Three Days of Pain

Okay. I get it. I understand why the critics are being so hard on Julia Roberts, but it's not her fault. Three Days of Rain is kind of boring. And her part in the first act is kind of lame and the fact that she's practically screaming may have had something to do with, what some critics called, her wooden performance. It's not fair when actors and actresses
have to worry about the sound quality of a show because it detracts from their performances.

Sound on straight plays is always lame. I don't know why they don't attach microphones to the actors like they do in musicals. If actors in this play had individual mikes they could concentrate on acting instead of projecting. But no. Like all straight plays where TALKING is the most important thing, only the stage is miked which means instead of individuals you hear all of it, everything. Even if you're wearing one of my headsets, instead of hearing the sounds being eminated from the people acting in the show, you hear every sound in the entire freakin' theater - including candy wrappers, coughing and the beeping of phones that weren't silenced during the walk-in (the half hour before the show starts where everyone takes their seats).

Now as far as the play goes, it's like watching someone's playwriting graduation project. I don't know how this show was chosen for Broadway - and mind you some these tickets are going for over $600. In the first act the three actors play a brother, his sister and their friend. In the second act they play their parents. Snooze. Nothing much happens. Although, the second act does afford Julia a meatier part by way of a dramatic Southern woman. Paul Rudd's character stutters in the second act which makes it even LONGER. I smacked my forehead in frustration and released a huge sigh when his character started stuttering.

I've heard that some people find the play confusing but is that Julia Roberts's fault? No. It's not. It's the play. I understand why some people found the play confusing. If you were bored by the incredibly boring first act you may have missed all the important but boring exposition and boring background stuff about the characters that would show up later in the slightly less boring second act.

Bradley Cooper is the third actor in the play and he is very good. His energy is what pulled me through the show. Paul Rudd turns in a decent performance and Julia Roberts is Julia Roberts. She is lovely, talented, sweet but very soft spoken. The Jacobs Theater seemed to swallow her voice. I listenedto her. She was talking in top voice. It's not like she was whispering.

But gosh I sure do wish she would speak louder. I hate when the patrons complain to me about the sound quality of the show. Patrons don't understand that I'm not associated directly with the theater - I'm just a vendor providing a service. Because of the nature of my work they want to talk to me about the sound of the show. I can only shrug my shoulders.