Best Bit From the Australian Tour So Far

Perth 2/8/2014 - Opening Number

Videos of this have been going around, but this is official and pretty high quality.


Bruce, I think you just sold your first show download to me.

The Dark Days

There is a time, when working on a play, that lands during the period where rehearsals consist mainly of running the show over and over again. You've "worked" the scenes, tech is looming, and the meat of the matter is to try to make the show second-nature.

The lines are there, but they're not flowing. Not like you think you should. The blocking is there, but you still catch yourself wondering if you're in the right place. The moments happen, but you still get lost trying to remember the note you got last night.

The character is there, you can see him, catch him in the corner of your eye, but he won't stand still. Sometimes, he even flirts with you.

Nah...Probably more accurate to say he mocks you. Steps out of the shadows and lets you see him, fully. Feel him fully. All before he waves and disappears back into the shadow.

Just when you need him the most.

The time when you sit with your all-too-long list of line notes, and know that you should be better. The sting of every mistake is harsh and pointedly YOUR FAULT.

I call it "The Dark Days."

It's a fight to keep your mind in the game. To push forward, and stop stewing in the mistakes made.

Because you are going to make those mistakes again, it's inevitable. The worst inclination is to retreat, to pull back and try to lick your wounds. No, no...you have to fall forward, face first, and put your faith in yourself to catch something before a disaster. This is what acting is, to me, anyway, the fall. The moments of not knowing. The fear and exhilaration. Keeping the whole enterprise spinning on the head of a pin.

That's where the magic happens. In that faith, the magic happens. In that self-confidence, the magic happens.

The Dark Days are when that's hardest to remember. It's also the time when it's most important to do so.

My Last Word on Man of Steel

This is old news, but here we go.

I've softened on the film after re-watching a couple of times. I think there are a lot of good ideas in the film, and I absolutely adore the Krypton they created. I think now, after hearing the rumblings about the sequel, I see the angle the team is taking, in terms of the entire franchise.

But....

That final sequence. It's still deeply problematic. If this was all planned, which I'm not overly convinced of, it makes sense. I can't help but feel like the plans for the sequel, and the world building, re-set when there was fan backlash against the rampant destruction of Man of Steel's third act. Still, OK, let's take Goyer and Snyder at their word...

It's still deeply problematic.

All that needed to happen is a "no, the people!" moment. A clear sense that Kal knew lives were being lost, and that trying to contain a being as powerful as Zod was not going to make it possible to contain the loss of life.

At that point....snap the neck. I think that's totally in character.

It all comes down to this...

It's that scene in Die Hard 2 when the plane is coming in thinking the ground is 20 feet lover than it actually is. When John McClane runs out there with two torches to try to wave them off...we KNOW it's futile. We know that, no matter how hard he pushes himself, the forces he's up against are just too strong, and too uncaring of innocent life, for him to succeed.

But we love that he tried. We see him as more of a hero because he tried.

The world of the film in Man of Steel doesn't have to know that Clark is benign, a hero, but the audience should. They should see the sacrifice and the effort, even if it fails, when the world of the film just sees buildings falling.

That is, literally, all it would've taken. The fact that Snyder and Goyer didn't consider that still bothers me.