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Live Performance
Mar. 16th, 2026 02:20 pmWeighing in on the Timothee Chalamet remarks.
First of all, I understand what he was trying to say. Live Theater, Ballet, and Opera (and Jazz, in some cases) have become so expensive that it's hard to see much of it, especially at a high level.
On the other hand, as someone who has given up food to see a Royal Shakespeare Company production (and that's not including things like waiting in line for hours for the cheaper same day tickets or the armchair proms), nothing touches being in the same room as the performers. There is an alchemy that occurs.
If it's made for a screen, there can be some question about whether the human body or human voice can actually do what's being portrayed. If you're in the same room -- even if you're getting a nosebleed up in the gods -- you can tell that everything is possible.
In some cases, people are told "oh, you wouldn't like it" and believe what they're told. I had a colleague who quietly asked me, "Do you know anything about opera?" We went to see The Girl of the Golden West by Puccini within the week. There were cheap tickets available because it wasn't a full house. She enjoyed it. We ended up seeing Faust and another opera, I think Manon by Massenet, together, and she continued attending operas.
She'd been told Opera wasn't her type of thing, but she heard an aria somewhere and decided to try it.
I was lucky. When Dad was assigned to London, the USO had tickets available for various performances. Once Dad found out about it, he took Mom to see her first Opera -- Madama Butterfly -- and they ended up in the area of the Grand Balcony reserved for Princess Margaret. She released the tickets when she knew she wasn't attending, and they often ended up as USO tickets. Mom insisted that her kids weren't going to wait until they were over 30 to see an opera, so we attended Hansel and Gretel at a matinee.
Ballet was an easier sell, though I think Sis and I are among the very few kids who saw Swan Lake before they saw The Nutcracker.
Modern Dance was something that I explored on my own thanks to high school dance classes.
But being dismissive about the lively arts doesn't get more people into the movie theater. It's not an either/or proposition.
First of all, I understand what he was trying to say. Live Theater, Ballet, and Opera (and Jazz, in some cases) have become so expensive that it's hard to see much of it, especially at a high level.
On the other hand, as someone who has given up food to see a Royal Shakespeare Company production (and that's not including things like waiting in line for hours for the cheaper same day tickets or the armchair proms), nothing touches being in the same room as the performers. There is an alchemy that occurs.
If it's made for a screen, there can be some question about whether the human body or human voice can actually do what's being portrayed. If you're in the same room -- even if you're getting a nosebleed up in the gods -- you can tell that everything is possible.
In some cases, people are told "oh, you wouldn't like it" and believe what they're told. I had a colleague who quietly asked me, "Do you know anything about opera?" We went to see The Girl of the Golden West by Puccini within the week. There were cheap tickets available because it wasn't a full house. She enjoyed it. We ended up seeing Faust and another opera, I think Manon by Massenet, together, and she continued attending operas.
She'd been told Opera wasn't her type of thing, but she heard an aria somewhere and decided to try it.
I was lucky. When Dad was assigned to London, the USO had tickets available for various performances. Once Dad found out about it, he took Mom to see her first Opera -- Madama Butterfly -- and they ended up in the area of the Grand Balcony reserved for Princess Margaret. She released the tickets when she knew she wasn't attending, and they often ended up as USO tickets. Mom insisted that her kids weren't going to wait until they were over 30 to see an opera, so we attended Hansel and Gretel at a matinee.
Ballet was an easier sell, though I think Sis and I are among the very few kids who saw Swan Lake before they saw The Nutcracker.
Modern Dance was something that I explored on my own thanks to high school dance classes.
But being dismissive about the lively arts doesn't get more people into the movie theater. It's not an either/or proposition.
