topherkraz78

I bet our boy is exhausted...he's back to work in la now...season 9 officially starts today!

Whimsical Elf

Yes. I'll be listening in the premiere to see how his voice is. It certainly sounded a little strained in parts of AAoG a couple of weeks ago.

It's amazing and inspiring, though, to see how much he clearly LOVES his work. He doesn't seem to want any time off.

phantagrae

Can you explain the Abraham speech? I have been dying to know more about the play, apart from the stuff seen in the official promo and a few lines like "Trees are stupid" that people have quoted.

And there's something about the song at the end--is the last line, "I believe in you"?

I can't by the book, if I decide to, for some time, but I'm dying of curiousity, since I was unable to go to NYC.

What's a hickey?

That's one of the reasons he's my favorite person and actor in this whole universe: He has an unmatched work ethic and truly loves his craft. It's inspiring to see someone that enjoys what they're doing so much.

Whimsical Elf

I realise you weren't asking me, but I'm dying to chat more about the play, so I hope you don't mind if I answer.

SPOILER ALERT!!!! For anyone holding out hopes that the play may be staged again somewhere, or whatever. Also, if you are religious you obviously may not appreciate some of the content, but I would say that I don't think it was done in an offensive tone or spirit at all.

I'm sure you know the basic premise is that God has come down to Earth to deliver a new 10 Commandments. Some are hold-overs from the original, with a few additions.

The Abraham speech - God tells us the story of how he wanted to test Abraham's love for him. This is very hard to describe how it comes across, but I'll try to say what I can remember.
God started out talking about how much he truly loved Abraham. When his son Isaac was born he became worried that Abraham loved his son more than he loved Him. So he told him to sacrifice his son on the mountain… (I'll admit, I'm not very familiar with the Bible, but I'm assuming that most of this is taken directly from the Bible.) He describes the whole journey of Abraham taking his son up the mountain, including his own thoughts and feelings. E.G. When Isaac asked where they would get a goat(?) to sacrifice (or something like that) Abraham told him 'God will provide', "And I thought, nice save!" The story continues and he gets to the point of describing Abraham holding a knife(?) over his son, and God says he thought "He's going to do it! He's actually going to do it!" And he says this with a quiet, tearful joyfulness. Then I think Michael (or was it an angel in the story?) questioned whether he was going to stop him. And God pauses - and you see all the conflicted emotion he's going through - before saying "Stay his hand." It's one of the wonderful serious moments.

Jim plays it so beautifully - I wish I could describe it. I'm sure Rosie and Stefi will be able to convey it better than I can. He holds you spellbound, and there's such intensity. He really makes you feel for this character of God, and shows the inner struggles he goes through. I think it's at the end of this Abraham story that God says, "It was only then that I began to think there might be something seriously wrong with me." Which I thought was a very funny line, but it didn't get the hugest laugh when I saw it, because you're still coming out of that deep emotion.

It's very much like showing God as if he's a person. There's even a line, you've probably read, "What's wrong with me? The same thing that's wrong with all of you. I created you in my image. And I'm an a-hole." Jim plays all this with a real sincerity, while still making it hysterically funny.


The ninth commandment is: Thou shalt not believe in me. Before the song, there is the line: "You are my greatest creation. And I… I am your worst." Powerfully delivered by Jim. During the course of the play, God has been facing up to his failings. Now, he is letting us know we can survive without him, as he is going off to start Universe 2.0 which he designed with the help of Steve Jobs. We cannot go with him because we have too many bugs - Steve really has a thing about bugs.

The song comes at the end, and it's during or at the end of this that we get the revelation of the 10th new commandment: Thou shalt believe in thyself. The song includes the line "I have faith in you." I think it's a wonderful final message.
The song is very funny, but also touching and actually very sweetly sung by Jim.
Have you seen this little clip? https://instagram.com/p/5DPmU8jYyn/?...by=dutchdome14
Naughty people! But I'm grateful!

Hopefully Rosie and Stefi can give more details and correct anything I may have misremembered.

socialfirefighter

I wish I lived closer to New York City. I would have like that musical.

IcyBerry

Oh it's a play not a full-on musical

socialfirefighter

Ok but still I would have like it.

IcyBerry

Sigh, me too but I live in a different country and don't have the money (especially not now since I'm paying my university fees) I'll be poor for the next decade I'm afraid.

phantagrae

Thank you so much!
I knew bits and pieces of the approach of the play and that "God" says, "I'm an a**hole". The only issue I have with plays/stories like this is that it really is an issue of people, in this case, Javerbaum, creating God in their own image, so that God condemns what "we", or the author, condemn, and endorses what we endorse, so if we don't like a certain aspect of religion, well, "God" doesn't like that either, and if we think a certain thing should be right, well, "God" thinks so too.

But overall I know better than to look to any religious comedy or comedy involving some version of God for any kind of true theology.

I'm very familiar with the Abraham story and it sounds like a great moment.
My sister wrote a great poem using the idea of Abraham's willingess to sacrifice his son. When her first born child, her son, was not quite 2, he was facing the prospect of radical brain surgery. He had a seizure disorder that would not respond to medication and the only resort was a modified hemisperectomy. They were going to remove most of the left side of his brain.
One of the lines of her poem was about having to "sacrifce you to save you" and "there was a ram in the bushes", which is also from the Abraham story. When God stayed Abraham's hand from sacrificing his son, He provided a "ram in the bushes"--a ram caught by his horns in a thicket--to be the sacrifice instead of Isaac.

Anyway...

I disagree with the idea that we're all a$$holes because God is. That's a little bit of backward thinking, IMO, but again, you don't look to a Broadway play for theology about the true nature of God.

I think that if I had seen the play I would have, of course, had these same thoughts, but I don't think it would have interefered with my ability to enjoy the humor or Jim's performance. I take it for what it is.

Thank you so much for giving me the rundown. It sounds like it was a fun evening and that Jim had a chance to really use his, if you will pardon me, God-given talent.

Whimsical Elf

I definitely think you would have been able to enjoy the play. You just reminded me of another line: something like "a ram who was in the wrong place at the wrong time" from the Abraham bit.

ShamyLove

Vicky, I think you summed it up very well!

The best summary that I can offer 11:00 at night, after working 12 hours, lol, is that God was essentially telling us no one is infallible and worthy of unmitigated worship. Believe in yourself first and foremost.

And OMG, love Jim busting the folks videotaping him!! You have no idea how badly I wanted to do that the first time we went. We were in the upper mezzanine, and I thought "no one would probably notice since I'm way up here." But I was so, so chicken! And wouldn't you know it, it looks like the perpetrator is sitting in the upper area, yet Jim still saw it!!

phantagrae

Yeah, see, theologically, I'd disagree with that premise (creating God in our fallible image), but like I said, you don't look to a Broadway comedy for theology.

I wonder if he can actually see the camera, or if he just assumes someone up there is filming. I was wondering how well he can see the audience, especially in the mezzanine, with the stage lights on him. Usually, the brightness of the lights and the audience sitting in the dark would make most of the audience hard or impossible to see. But the lights are kind of changing at that point as he seems to be coming down into the audience.
I'd love to hear that whole song, or know the words. His voice sounded a little rough around the edges, like those 90 minutes of talking almost every night were catching up with him.

I remember him saying about how he would get uncomfortable practicing his lines in front of his mother when he was younger because he would see her looking at him and he would think she was judging him or whatever.
But this play is so different in that he is talking directly TO the audience the whole time, as opposed to most plays where you are talking to other characters onstage and essentially ignoring the audience.

Whimsical Elf

I love the way you've put that. To me it came over as a very positive message.

I don't blame you for not daring to film. They were so strict - didn't even want you taking pics before the curtain was up. I sneaked a couple because the theatre is so beautiful, but turned my phone off before the show started - partly out of respect, and partly because I was not going to risk getting thrown out!

I think he must have seen it, because he didn't say that at the performances I went to. I think it must be because he's stepping out of the main lights at that point, or maybe the light projections were reflecting off the balcony.

I really wish the whole song was available somewhere. Of course it's hard to remember all the lyrics properly. There are some parts which I'm sure never got heard, because everyone was still laughing from the line before! One line I do remember is "I really hate to leave you, but it's time to say God-bye. I promise not to kill you, if you promise not to cry." Then there's a part - maybe Rosie or Stefi can remember - where he sings something like "… will see you/us(?) through-oo-oo… 'Cos I have faith in you." That bit is quiet and sung sweetly. There's another bit with the same melody, which I'm fairly sure is something like "they say that breaking up is hard to do-oo-oo." I wish I could remember it all exactly! I also enjoyed the bit where God and the two angels sing together in harmony - good sound.

IcyBerry

A new trailer for Visions has been released and this time Jim actually appears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdeqF6jd0Y