What's With the "No Intermission" Thing?
The trendy Broadway shows du jour don't give you a half-time break to pee, take a breather, or leave!
It's become de rigueur to play things straight to the finish rather than give the audience -- not to mention the actors -- a chance to tend to their bladders or other body parts, for that matter.
A Life in the Theatre runs through about 90 minutes of two-character banter without a break in the theater.
La Bete goes even longer than that, steamrolling through monologues, arrivals, departures, and more monologues.
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson keeps going all the way through his Presidency.
Driving Miss Daisy drives to the finish line without giving you 15 minutes to run out to the Piggly Wiggly and back.
And Brief Encounter isn't that brief, but there's no intermission!
Is this a good thing -- just keep going so we can go home -- or is it sometimes done out of fear that Act II will be played to crickets?
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