In The Beginning

In times of stress, it is quite common to seek out comfort. For me, comfort comes in the repetition of favorite TV series. I have nearly worn out the tape on The Great British Baking Show and Gilmore Girls – ‘tape’ is old school lingo for Netflix button. Typically, the comfort “food” is balanced with a healthy portion of new content – for me, primarily on stage. Alas, seeing live productions is, temporarily, not likely.

In seeking out new content during the ‘Rona, there are hits and misses. Have you tried to watch Floor is Lava? No? Don’t bother. Not even Jesus could help that trio of ministers win or make that “game show” worth watching. Athlete A is worth a watch. It seems Netflix programmers run the gamut from completely awful to quite commendable. All that to say, if anything good has come out of the global pandemic and subsequent shutdowns it is that theater companies, performers and producers have made the leap to streaming content, both original and previously filmed. Some of the group sings are incredibly fun – please watch the Hairspray “You Can’t Stop the Beat” video – but there is also a push to release or make available for free filmed stage performances of plays and musicals.

As much as I want to love Andrew Lloyd Webber’s canon and applaud him for streaming his content for the masses, I was much more excited to learn that Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Act One would be made available for streaming a couple of weeks ago. James Lapine wrote and directed the stage adaptation of Moss Hart’s Broadway memoir. While the production did not blow me away, I recognize that it is simply impossible to replicate the immediacy of live performance with a filmed version. In fact, reviewing a live production based on only a filmed version is really not fair. I  will say, I did not fall asleep, or even doze off, while it was on; that’s high praise coming from a person who nodded off and awoke at intermission of the big, lavish tour of Hello, Dolly! last spring. Watching Act One on screen made me wish I had seen Tony Shalhoub and Santino Fontana (both portraying Hart at different stages of life) live on stage. Hart’s desperate longing for a life in theater, his restlessness while striving to get there and the reality once he did was written all over their faces. One can only imagine the energy of their live performances.

Watching Act One made me long for the days of  joining the masses to shuffle into the theater, contorting your body when someone is seated inside the row but arrived late and experiencing a show collectively, a show that because it’s live and anything can happen will never happen just like that, for you, ever again. Every trip to the theater is unique and special. Watching the production spurred me to finally pick up the book, purchased in January in New York City just before the scales began to tip. Not even halfway through I have discovered the passage that, to me, explains perfectly the fact that theater almost literally captures an audience, be it the audience sitting in their seats waiting for the curtain to go up or an audience of its own makers and creators, and then refuses to let go. Hart writes,

“It is noticeable, I think, that anyone who has tasted the heady wine of the theatre, even on its merest fringes or in the most menial of jobs, is cut off from the outside world forever after. The world of the theatre is as closed a tribe and as removed from other civilian worlds as a Gypsy encampment, and those who enter it are spoiled for anything else and are tainted with its insidious lure for the rest of their lives.”

Sounds of Summer

Most movies about teenagers on summer vacation focus on two things: drinking booze and hooking up. But The Way Way Back is not most movies. Released in 2013, The Way Way Back provided a breath of fresh air in a season typically overcrowded with superheroes. And even now, seven years later, it is the perfect movie to kick off the first official weekend of summer.

Liam James stars as Duncan, forced to spend the summer on the coast with his mom, her pompous boyfriend and his daughter. Innocence practically oozes out of Duncan’s pores. The first scene immediately puts the audience on his side. On the way to the house, Trent, the aforementioned boyfriend, asks Duncan (relegated to the back of the station wagon) to rate himself. Duncan, feeling forced to respond, answers with, ‘6.’ Trent disagrees, says he would rate Duncan a 3. That Trent is seemingly unaware of the cruelty in his conversation adds to the frustration and heartbreak. Unexpectedly, a job at Water Wizz Water Park gives Duncan the strength he had all along, the strength to discover and become his own person. Written and directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, The Way Way Back overflows with sharp wit and a quiet wisdom.

The lead cast features Toni Collette as Pam, Duncan’s mom, and Steve Carell as her boyfriend Trent. Both are pitch perfect. Pam is nursing wounds from a prior marriage and desperately wants to find stability with Trent, so much so that she may be ignoring what is right in front of her. Collette perfectly balances Pam's uncertainty with an inner strength that is yet to be discovered. Carell makes another argument that portraying the evolution of The Office's Michael Scott from bumbling, insensitive idiot to kind, loving human was only the tip of his acting iceberg. 

Rounding out the cast are national treasures Allison Janney, who steals every scene she is in, and Sam Rockwell as Owen, who sees something of himself in Duncan. Owen, whose exact role (besides director of sarcasm) at Water Wizz is unclear, is lazy and sarcastic on the outside, but on the inside beats a heart of gold. Owen's genuine care for Duncan’s well-being makes me want to have him as my friend who can drive. Rockwell's performance is a standout.

One of the reasons The Way Way Back is the perfect summer movie is that the music – spot on at every turn – infuses the movie with the warmth of the summer sun. From the mellow strumming of Edie Brickell to the raucous “Recess” from Eli “Paperboy” Reed, the music feels intentional, but not overbearingly so. It simply fits. In every case, even when the choice is silence – as in the tense first scene – the music, or lack thereof, underscores the tone of the scene and the personality of the characters.

The final scene takes us full circle.  It ends where it began, in the way back of the station wagon. But this time, to his surprise, Duncan is not alone. No words are exchanged between mother and son, but the expression on Collette’s face and the look in her eyes speaks volumes. Start your summer off right with The Way Way Back, one of the best examples of a summer movie with humor, heartache and hope.