it down to a formula that I use in all of my shows so that I don't forget it, but it doesn't mean that I take anyone for granted. It's always an astonishment for me when it all comes together.

I do very much wish we could have figured out a way to do a Match Game show at Worldcon 76, because I had a tentative acceptance from Shannon for her to appear as a panelist. (Which would be easy for her because she'd done it during The Game Show Show and that stuff is not totally scripted and had to be improvised.) I wanted to show her my own performance, of which I am fairly proud after years of doing the shows. Game show hosting is easier than theatrical acting to me (remembering lines is not my strong suit), but not everyone can do it. People who only know me from chairing Business Meetings and such have been known to react in astonishment that I can do this sort of semi-improvisational comedy.