Tynan's Anger

Unless some new play ends up sweeping me off my feet in the next few months that I didn’t see coming, I think we can safely begin to wrap up the debate on the progress in drama in the English language for the first decade of the 21st century. Say what you will about the crisis facing the commercial theater in terms of profitability, but in terms of quality, there were a hell of a lot of good plays this decade. Some of these plays are as good as those from the golden age of Braodway; it would be a shame if they don’t become as much a part of our culture as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, or Harold Pinter. I doubt that, in 40 years, I will see some future soul child of The Simpsons do to August: Osage County what The Simpsons did to A Streeetcar Named Desire, but then again, I always seem to underestimate the role of theater in American cultural life. There may be far fewer Americans, or even New Yorkers, who are aware of the works of Sarah Ruhl, Sarah Kane, Adam Rapp, Mike Daisey or Taylor Mac, but if a play makes a big enough dent on the Broadway or even high off-Broadway level, it can be seen by enough people to make a difference.

Each month, I will be unrolling a top 10 list regarding English-language drama this decade. This first month starts with the best lines from English-language plays this decade. I have admittedly taken a more mainstream angle on this list, because my aim is to gauge which lines will resonate the loudest for the longest period of time in the future.

10.

“Not many people know this, but the Führer was descended from a long line of English qveens.” – Franz Liebkind (played by Brad Oscar), The Producers, book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan.

When Mel Brooks came up with this line, he caused co-writer Thomas Meehan to fall out of his chair laughing. He did the same to thousands of audience members of the biggest flash-in-the-pan Broadway success this decade. The line was vintage Mel Brooks, but its particular application to the musical conversion of Brooks’ first feature film was a key element of the play’s wild success. With this line, Brooks completely lightened the load of Nazi imagery that dominated the rest of the play, and validated Brooks’ controversial assertion that it was more effective to demean Hitler through mockery as rather than polemics an hour before “Springtime for Hitler,” sausage display and all, hit the stage. It was also a nod to the homoerotic connotations inherent in staging a Broadway musical, no matter how straight you may be. That a right-wing Nazi could be so blind to the inherent gayness of staging a musical only made the wink to the audience that much stronger.

9.

“You the cowboys and I'm the Indians. See who wins this war.'' – Elder Joseph Barlow (Anthony Chisolm), Radio Golf by August Wilson.

Radio Golf was the weakest play of Wilson’s decade-by-decade 20th century saga, and that was mainly because the 1990s were no place to show off what made Wilson so great. Wilson’s mix of humor, poetry, folklore, playfulness, desperation and political rage made him the preeminent voice of African-American theater in the 20th century, and this line, delivered by the only character in Radio Golf who could have fit in the rest of Wilson’s canon, pretty much summed up all of that in sentence where all but two words have one syllable. Everything went awry in Radio Golf’s second act, both for the characters and the play itself. But with this doozy of an act-breaker, Wilson showed you that, even out of his element, he could still knock you out of the park.

8.

“Jirous doesn’t care. He doesn’t care enough even to cut his hair. The policeman isn’t frightened by dissidents! Why should he be? Policemen love dissidents, like the Inquisition loved heretics. Heretics give meaning to the defenders of faith. Nobody cares more than a heretic. Your friend Havel cares so much he writes a long letter to Husák. It makes no odds whether it’s a love letter or a protest letter. It means they’re playing on the same board…But the Plastics don’t care at all. They’re unbribable.” – Jan (Rufus Sewell), Rock N Roll by Tom Stoppard

Later in his life, John Osborne would repeatedly express his disgust with the success of Tom Stoppard, who he considered “intellectual flatulence.” How surprised would the original Angry Young Man be, then, to see that Stoppard would come up with the best explanation of the Angry Young Man mentality by an English language dramatist this decade. Jan is no Jimmy Porter, he’s more a foolish young pup blinded by the transcendent power of music that he sees as conquering all politics, ideas, and words. It would all come crashing down for Jan, as it does for just about every Angry Young Man, but with Rock ‘N’ Roll, Stoppard showed he understood the mindset his detractors accused him of ignoring. Jan’s speech here has all the attitude of “I hope I die before I get old” with all the intelligence of “I’ll get on my knees and pray/ we don’t get fooled again.”

7.

“If you let a standing army stand too long...it will find something to do.” – Mike Daisey, If You See Something, Say Something.

Mike Daisey’s legacy at this point is still tied to his immensely influential diatribe How Theater Failed America, but with this line, Daisey framed the dangers of the military-industrial complex in a succinct manner better than anyone, be it Eisenhower, Bill Hicks, or Naomi Klein. The first time Daisey used the line, he was describing the Cold War change in the Presidential cabinet from Secretary of War to Secretary of Defense, and the line served to show how the military-industrial complex has created a perpetual need for global conflict over the last 50 years. The second time he used it, he put the words in the mouth of George Washington, which added a universal element to Daisey’s view on history, politics, war, and even theater. Daisey validated that the problems that plague our world today are not that different from what they’ve ever been. That Daisey accomplished this without a proper script only makes this achievement that much more impressive.

6.

“Did I send you to the most expensive university in the world to teach you how to feel conflicted, or to learn how to manipulate great masses of people?” – Caldwell B. Cladwell (John Cullum) – Urinetown, book by Greg Kotis.

No other musical would open with the number “Too Much Exposition,” nor would any other musical end with the cry “Hail Malthus!” But no line in Urinetown captured the sick genius of Urinetown creators Kotis and Mark Hollman like Urine Good Company’s robber baron Cladwell, who used this line as a sick way of consoling his daughter. In one line, Kotis combined high-minded political philosophy with Borscht-belt sarcasm and a practicality that gave it special significance to everyone who wasted their private college liberal arts education on philosophy or theater. The ridiculous circumstances that led to this line within the structure of Urinetown are about as ridiculous as those that led Kotis to win a Tony for writing the line.

Stay tuned for Quotes 5-3, to be revealed tomorrow.

Labels: august wilson, Greg Kotis, if you see something say something, lists, mel brooks, mike daisey, radio golf, rock 'n' roll, the producers, tom stoppard, top theater quotes of the decade, Urinetown