See What I Wanna See

Infobox Musical
name= See What I Wanna See


caption=
music= Michael John LaChiusa
lyrics= Michael John LaChiusa
book= Michael John LaChiusa
basis= Short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
productions= 2005 Off-Broadway
awards=

"See What I Wanna See" is a musical by Michael John LaChiusa based on three short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa: "Kesa and Morito", "In a Grove" (inspiration also for Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon) and "".

An early version of the show was mounted at the Williamstown Theater Festival in the summer of 2004. In the fall of 2005 the show received its New York premiere at the Public Theater in a production directed by Ted Sperling. The New York cast included Idina Menzel, Marc Kudisch, Henry Stram, Aaron Lohr, and Mary Testa. Menzel was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance in 2006.

The European Premiere of "See What I Wanna See" was performed by the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society in the United Kingdom. The show took place from 7 November to 11 November 2006, at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge.

The New England regional premiere of "See What I Wanna See" opened at Boston's Lyric Stage Company on 5 January and ran through 3 February 2007, directed by Stephen Terrell with musical direction by Jonathan Goldberg, fight direction by Meron Langsner, scenic design by Brynna C. Bloomfield, costume design by Rafael Jaen, and lighting design by Karen Perlow. This production was nominated for an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

Plot

Act 1 "R. Shoman"

The show opens with the song "Kesa", a scene independent to itself. Kesa appears onstage, singing the song. We realize that she is planning to kill her lover, Morito who enters midway through the song. They have sex, onstage, with Kesa on top and at the end of the song, Kesa yanks her knife out of her kimono belt, and raises it to stab Morito at the height of her climax. The lights go out.The show transitions into 1951, where a murder has taken place. The Janitor is onstage, talking to a policeman who is never seen

"(The Janitor's Statement)"

He explains that 'he didn't see anything', though later we learn he knows more than he is saying. The scene moves into the thief being interrogated by the police

"(The Thief's Statement/She Looked At Me)"

As he transitions into "She Looked at Me" we enter the thief's head and we see what happened that night- he describes how Lily (The Wife) looked at him on the street and encouraged the rape that was to come. Lily walks across the stage escorted by her husband right after he says "She looked at me... and she was ready to go" - she drops her scarf right in front of him, bends over to get it really slowly, gives him a look, and leaves the stage. The thief follows her and her husband to the nightclub where she is singing "(See What I Wanna See)". This is pretty straightforward, she does a lot of leaning across the table and flirting with Louie (The Husband) - the problem is that this puts her ass right in the thief's face. Something that's left off the CD is the thief's "never seen a baby like that" lines, leading up to him asking Louie who she is... he says "My WIFE"

The thief decides that the ONLY way to get a chance at Lily was to get the husband out of the way first "(Big Money)". He convinces Louie to go with him to the park to dig up some money that he knows is hidden there. At first, Louie is reluctant, but the thief gets him drunk. Under the heavy protests of Lily he gets him to "bring the wife along" to the park. The thief then explains how he proceeds to knock the husband out "(The Park)" and rape Lily, who tries to defend herself with a knife but loses. At this point, something in the thief snaps - he's incredibly enamored with Lily, and is pretty convinced that she wants him too "(You'll Go Away With Me)". Lily then orders the Thief to fight her husband for her. He does, and Louie is killed- Lily runs off into the night. At the end of the song, you end up back in the police department. The thief seems to want to die for the crime. Back in the Janitor's interrogation room, he explains his philosophy about the whole affair "(Best Not To Get Involved)"... but at the end he admits to remembering Lily - "how could you forget a woman like her?"

The Wife then proceeds to enter the interrogation room to explain her version of the story "(The Wife's Statement)"She explains that the thief raped her and her husband, Louie, blamed her for the rape and felt they no longer had anything to live for. We're in the wife's head now as she confronts Louie, who still blames her for the rape "(Louie)". He makes it clear that they should kill themselves together. It's pretty clear that the wife isn't all about that, but she says that she'll let him do it ("Louie guide my hand, I will honor you") - but at the last second, as he pushes the knife towards her, she panics and turns it towards him. And kills him. And there we've got HER version of what happened.

Musical Numbers

;Act 1
* Kesa
* The Janitor's Statement
* The Thief's Statement/She Looked at Me
* See What I Wanna See
* Big Money
* The Park
* You'll Go Away With Me
* Murder
* Best Not to Get Involved
* The Wife's Statement
* Louie
* The Medium and the Husband's Statement
* Quartet. You'll Go Away With Me (reprise)
* No More
* Simple as This
* Light in the East/Finale Act 1;Act 2
* Morito
* Confession/Last Year
* The Greatest Practical Joke
* First Message
* Central Park
* Second Message
* Coffee
* Gloryday
* Curiosity/Prayer
* Feed the Lions
* There Will Be a Miracle
* Prayer (reprise)
* Rising Up/Finale Act 2

References

External links

* [http://www.angelfire.com/funky/snl89/swiwssummary.html Summary of See What I Wanna See]