Seminar

I’ve always been a fan of Jeff Goldblum with his works ranging from The Fly to the Jurassic Park movies.  He has not only a sense of drama, but he also has great comedic timing.

In this play, I didn’t know if the Ahmanson is such a good venue compared to Mark Taper.  Max said it is because of the size of the audience they are anticipating. He was right.  It was a packed house.

Jeff plays the character of Leonard, a brilliant author who had a best seller years before, and now holds expensive workshops/seminars for small groups of aspiring authors.  I hear the figure of $5k each, but I’m not sure.  It takes place in New York in one of the student’s apartment. There are about 4 students, each with their issues and quirks struggling to find the voice within. 

Leonard comes across as quirky who has traveled to exotic places, meets people and gets into strange circumstances to expand his horizons.  He pontificates about his own crazy experiences and has a tendency to forget the question in the midst of his rambling.  Those scenes are the best because they are so funny.  He can also be unbelievably cruel as he critiques the student’s work if they are not up to his standards.  After Kate was crushed by his ranting about her work, the other students are fearful of showing their own works. 

At the end we discover he is able to pull the best out of the students.  Great play and great performance by Jeff and the rest of the cast.