April 12nd 2009
By: toto_too514
Picture: toto_too514
Edited by: Marcy

It's now after 1:00 in the morning, but I wanted to write something about the play while it is still fresh in my mind. If anyone else is planning on seeing the play there will be spoilers!

Now, for those of you that don't know me, I am very much a left brain kind of thinker. I tend be very logical in my appraoch and can describe to you what happened in some detail but if you want to discuss the deeper meanings of the play, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for someone more qualified than me to see it!

First, the nudity in the play does not involve Randy. It takes place in ACT I in a sauna scene b/ Jules and Gray.
Second, the rape scene does involve Randy and Olympia Dukakis.

The stage is a mass of sliding scenery, done mostly in grey and very minimalistic. Stage hands are seen sliding scenery on to and off of the main stage.

Olympia Dukakis is enters first, seated at the rear of the stage. All the other actors enter at the same time in a chaotic scene where everyone runs into each other.
Randy, as Laszlo, enters from a door on the right side of the stage. He is leaving for work, dressed in black boots, black pants that puff out at the sides, a black leather jacket and a scarf that his boyfriend Oliver puts on him. His hair is combed up and forward.

He bumps into, Gray - Jonathan Groff's character - causing him to drop the scraps of paper he is carrying. Randy/Laszlo gives him dirty look!
When we next see him he is dressed in his Starbuck's apron and baseball cap, worn backwards. He has a dangling earring in his left ear, that we later learn is a Swastika. He is wearing two leather bracelets on his left arm and has a tatoo that reminds me of the bar code from a package.
He and the actress playing the other Starbuck's employee have some intersting dialogue w/ the customers and each other. Randy, as Laszo, looks though a magazine and wonders about the mysterious but rich recluse Jules, and wonders if he is gay.

Randy/Laszlo is then seen at home w/ his boyfriend, now wearing a grey pullover shirt w/ three bottons, no collar. He asks Oliver what he likes about him. Of course Oliver can't really come up w/ an answer and says something like "You teach me about all the new alternative music bands, like..... (I forgot the name he used.) Randy/Laszlo storms out.

Randy/Laszlo is seen in the background serving more coffee while the action takes place w/ other characters.

Randy/Laszlo is back home, this time in a white pullover shirt. He confronts Oliver about why he said his mother was dead. (Oliver hadn't spoken to his mother in decades.) Oliver shows Randy/Laszlo some pictures from his childhood and says that his mother never said who his father was, or talked about her past.
Randy/Laszlo uses the phone to retrieve Oliver's mother's phone number and then uses the computer to figure out that his mother is living in Staten Island.
Oliver looks at him disbelieving and says, "You can do that w/ just a number?"
Randy/Laszlo looks up at him and says, "Oh, you are way too old for me."
He also says that he believes his nephew is the mysterious and rich Jules. At this point Randy/Laszlo stops believing him and says, "Why don't you just come out and say it! You're seeing someone else!" Oliver denies it, but Randy/Laszlo says, "Why would you make up such a ridiculous story then!" And he once again storms out.

Everyone eventually winds up at the house in Staten Island, but Randy/Laszlo is locked out. You can see him ouside the door, behind a gate. He bangs on the door & whines, "Let me in!" He basically hangs out there, trying to get in.
At some point Oliver's sister(?) yells out, "Oliver told me you were shallow, and superficial and etc...." Oliver yells, "Don't tell him that!" Of course, Randy/Laszlo was listening to the whole thing.
As the scene ends, Randy/Laszlo pounds on the door louder and louder and declares "I'm going to break in." Of course Laszlo can't, but Randy has now changed into his Gestapo Uniform and kicks the door down.

The next scene takes place in Vienna, but Randy/Laszlo is still outside the door where he entertains himself by tearing up a blue post-it note and sticking the pieces on his fingernails. Time shifts again, and Randy/Zeitzler once again kicks down the door, this time taking away Olympia Dukakis's brother and his boyfriend.

In a scene at the far left of the stage and hard for me to see from my seats, both the old and young versions of Olympia's character come to seek info about her brother. Randy/Zeitzler takes Olympia's character, Loe, to a cell (A prop gate is blocking my view of Randy for most of this scene) Basically he goes in and out each time asking for Loe to sign more and more money over to him each time saying he has info on her brother.
Eventually she declares that she is cold and tired and asks Randy/Zeitzler to hold her. They embrace, but of course it quickly leads to more. Randy/Zeitzler moves her to bend over the chair facing the audience he moves behind her and lifts up her jacket. The stage is dark except for a dim light on the two of them.
The scene was done well and didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. And in my only bit of analyzing, I think they had the elder Loe, Olympia Dukakis, in this scene, even thought it was obviously the younger Loe who was raped, b/c the elder Loe needed to come to terms w/ what had happened to her as a young girl.

Anyway, Loe takes Randy/Zeitzler to her home w/ the promise of more money and deeds. She has him search under a table and comes up behind him and cuts his thoat. He recovers and comes after her she stabs him in the stomach. She continues to slash/stab him as he stumbles off stage.

We eventually return to the house on Staten Island, Randy/Laszlo is still locked out, leaning against the door sleeping. (Randy had some of his funniest scenes outside that door... his faces and body language were hysterical!)
When Oliver finally opens the door, Randy/Laszlo literally falls in!
Someone says isn't that your boyfriend, and Randy/Laszlo says "EX-boyfriend"
Oliver protests, but Randy/Laszlo, replies, "Oh, VERY ex."

By now everyone is arguing and trying to figuring out what happend like they do at the end of a detective show or something. Randy has some good scenes here, looking for his old boyfriend in all the doors and closets. It's almost slapstick at this point.

Randy/Laszlo admits to Oliver that he lied when he said his old boyfriend, another pyscholgist and patient of Oliver, made him sit on the toilet and eat $100 bills before sex.
They figure out who the real Jules is... and yes he is gay which makes Randy/Laszlo very happy.

The play ends w/ everyone making up in pairs... Randy/Laszlo is w/ Olympia/Loe and she is walking him around the stage telling him about all the great and famous people she knew in Vienna. (Randy had actually asked about Venice. Olympia looked at him and said, "Venice?" Randy replied, "Oh, no I'm sorry I mean Vienna." He tried to make it seem like a dumb Laszlo thing, but I think he flubbed his lines.)
He is smiling and nodding as they walk arm in arm. By the time they reach the other end of the stage he looks at her and says, "I don't know who any of those people are."

So, there you have it! Lots of details, but it's up to you to figure out what it all means. I concentrated on mostly Randy stuff but there was LOTS more going on. Some of the time-shift effects were a bit "rough," especially when they went back and forth b/ times quickly and not all the charcaters changed time periods in the same scene. But, all in all it was better than I had expected and it didn't seem like a three hour play.

Oh, and I also got to speak to Randy for a few minutes after the play. Got him to sign my Playbill and take a picture. He was as sweet and accomodating as ever, even though I am sure he was tired, having been there for two shows.

He was wearing THE COAT, beige hoodie underneath, some sort of graphic T-Shirt, black(?)jeans, Converse sneakers and the silliest wool hat!

I am going back next Sunday so I can check and see how accurately I remembered things!




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Edited by Marcy