Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – At NYU Skirball, Phelim McDermott reveals his immense, deep obsession with Philip Glass in TAO OF GLASS

• By drediman
• April 4, 2023
• No Comments

This past weekend, I attended the New York premiere of Tao of Glass at NYU Skirball by actor and director Phelim McDermott (who, on the day I attended the show, won a coveted Olivier Award for directing the magical stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved animated film My Neighbor Totoro) and the iconic minimalist composer Philip Glass. In essence, the show chronicles and excavates McDermott’s immense, deep relationship and ongoing obsession with Glass’s music (most New Yorkers will be familiar with McDermott as the director of the Metropolitan Opera’s sensational productions of Glass’s Satyagraha and Akhnaten).

In an organic collection of non-linear and organically assembled scenes, McDermott recounts key moments during which his life has intersected existentially with Glass’s music. Admittedly, Tao of Glassis a curious and singular piece of music theater, one that — with its studied, deliberate rhythms and slow progression of austere yet stunning stage pictures — took me a while get to settled into. But like Glass’s musical compositions, Phelim’s masterful and unusually philosophical theatrical memoir delves into the unconscious, casting a hypnotic spell that is just as difficult to shake off. The work is infused with a sense of wonder and collaborative energy that is the trademark of McDermott’s productions (particularly those for his theater company Improbable).

Throughout, the puppetry — which is largely contrived from a sea of sheet music, which is skillfully manupulated by a small team of puppeteers (kudos to David Emmings, Avye Leventis, and Sarah Wright) — is sinuously and seamlessly incorporated into McDermott’s introspective, meditative fantasia. As an actor, McDermott is an endearing and generous stage presence. His is a gently quirky personality that invites rumination and wonderment. The entire endeavor is underscored by live music-making by an onstage four-piece orchestra, which breathes soulful life to the ten new works penned by Glass for the occasion.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

TAO OF GLASS
Off-Broadway, Play / Classical Music
NYU Skirball
2 hours, 30 minutes (without in intermission)
Through April 8