Stuck Elevator is playing all this month at the American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) in San Francisco. It is the stage adaptation of the true story of a Chinese immigrant deliveryman who endured more than a weekend - 81 hours, to be precise! - stuck inside of an elevator in a Bronx apartment building. I took in a show here the last time I was in S.F.
Short of food, drink, lavatory or human company (or even a mobile phone)...a miserable experience, as you can imagine.
It is not a musical but, unfortunately, worse: an opera in the English language.The production is billed as a musical but I paid to see it nonetheless. It is however not a musical (thankfully) but, unfortunately, worse: an opera in the English language. The singing is superb but the rhythm and kick of the songs is awful. It sounds so off beat and incomprehensibly jangled. And this went on throughout the show; no dialogue interrupted by singing but, rather, singing punctuated by the rare exchange of characters actually speaking. It pissed me off. I could not wait for that noise to end -- but since I so wanted to see how the unlucky deliveryman got out of the stalled Otis I stayed put.
The special effects of traveling along the protagonist's waning mental state and hopelessness - his delusions and longing memories brought on by solitary confinement - was entertaining. He's back in the past inside the ship container being smuggled into America; he's in the present pleading with his Hispanic immigrant co-worker; he's in the future being cannibalized by family and acquaintances; he's riding his bike in the sky -- and all of this inside of his head inside of the stuck elevator. Brilliant. 
imagine being stuck in this elevator
nah, I'd rather be stuck with me!
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