San Diego Serenade: The Black Rider Playing in LA

The Black Rider

Well it looks like the Bob Dylan Musical "The Times They Are A-Changin'" closed in San Diego on March 19th. There is a lengthy, lengthy article in the Union Tribune detailing the many changes that the production has gone through during its run in San Diego. Since I never saw the play I just sort of skipped through the article until I saw something about the hopeful demise of its Broadway bound plans, which are evidently still on. It intends to open in New York this winter, and we can only wish it the best as it heads East, towards the city where Dylan came of age as a musician and hopefully towards the critical savaging it deserves.

And as the biggest musical theatre event of San Diego's year comes to a close, Los Angeles gets ready to open up a far more exciting, far more dignified production of their own. Tom Waits' "The Black Rider" opens at the Ahmanson Theatre on April 22nd. The Black Rider has always proven a difficult album for me to get into. Though Waits would later release albums such as Alice and Blood Money, both based on musicals he participated in, they remained at their heart Tom Waits solo albums. I believe the collaborative nature of the music on the Black Rider album, and the songs themselves, (lyrics penned by William S. Burroughs) makes it far less accessible than either of those two works. However, it does seem like the kind of production that would make for an ideal theatre experience, especially when you take a look at some of the cool looking sets that they have cooked up. They look sort of Tim Burton-y, and since I was convinced that Burton was thinking of Tom Waits when he constructed the "New Arrival" number in The Corpse Bride, it is appropriate that the similar ideals the two share might turn up elsewhere. I'm very excited to get a chance to see it live, and finally get a chance to experience The Black Rider the way it was meant to be seen.

In short, if you wanted to ask someone to lay out what the basic difference is between LA and San Diego, you could say this: LA puts on a show which sold out in London, Sydney and San Francisco, based on the works of an artist who rarely performs live, thereby ensuring that when anything of his does have a chance to reach his devoted fans, you can be damn sure it is worth your time. San Diego gets a musical where the greatest song ever recorded was illustrated for its audience by having giant fake boulders rolll across the stage.

MP3s: The Black Rider (Live excerpt)
Tom Waits - The Black Rider (Studio)
Video: William S Burroughs reading Crossroads (Real Player)