Ghost Light’s version of Stoppard’s version of Hamlet

I just finished reading Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in preparation for seeing Ghost Light Theatricals’ upcoming production of it. I’ve enjoyed what little Stoppard I’ve read and seen performed, namely Travesties and Arcadia, in productions by Seattle Public Theatre and UW Drama, respectively. Stoppard is wildly creative, managing to combine disparate works, events, and characters in elegant, lyrical, and frequently hilarious ways; for example, in Travesties he takes advantage of a historical coincidence to weave together the seemingly unconnected topics of Modernism, Dada, and Communism in a riotous, pun-filled comedy. In Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Stoppard offers a Waiting for Godot-inspired retelling of Hamlet from the perspective of two of its minor characters. (Guess which ones?) The humor is more somber and existential than the madcap fun of Travesties, but just as ingenious. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern was the winner of Ghost Light’s Battle of the Bard, a fund raiser that pitted different directors and casts performing scenes from several Shakespeare-related plays against one another in competition for the opportunity to do a full production in Ghost Light’s upcoming season. For Battle of the Bard, we were treated to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s exciting “pirate attack” scene, which involves circus-like hiding-in-barrels stunts as well as, of course, marauding pirates. It that performance was any indication, the full production is sure to be hilarious and high-energy. Well, the parts where they’re not just talking about death, at least.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead plays November 2-17, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm at the Velocity Chamber Theatre (915 E Pine–you know, across the street from KFC). Tickets are $12 or $10 for students and seniors. And if that’s too much for your cheapskate self, you can even go for free on November 3rd thanks to Live Theatre Week’s Free Night of Theatre. But if you go for free–buy a beer or a cookie or something. Fringe theatre is not exactly a cash cow.

Upcoming up-and-coming

In case you missed Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs AND Johnny and the Moon the first couple times around, you still have one more shot at some Wolf Parade-offshoot fun: next Wednesday, October 24’s Sunset Rubdown show at the Croc.  Fronted by Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown is currently touring in support of their new album  Random Spirit Lover.  Fellow Wolf Parader Dante DeCaro’s band Johnny and the Moon, as well as Magic Weapon, will be opening.

Thursday, October 25 brings the debut Comet performance of up-and-coming Seattle indie-popsters The Birthdays.  Now, I can’t claim any objectivity here, as they are my friends/housemates, but I will direct you to Three Imaginary Girls’ glowing endorsement of them.  Now that an unbiased third-party has jumped on the Birthdays hype train, let the shameless promoting begin!  Seriously though, it should be a fun show, replete with sugar-sweet melodies, wailing harmonicas, piano jams, maybe a Talking Heads cover thrown in for good measure.  I promise they’ll jowl your socks off.

Avant-folk troubadour/harp goddess Joanna Newsom will grace Benaroya Hall backed by a 29-piece orchestra on October 29, the third stop on her U.S. orchestral tour, which kicks off Sunday in Milwaukee.  That’s third of only five shows, mind you, so this is not to be missed.

Halloween night, in between giving candy to trick-or-treaters and getting wasted with your costumed friends, you should find some time to catch Canadian instrumental rockers Do Make Say Think at the Crocodile.  It’s sure to be an amazing show, with the added bonus of potential Halloween-related weirdness.  Hopefully I won’t be the only one wearing a costume.  That’s October 31, for the date-challenged.

In the news

Since Radiohead announced the upcoming self-release of their new album In Rainbows, there has been a flurry of speculation and commentary about the ‘Net. Obviously. Here’s some of the more cogent, informative pieces I’ve found:

Stereogum offered up this tidbit from Radiohead’s PR firm:

There will be no advances, promotional copies, digital streams, media sites, etc. of RADIOHEAD’s In Rainbows.

Everyone in the world will be getting the music at the same time: Oct. 10. That includes us. We don’t have anything to play anyone in the nine days until the record is available. Everyone at nasty has put his or her order in and just to clarify: you are not being asked to pay for a promo (as some have inquired). you can pay nothing or as much or as little as you want.

There will be no promotional copies of the discbox either, as each discbox is being made to order. Sorry.

NME has saved you some time by compiling an album preview of sorts, consisting of YouTube videos of live performances of the tracks from In Rainbows.

Across the pond, Rolling Stone has put together an almost identical feature. They have also included some higher quality audio streams of the songs, in addition to the YouTube videos.

The New York Times weighs in on what In Rainbows means for the digital music marketplace:

The biggest buzz, though, came from the band’s digital pricing plan, which represents a break from the industry standard established by Apple’s iTunes service, the leading digital-music retailer, which generally sells individual songs for 99 cents apiece, and complete albums for $10 to $12. Though the band had been an early adopter of online marketing, it didn’t sell its recordings on iTunes, a stance that arose from its desire to sell its albums in their entirety.

In Radiohead’s plan, fans will choose their own price for the digital version of the 10-song “In Rainbows,” which it said would be sold as a download without copy restriction software, known as digital-rights management. In effect, the band is asking fans to establish a monetary value for music, even when widespread piracy means that it would be available free.

Early reaction suggested that listeners would pay, but less than they would for a CD in stores. The blog Idolator.com carried a poll in which the plurality of voters — almost 40 percent — said they would pay from $2.05 to $10.12.

Radiohead is making a subtle dig at the iTunes pricing model, a move that drew plaudits from some record executives, who have pressed Apple to offer a mix of prices. Radiohead is introducing “variable pricing to the extreme,” said one executive, who requested anonymity because he had not been authorized to speak about the band’s plans.

Tiny Mix Tapes says, maybe this isn’t so revolutionary after all:

But Radiohead may not have fully exited the incestuous, pornographic circus that is the music industry after all. According to a spokesperson, “Radiohead are currently planning a traditional CD release of In Rainbows for early 2008.” No label (if any) or specifics have been announced — Billboard reports that EMI are believed to be still “in the running” — but if a “traditional release” of In Rainbows means using a “traditional” distribution method and/or using a label to release it, then perhaps Radiohead are not necessarily trying to fuck with the music industry so much as provide options for their fans, who by now are so richly varied that it takes multiple formats and marketing approaches to cater to them all.

That’s really just the tip of the iceberg. And just wait until the album is actually released.