Stuck Elevator was fantastic

Reviews, Live Shows

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220213 Breathing Forests by Gabriella Smith (world premier)

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211203 "Seven Pillars" premier at Emerald City Music

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210911 Sylvan Esso at The Greek

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210911 Tune Yards at Ford Amphitheater

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210129 Cinematic Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall livestream

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201201 Sylvan Esso "With Love" streaming

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200322 Nederlans Dans Theater at Place des Artes

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200221 DRUM Tao at Jorgensen Center

pina colada cotton candy

191116 Sylvan Esso at Walt Disney Concert Hall

Moving music, delightful dancing, incredible sound

191115 Ohmme at Teragram Ballroom

Fantastically quirky

191025 Hiatus Kaiyote at Novo

Amazing music, over my head

191023 Frances Cone and Delta Rae at Bootleg

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191017 Cosmo Sheldrake at Echoplex

Great samples, less-inspiring looping

191013 Oregon Symphony premier of Andy Akiho Percussion Concerto

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191009 GoGo Penguin's Koyaanisqatsi at Regent Theater

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190925 Cornelius at Echoplex

Bright lights, big music.

190726 New Original Works Festival 2019 at REDCAT

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How to make pop songs performative?

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Hide and Seek and not much else

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So Snarky!

190319 Monterey Symphony: Sound Waves Concert IV

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Holy shit this was a good show!

190127 Hidaka at International Dinner 2019

Go Hidaka Taiko!

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181108 Birdtalker at Hotel Cafe

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180623 Olafur Arnalds at Cathedral Sanctuary

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180614 Dirty Projectors at El Rey Theater

Amazing quirk-pop!

180310 Miyake x UnitOne

UnitOne shines!

180224 Batare at La Mirada Theater

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180223 QuiltCon 2018

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180131 Kagami Kai at Asian Art Museum

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160918 Road to Kumano: Taiko Project with Chieko Kojima

Ambitious new work!

160409 Locations and Dislocations: An Ecomusicological Conversation

thought-provoking, inspiring, exhausting

130514 Stuck Elevator was fantastic

Powerfully uneventful ending

081012 Byron's Bottled Water Operas

Welcome. Stay and think.

Stuck Elevator was fantastic

Last month on the way back from our tour in the northwest, I had the pleasure of stopping in San Francisco to catch the last staging of Byron Au Yong’s Stuck Elevator. In short, I loved it.

It was a relatively large production and part of me worried that Byron’s vision and the avant-garde music would take a beating. But my first impression: yay for large-production staging! The musical tells the true story of a food delivery person trapped in an elevator for 81 hours. How does one stage a whole story that takes place in an elevator?! The answer: A wall-less steel frame elevator car suspended center-stage with a moveable floor and ceiling, fly-in elevator doors, and projections of a live-feed overhead surveillance camera on the back wall. It was really artistic. In less capable hands, the play’s most interesting staging moments would be moments of escape from the elevator, during a flashback scene when we’re free to leave the space. But the open-walled elevator, the camera work, the changing heights of the floor and ceiling made the elevator itself the hero of the staging.

Byron’s music was just my preferred balance of quirky and catchy. The last piece was particularly moving for me, and provided a bit of satisfaction that the story could not (more on that in a moment). The performers voices were great and save for a few spots, the music was able to handle the hard task of carrying the story and being musical. In other musicals, I often feel the lyrics are burdened with the telling of the story.

The play had more levity than I was expecting. Although I might prefer a darker overall tone, I didn’t mind the comedy. I was surprised how much I liked the silly “Orange Beef” scene. It felt somehow “refined”, with polished timing, interesting music, and clever staging. I laughed out loud a number of times during the show.

I really, really liked the end of the story; the uneventful opening of the doors, without rescue personnel to recognize and give sympathy to Guang. I walked away thinking, “Thank goodness that amazing experience has been captured in ‘Stuck Elevator’.” Thank you for capturing this, Byron!