Elling

I first heard about Elling when I heard one of my favorite actors John Simm was starring in it in West End (London). Curious, I watched the movie. I loved the movie, so I was thrilled when I got a mailer a couple months ago announcing that it's coming to Broadway, and with Brendan Frasier no less. Now, it was supposed to run for 20 weeks. It opened the Sunday before Thanksgiving and is closing the Sunday after Thanksgiving because they couldn't sell enough tickets. Come on--it's the holidays, give the show a CHANCE! Upset by the news that the show is closing, I rushed to get tickets for tonight's showing.

The story in a nutshell is about two roommates in the mental institution who, after years, are finally let out to live in the real world. They are set up with a two-bedroom apartment in Oslo. The story is about them trying to function in society, Kjell getting a girlfriend; Elling just trying to make friends, find his purpose in life, and live autonomously from his dead mother's memory. There is poetry and a road trip and a birth and the dreaded social worker.

It was great! I can't believe they want to shut it down. It's not a comedy in that it's pee-your-pants funny through the whole thing. It's more of little chuckles, but all the way through. The story and characters are very true to the movie, but I wouldn't be surprised if any of the actors said they hadn't seen the movie because they definitely make the characters their own.

I wasn't sure about Brendan Fraser at first. I do like him in all his movies. But he acts Kjell's character with a pause between each word rather than just speaking slowly, which I was skeptical about. But he really grew on me in the role as the play progressed and did a marvelous job. Bravo.

Denis O'Hare was stu-frickin-pendous as Elling. Oh my god, the way he slipped in and out of sanity just using his voice was great. I loved what he did with the mockery tone he would take when he got annoyed. I'm not sure Elling does this in the movie, but it's hard to tell because I don't know the language (it's a Norwegian film). Elling is very moody and just slightly delusional and very very funny. But you do feel bad for him because he's trying to cope with the loss of his mother.

Jennifer Coolidge plays Kjell's girlfriend (and some small roles). I recognize her from lowbrow comedies like Legally Blonde. She was good.

I'd forgotten how many great things there are in this story. Elling deciding to be a famous enigma by hiding his poems in boxes of sour kraut. Elling's inability to answer the telephone. And "I'm allergic to alcohol. It makes me do things I'll regret."

I'm sad that this play, Brendan Fraser's Broadway debut, is closing after only a week. But even though people know that it's closing and anyone who bought tickets for later dates had to get their money back, the theatre still wasn't packed. There were only about a dozen of us in the balcony, if that. They even told us we could go down to the first level, but we would have had to sit in back. We actually had pretty good seats, second row balcony in the middle.

There were actually quite a lot of people waiting at the Stage Door after the show. I wanted to, but it was really really cold and it just wasn't worth it. Plus, if it was anything like Lend Me a Tenor, it could be another hour before they came out and I didn't want to miss my train. It was weird going home because they said anyone wishing to switch to the Montclair train at Newark would have a 2 hour wait, which would mean that the 11:30 train wasn't coming, so I called a cab to meet me at Newark, but when we got there, we were all confused because the Montclair train WAS there, and I had to cancel my cab. But anyway. Off to Philly.