Let's Fuerzabruta!

Last night I went to see Fuerzabruta! (for the second time) as part of that Off-Broadway 20 at 20 deal. It's this pretty amazing show that was featured on America's Next Top Model, as shown here in the winning picture of Whitney:


I like Fuerzabruta! a lot, and not just because there's an exclamation mark in the title and my friend Hallie is in it. Sarah describes it as "a show for sensation seekers," and I guess that's close to the mark. It's not a normal show with story and characters or even dialogue, it's more of an experience.

And, for someone whose legs turn to putty over fireworks and roller coasters and parades, Fuerzabruta! is right up my alley. Where else, I ask, can you see people flying and running sideways in a windstorm and underwater while right above you? That last part, especially, was cool - it's just crazy disconcerting for people to be splashing and rolling around just inches above your head.

I love stuff like that. It's inspiring and beautiful and gets me psyched and my writing doesn't do it justice. It's hard to put words to something that is wordless, you know? This, to me, is what EPCOT's Journey Into Imagination should be like, because it very much is a journey into the imagination. Throw in Figment (voiced by Billy Barty, of course), and I'd be in heaven.

My favorite part (as is everybody else's, I'd imagine - that's probably why their catchphrase is "Look up") was definitely the water. Hallie had said to let her know when I'd be coming so she could do one of the cooler parts in the show (I guess they switch around and it's not that set in stone as to who does what), so last night she was swimming.

I guess the four women in it (imagine a clear-bottomed, very shallow swimming pool, right over your head) are supposed to be water nymphs or spirits or just the human representation of the ocean (one thing I like about the show is that it is so open to interpretation). A lot of the time they're playful and having fun and sliding around like dolphins, but then there's a thunderstorm and they get angry and primal and screaming because the sea, as they do NOT teach you at The Seas with Nemo and Friends, can be very dangerous.

But before all that, during happier times, they were right above us, swimming around, and they sort of interacted with the audience a little bit. When Hallie was nearby, I waved, she noticed and recognized me (I wasn't sure she would, since I don't know how visibility is on her end), and we met, Hallie free in the water above, Kirk trapped on land below.

Our palms touched, though we were separated by this thick vinyl of the swimming pool bottom (sort of like the characters in Pushing Daisies), and the audience (according to Sarah) was like, "Whoa..." because clearly we were interacting in a way that was a lot more (hmm, what's the word?) comfortable/familiar/friendly than the rest of the nymphs.

I wish I had a picture of that moment. It was magical. I'm the type of guy that, when my friend Kellie plays Snow White in a Disney parade, she IS Snow White, so it was pretty amazing in that breathtaking moment, before she waved good-bye and swam away, to hold hands with my friend, the water spirit.