Re: applause. Once the house lights go down, I like to feel like I’m in a different world, and any acting company worth its salt does too. It absolutely drives me insane when the audience wants to stop that action and acknowledge that a famous person is walking onstage.

As I recall, the sopranos were not applauded. The conductor was applauded before anything really started, and that’s fine. It’s part of the classical music tradition. But John Malkovich? It stopped the action and was simply to acknowledge his celebrity status.

And re: the type-casting of John Malkovich, it didn’t work quite as well as I was expecting it would. It was a great idea, but in the end, I want a real, meaningful performance that tells me something. I want John Malkovich to deliver–his reputation as a celebrity with a dark side by itself doesn’t do it for me. I felt this was, in the end, high concept, and disappointing delivery. But concept gets an A-plus.

I found the production didn’t quite live up to my expectations, which were very, very high. I sensed Malkovich was holding back, as if afraid to thoroughly unleash his acting skills on the much less theatrically accomplished people sharing the stage with him. And the fact that he is such a name brand–which I expected would work for him–worked against him. I wonder how this would work better with another actor, or if it depends too much on casting a celebrity already well-associated with his dark side. And I was absolutely furious with the audience for applauding his first appearance on stage. Why does a famous person walking on stage unhinge people like this?