What a fantastic and powerful show! I was really surprised at how much emotional heft there was in the piece and how it gave a really marvelously complete portrait of a loving and long-term relationship. I also felt that the uniformly excellent cast completely mastered the often quite sharp shifts of tone and mood with complete conviction – I could see that it would be relatively easy for these changes, in a less masterful production, could come across as too-sharp changes of gear and register – but not here.
The performance of the main showstopper (I am What I Am…) was, for me, surprising as it was so understated and not belted out fortissimo as it so often is – although, tbh, those performances tend to be by over-emphatic drag queens at the end of their set in clubs.
In the second part of the show I was surprised as to the extent to which the racist father was given space to give his views – at times uncomfortable, particularly in this country here and now – but, on reflection, it made it all the more powerful – and the English surtitles meant that I could enjoy the wit and style of Fierstein’s script – My fluent Hungarian-speaking companion said that the language of the Hungarian was not a patch on the English original. The political aspects were very, often painfully sharp for Hungary, although I did miss some of the improvised dialogue and moments – although, again, I was told that the majority of that consisted of VERY dirty jokes, rather than political material; that was more than covered in the actual script – painfully perceptive – and so it was very heartening to see a full and appreciate audience; now those attitudes just seen to be injected into the rest of the country outside of the liberal Budapest bubble.