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John Malkovich Is Strangling Hookers With Their Bras At BAM
By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 18, 2011
Modified Nov 18, 2011
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Nathalie Bauer
By
Garth Johnston
Published Nov 18, 2011
Modified Nov 18, 2011
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Last night, while protesters were marching over the Brooklyn Bridge, John Malkovich was marching over dead prostitutes at BAM at its premiere of The Infernal Comedy: Confessions Of A Serial Killer. If the idea of Malkovich Malkovich playing real-life Austrian Hannibal Lecter Jack Unterweger as he gives a book tour in hell accompanied by a trio of opera sopranos sounds up your alley—well, the show runs through tomorrow. And you won't be disappointed. The show is a beautifully sung jukebox opera—but in English ("The international language of love," Malkovich as Unterweger explains) and with ladies being strangled to death with their bras.
Though the program gives a good rundown, if you go you probably want to catch up on the story of Unterweger (though don't just use Wikipedia, for reasons the show explains) as not everything gets explained on stage. For now though, the important facts are these: Unterweger was an Austrian convicted of killing a prostitute in 1974 who served 15 years in jail before being released after "reforming" and becoming an intellectual cause celebre. He then went on to go right back to strangling prostitutes with their bras, including three in LA. Eventually he was caught and convicted again, but before he could go back to jail he killed himself in 1994 (here's a good documentary on him).
In case that doesn't make it clear, this isn't exactly your average opera. Especially since, like a jukebox musical, the song selection is made up of classics by many of the field's greats (Gluck, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn are all represented) and the show itself—written and directed by Michael Strurminger with music direction and concept by Martin Haselböck—is very self-aware (at one point Malkovich looks up and reads the supertitles accompanying one of the songs). It is also very spartan. Done Encores! style there is an orchestra on stage, a table with some books and a lamp, a chair and, well, that's it. Luckily there is also John Malkovich, one of our nation's weirder theatrical treasures, who barely leaves the stage, never seems to drop character (even when he's just sitting and listening to the pretty music) and uses one of the stranger Austrian accents since, as he mentions in the show, California's former Governator. Malkovich as a seductive psychopath in hell not surprisingly totally works.
Still, depending on what you think of listening to opera sopranos sing while watching John Malkovich become increasingly unhinged, your mileage may vary on this one. But if you go for the matinee tomorrow? We suggest following it up with a screening of Being John Malkovich at the BAM Rose Cinemas next door to make a Malkovich day of it!
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