Larps and Larp Prep

I had a blast at Tales of Pendragon this past weekend. I think that I prefer Sea of Stars in some ways, but one has to realize that this means I prefer the game that built on and could not have existed without ToP. It's basically saying that larp writers are aware of the state of the art and constantly seeking to raise the bar.

Currently, mnemex and I are preparing for the second larp in ambug666's Lullaby of Broadway trilogy. We've watched Assassins, which leaves me a bit cold, but I can see what Sondheim is doing, and I find it boggling that some folks walked out on it.

We also saw Jekyll & Hyde, which seems a very uneven show to me. I liked the parts that stayed close to the nominal theme, e.g., the idea that all of us are good and evil, and that everyone tries to be something they aren't. I love the song "Facade", but it's the only one I can remember.

I found myself more impatient than usual with the love songs. There are, let's see, 5 songs that could be considered love songs. One works very well, because it is sung by Hyde, not Jekyll. Three are perfectly adequate love songs that could come from any show, which is my main issue with them.

The fifth is sung by Jekyll's fiance in a rather odd scene. At the end of the song, Jekyll says that he needs her and begs her not to abandon him. She tells him that when he needs her, if he needs her, he knows where to find her. Then she leaves, and we are, I think, to understand that she is not abandoning him.

If my reading of the scene is correct, then I am boggled. I mean, if I'd been told "I need you -- don't abandon me" by someone I don't, in fact, plan to abandon, I'd probably say something like, "What do you need me to do?" or "I'm here."

I find it fascinating that, even though the people denying Jekyll permission to experiment are shown to be hypocrites, the experiment is a) a disaster and b) has, as far as I can tell, absolutely no results that could even theoretically help with Jekyll's original goal, to help comatose patients, like his father. It is also fascinating that the humanitarian Jekyll, who protests that one should not abandon such patients or treat them like animals, agrees that, yes, he does want a human test subject that he can treat like a lab rat.

And, it's also interesting to see how much gets added to the original novella, which is very sparse on details.