#8la

Matt Bomer in Everything → 8 (2012)

What can I say, I was incredibly impressed just by the sheer amount of big names involved, and the idea behind using highly recognized people in an attempt to make important information known to the public. 

As performances go, I don't think there's a bad thing to say about anyone, and even if there was I wouldn't. However, I will say that I for the first time found myself compelled by Matt Morrison. His monologue about being scolded while on the freeway was extremely powerful. 

As for Chris Colfer, there's no secret that I think he is excellent and probably way too good for Glee, but I was blown away by him. Maybe I'm biased, but his short amount on stage was by far the most compelling section of the play, and the way he made me laugh while talking about something so serious was impressive. His last line still gives me chills when I think about it. 

admittedly, i decided to watch it because of the cast. MY BABY CHRIS COLFER, jane lynch, george clooney, jesse tyler ferguson, matt bomer, jamie lee curtis...

but obviously i felt the compunction to watch it because, as of the past few years, i've become more and more interested in the fight for equal rights, and i support it in any way that i can. i have family members who are gay and i sometimes wish that they didn't have to be so careful to keep it under wraps for fear of "hurting other people's sensitivities" (to which i often think "screw 'em", but it's not my place to decide).

i keep thinking "when i have kids, if one or two or however many of them turned out to be gay (i'm exaggerating, because i only really plan to have two kids), i hope they don't have to put up with the discrimination and struggle that homosexuals have to put up with now. what, are we stuck in the 60's?". the only way to solve that is to do something about that now.

the whole thing about proposition 8 was still to me a very complicated string of legal terminology that ultimately doesn't mean much when nothing ever seems to become definitive. Prop 8 has been ruled unconstitutional, so why can't gays marry yet? Thanks to this play, everything is a little clearer now.

Dustin Lance Black did a tremendous job of gathering all the transcripts of the hearings and court trials and i don't know what else, and Rob Reiner also did a great job of put together a play that is all at once shocking, moving, saddening, funny, but most importantly uplifting. The A-list actors that take part, including MY BABY CHRIS COLFER, did an amazing job, especially MY BABY CHRIS COLFER.

Particularly, the interactions between Brad Pitt as Judge Vaughn Walker and Kevin Bacon as Charles Cooper, and of George Clooney as David Boies and John C. Reilly as Mr. Blankenhorn, are hilarious. Why? Because I can't believe that this is all based on real transcripts from real trials. Did these people really say that? Could the supporters of Prop 8 really have been so arrogant as to show up in court with such half-assed statements? They weren't put on the spotlight, they actually made fools of themselves without any help from the opposition. I was falling out of my chair most of the time.

Jane Lynch and George Takei both do brilliantly as part of the supporters of Prop 8. If you want to prove an actor's brilliance, make them act out roles that they completely disagree with. They were hilarious too. And for a moment there, I thought Jane was going to say "And that's how Sue C's it!". (Jane's bitch-face... priceless).

I thought Matthew Morrison, whom I usually don't like, did a really good job. So did Christine Lahti. But my absolute favorite was MY BABY CHRIS COLFER, and not just because he's MY BABY CHRIS COLFER, but because he played the role of the most heart-wrenching (in my opinion) testimony in court. Ryan Kendall, who was featured in a video called "The Sissy Project", went on the witness stand to talk about how his family ostracized him when they discovered he was gay, and sent him to NARTH (National Association for Reparative Therapy of Homosexuality). After seeing the real Ryan Kendall giving his statement in "The Sissy Project", and knowing now what he said in court, combined with MY BABY CHRIS COLFER's fragility, I was devastated. He made me laugh at first, and then he made my cry, and I can't watch this part of the play without my face getting hot and my tear ducts getting overworked.

Overall, this play is neither boring nor complicated, as a lot of people would assume when it comes to legal stuff. It's well-balanced, it's amusing, and it's really interesting. It must have been a real challenge to put it all together, but the result is such a creative campaign in the fight for equal rights, and people shouldn't miss it.

Seriously, if you haven't seen it, go now. Drop everything. It's not that long. You can have a glass of wine and a bit of popcorn while you watch it (I did). Do your bit for the cause. It's merely decent human behavior.

right? I've seen it mentioned that he came across wooden and was having a lot of issues with the stage-reading, but the floundering and stop-starts seemed like a (smart) deliberate acting choice. 

(I think ALL the cast floundered a bit for the first 15 minutes. [And only two run-throughs, day of, will do that to you] but everything starting from about Jesse Tyler Ferguson's part on was excellent.)

And Kevin's floundering/hesitancy happened almost always when he was speaking to Brad Pitt [Judge Walker]. He had none of the same problems while questioning the witnesses, but when the Judge put him on the spot THAT's when he struggled. He made it seem like his character knew his defense was screwed and was at a lost as to how to save it. (Which, for the sake of this play, made sense. Whether or not that's how Attorney Charles Cooper felt in rl doesn't matter here.)

So yeah, I think Kevin Bacon was awesome. lol the only actor who I can legitimately say was a disappointment was Matt Morrison. He was given a LOT of really excellent material and should have been one of the more moving parts of the play but failed at delivering any sort of memorable performance. 

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