Saw three performances the past few weeks:
Masquerade
The big one in NYC now, it's taken me several months to get out there to see the show. Turns out I saw it nearly on the year anniverary of when I was part of the marketing activation and headed into the show space. Neat!
Masquerade is a guided walkthrough Phantom of the Opera experience. There's been tons of talk about this already in this thread so I'll keep the actual description short. I was really impressed with the whole thing, there's a serious level of detail, design, and intention to this thing that is simply unparalleled. While the more free roaming L&T and SNM shows have their own spectical and grandure, the ability to direct guests in groups to see scenes allows for a more direct and intentional theatrical tricks. From the Masquerade ball reveal at the start, to the chandalier rise and fall, to the death of Joseph Buquet, the lair boat scene, and dozens more the show keeps pulling new tricks out of its sleeves to keep us engaged and surprised.
Blue Man Orlando
I have my review up on TouringPlans Blog, but I'll say that this new revised show is a great replacement for the Universal show. The new segments during the show are great and the staging is unique and makes sense in context of the show narrative. The one negative of the experience is a weak ending experience, the old sea of paper or the zygote balls were epic moments that people left wowed by. The new one lacks that punch and is just ok. I was hoping we'd see the smoke drums from Vegas out here to help but they didn't make it out here.
Theater of the Mind
After its launch in Denver in 2022, Theater of the Mind moves to Chicago for 2026. Created by David Byrne and Mala Gaonkar, the show tackles the question about the perception of the human mind and asks us about controll and loss. This 75 minute immersive show takes guests through the life of David, not David Byrne, but sort of David Byrne. After enterting a Good Place like hall of doors, all unmarked, we are told we're here for David's funeral, and we're his friends and family. We each get a name tag with this friends and family names on them - congrats to all the Viks and Ophellias out there your time to shine is now.
The show starts at the funeral, complete with 6 year old photo of David Byrne, where "David" breaks out of the casket. Turns out this weird statue that keeps appearing through his life is somehow at the funeral too and tells him we're going to go back in time and get his affairs in order. Problem is, our perceptions are not reality and the memories of David and "David" don't always line up. "David" is our guide through the show, an actual person dressed like the 6 year old in the photo, but very clearly NOT David as this person is not a white cis male.
As we go with "David" back in time we learn about his past, the discos and odd jobs and childhood memories, and perceptions behind varoious visual, auditory, and taste phenomena. The show isn't quite autobiographical, for example David Byrne's father was the painter not his mother, but some of the experiences in his life shaped David's life. By the end of the show we've arrived back to when "David" needed to go to, to tell him somethng that will change him into someone new. Afterall, if we replace someone's brain are they same person? Then what about altering a fundamental question about their relationships and self worth at 6 years old?
Theater of the Mind doesn't answer its own question because there isn't an answer, it's meant to be ruminated on and discussed just like the r
eal science behind the show.
The show is low stakes, affordable ($99 date night tickets w/ 2 drinks included on weekday nights is a steal), and relatively short at 75-80 minutes long. I'd highly recommend this to anyone visiting in the area.