MovieChat Forums > SubUrbia (1997) Discussion > have you ever seen any live subUburbia r...

have you ever seen any live subUburbia related performance?

posted 17 years ago by woodyallex
22 replies | jump to latest

Here's a little question to pass the time until the DVD comes out.....

I personnaly have seen a few and can share my impressions....

Musically I saw Sonic Youth play "Sunday" about three times, and as anyone who has seen one of their shows can tell you, they rock the house. I did ask thurston moore personnaly if they had ever played "Bee-Bee's Song" live, in montréal in 2006 i think, and he said that they had never.

I also saw girls against boys live and both time they played "Bulletproof Cupid", which is still one of the best songs ever. Although on the second show I saw they seemed more or lessed prepared and the sound was so-so, that is one of the songs that they nailed.

I was however less enthused when I got to see Eric Bogosian live. His performance was ok, but i had paid about 30-40 bucks for a ticket at the just for laughs festival, but it turned out that there were four perfomers and they each spoke about only 15minutes, so that was kinda lame.

I did see two francophone adaptations of his play though (in case you haven't clicked yet, i'm form montréal)....

Urbanités was a subUburiba adaptation a few years ago, and honestly it stunk. Tee actors mimicked all the exact movement of the screen actors, like they watched the movie way too many times, but there delivery was all wrong and made Bee-Bee sound like a complete bitch.

And finally there was, around the same time subUrbia came out, Sexe Drogue et Rock & Roll, an adaptation of the bogosian one-man show which was converted into a two-man show by Alexis Martin and Pierre Lebeau. I actually saw it twice because it was skilfully adapted and acted.

So as anyone ever seen beck play feather in your cap? Or seen skinny puppy belt Cult? Bettter yet, anyone has a review about actually seeing subUrbia as a play?

[–] drama_queen87 17 years ago

They did it off-Broadway about two years ago with Kieran Culkin and Gaby Hoffman. I didn't have a chance to see it, but friends of mine did and gave it rave reviews.

I do have a copy of the book/script and much prefer it to the movie.

[–] woodyallex 17 years ago

i bet the book is definitly worth it... i've been meaning to get it for a while
and haven't yet.....

[–] violachild2002 17 years ago

Where do you get the book? I love Bullet Proof Cupid. I have the soundtrack to the movie.also the vhs copy. but no *#*@ DVD!

[–] woodyallex 17 years ago

i don't know where to get the book, but if you love bulletproof cupid i strongly suggest checking out girls against boys's 2 classic albums "venus luxure no.1 baby" (feat bpc) and the follow up "house of girls against boys".... great records....

[–] obladi1023-1 17 years ago

Actually, I just happened to have finished a production of subUrbia playing Sooze. Haven't seen the movie yet though, so unfortunately I can't compare them. It's a great play, very intense and moving when it's live, so I can't imagine a film version. But I'd like to check it out soon, now that the play is over with.

[–] februarystar27 17 years ago

I was in the play in college like five years ago as Bee-Bee. We watched the movie as a group afterward, and I like the play version better. It was a really fun show to work on.

[–] BaneOfTheDarkKinght 16 years ago

Me too! If it was at Valencia in Florida, then I totally know you. If not...then its just awkward.

"Let's put a smile on that face"

Heath Ledger
Missed but remembered forever.

[–] februarystar27 16 years ago

Sadly, no. It was at Holy Cross in Massachusetts. Although when I got the reply-alert email I totally thought it was going to be someone from my cast who saw my post and found me. :P No awkwardness though. I doubt it's a show that's done all the time, so definitely worth asking.

[–] BaneOfTheDarkKinght 16 years ago

Well, at least its cool that I found someone else who worked on the play. I was Pony when I was in it (A very fun role I might add).

"Let's put a smile on that face"

Heath Ledger
Missed but remembered forever.

[–] addicted85_2004 16 years ago

I directed 'subUrbia' at the University of Tennessee last year in September. One of the best experiences of my life and a lot of that had to do with how much I love Bogosian's work. It was a fantastic play and we put on a great production of it. Bogosian's assistant actually sent us the 2006 revival version because I was persistent in asking for it, lol. It was awesome!

[–] EClarke007 16 years ago

I worked on a production at the Repertory East Playhouse in Santa Clarita, CA from Aug.22-Sept.6 2008 and it was incredible! There were tears in eyes and a standing ovation opening night.
The guy who played Pony (he was tattooed and an actual musician) opened and closed the show with an electric/acoustic guitar performance. That set up the play and his character and gave the audience something to relate to. It wasn't in the script but I highly recommend it for other future productions.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] shellyathc 16 years ago

haha,i was also in the hc production of suburbia, and we watched the movie in my dorm room : P

the play is way better than the movie. for me, the movie just dragged and seemed odd.

[–] februarystar27 16 years ago

yes we did. :) I'd forgotten I posted here until I got the email alert that someone had replied.

The movie does feel dragged. The play is so much better.

[–] woodyallex 16 years ago

well i haven't had a chance to read the play, and as i mentionned i saw a horrible rendition of it, but to say the film drags on would be to kind of miss the point...

it's supposed to. THe same way linklater's dazed and confused seems to fly by, like so many alchool-fueled high school parties, the early twenty/what the *beep* years of questionning and asking yourself what to do, and is it worth it? do drag end and seem endless when you're stuck in the middle of it....

don't you think?

[–] februarystar27 16 years ago

I do get your point, but the film to me drags on in a bad way, not in an intentional way. With the play (and maybe I'm just biased because I was in it rather than watching it in the audience), I feel like you get the sense of the characters going nowhere, but you don't stop caring about them or feel like pace is dragging. In the movie I found it harder to feel invested in the characters. Like, in Jeff's big "right now I'm getting naked" speech, I feel like in the movie it's played too "ranting drunk" and doesn't seem as much like he actually has any sort of breakthrough right there (even though the breakthough ends up being kind of "too little, too late"). I like how in the play there's a sense that Jeff is kind of finally feeling a sense of hope in that scene while Bee-Bee right next to him is falling into hopelessness, and I didn't feel that as much in the movie version.

I also think one thing that helps the play is that it all takes place in that one location outside the store, and that lends itself very well to the feeling that the kids are all just stuck there and going nowhere. Since the movie has a few different locations, which I think for a film is more necessary than in a play because it would be weird to shoot a movie with one set, it loses some of that sense of the characters being stuck. And somehow the pacing just felt off to me. Again, could be due to the fact that I was in the play and it feels different when you're acting in it rather than just watching it.

And just random little changes the movie made, like Bee-Bee potentially being alive rather than dead at the end and all of Tim's watered-down dialogue, just made me like the play better.

[–] woodyallex 16 years ago

yeah, i guess it's just different...

because purely from a movie standpoint, the drunken rant indeed does not feel like a breakthrough. but then then again i never got the feeling it was supposed to be.

it just felt like so many alchool or drug induced exilirating sense of breakingthrough,whilst really not changing anything about your life.

i personnaly always thought that if jeff really has a breakthrough, it's near the end, when he realizes that tim's hate is not really any more logical than pony's superficiality. to me that's when he really seems to grab a personality of his own, like he might just grow up and find a balance between living and accepting the negative aspects of society.

but of course like any piece of art we often stay attached to the first exposure we get of it, which to me was the movie.

[–] chantruse 16 years ago

Regarding Jeff's epiphany, I think (at least, this is the way I played it when I was Jeff) that the real epiphany comes at the end, like woodyallex is saying. The speech about going to NYC and stripping naked and consequences-be-damned, etc, etc, is a false epiphany. He's trying to psyche himself into something he doesn't really believe. I always think of the end of Waiting for Godot, in which they firmly agree to move from their spot, but then they don't move. He probably has this epiphany all the time (though this night's version is a little more dramatic because of the excitement around Pony's visit). But he doesn't go to NYC. He was never going to. He is afraid of consequences. He's embarrassed as soon as the guy from the convenience store sees him naked. So I think that's why some folks are saying that the scene drags. Personally I don't think it drags so much as it shows you the hollowness of Jeff's commitment. It takes the stuff with Tim at the end to raise the stakes high enough for anything to really change.

[–] woodyallex 16 years ago

"I always think of the end of Waiting for Godot, in which they firmly agree to move from their spot, but then they don't move."

yes, that is dead on. (with regards to what i was expressing)

you know, it just occured to me the irony of him proclaiming that he will now live in the moment, while completly missing what's going on withh bee-bee like two steps next to him....

that's what i meant about intoxication : it gives you a sense of being in the moment and being free, but what it really does is just remove you from reality, although in a different way. like instead of being stuck in the past or future, you're just standing next to what really happening at the moment....

and it doesn't usually lead to real changes in one's life, like moving to new york.

"it's all just drunk sincerity....." - bad religion

[–] LiquidDrainerFilms 16 years ago

I am directing a production of SubUrbia at Syracuse University this spring (for a theater group called WhAT)- I'm really looking forward to it, since it is my favorite play, and one of my favorite films!
Although it is one of my favorite movies, I will make sure my production does not fall into the trap of the actors trying to imitate the actors in the film- in fact, I'm going to encourage my actors to NOT see the movie until after the production is over, so they can find the characters themselves, and not just try to follow another actor's interpretation (as dead-on as every performance in the movie is). Sadly, all I will have to do to stop them from seeing the movie is to just not loan my copy to them, since it's so hard to find (and many college kids don't even have a VCR anyway)...

If you live in the Syracuse, NY area, be sure to check it out! April-ish.

[–] chantruse 16 years ago

I played Jeff in a college production in 1999. For a few reasons, the actual production I was in wasn't a great experience, but I always had great faith in the play. I think it's a great production for college, and all the best to anyone on this board mounting a production of it. One great part of our production, though, was a trip we took to Hartford to see Bogosian do one of his shows. Afterward, we (the subUrbia cast) went backstage and introduced ourselves. Eric said, "Who's playing Jeff?" I told him I was, and he looked at me dead in the eye and said "That's my part." Kinda cool, I thought.

And I agree that watching the film beforehand is something to avoid.

[–] 16 years ago

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