Christmas 2007, day 5

AFTERNOON: squeezed in Atonement before my show (and I mean squeezed: see below). I didn't know much about this going in, apart from the sheaf of raves, so I was ready to be surprised, and I was, pleasantly. I loved the fascinating layout of the story, with the occasional rewind and the ever-present typing in the score, inviting the audience to wonder why the point of view is shifting, and where all the typing may lead. The payoff was worth it: having read that the finale would be a 5-minute appearance by Vanessa Redgrave (I AM Vanessa Redgrave), I pushed my luck time-wise and was treated to a brilliant resolution, pulling the whole movie together to devastating effect.

EVENING: Alas, this meant I was scrambling to get to my 7:00 show, and I think I missed the first 120 seconds of it. This was Die Mommie Die!, at New World Stages, and it was only my 2nd live experience with the great Charles Busch that left me disappointed. Usually -- a Christmas 2001 Times Square Angel, twice at Shanghai Moon, an all-star Auntie Mame reading and last summer's revival of The Lady in Question -- he fills me with love of life in general and the theater in particular. But this time (as at a second Auntie Mame, that one a fully rehearsed and staged production), I giggled a few times and admired his skill but felt that he was playing solitaire while the actors around him screamed or flailed or in general blundered toward the style his best people command effortlessly. I don't know whether to blame the director (longtime CB collaborator Carl Andress) or the casting agent or the holiday frenzy, but ... the hit-and-miss movie version was funnier.