The lights go down. The orchestra draws its breath. And for the next few hours, the world outside ceases to exist.
This is the promise of the theatre, and those who have felt it never forget it. We remember the first time we saw The Phantom of the Opera, and it was not spectacle alone that undid us. It was the caliber of the performers, voices and performances so astonishing that the machinery of the production vanished and only the story remained. We remember, too, an evening at The Sound of Music, which became something more durable than an outing. It became a memory. That is what the theatre does. From the moment the lights fall until they rise again, we are lost inside that shining rectangle, and emerge changed.
A great deal is asked to achieve it. The singing must be on point, the acting true, the orchestra rich. The house itself should be a pleasure: gilded or black-box intimate, but clean, beautiful, and comfortable, because nothing kills enchantment faster than an aching back or a sticky floor. And the audience should arrive as if for an occasion, dressed for it, with someone worth sharing it with, even if that someone is oneself.
None of this depends on size. A jewel box of a theatre can rival the grandest opera house, and two actors on a spare stage can hold an audience spellbound.
This column exists to champion the theatre at its best, and to make the case, one installment at a time, for a golden age worth returning to. What that looks like, we will reveal in time: what to cherish, what to restore, and what to leave behind. For now, this much we will say: a play people can love again, a beautiful night out, a few hours spent entirely inside a different story, and a house full of people who do not want it to end.
So go, but go only when a production promises to be excellent. Dress for it. Bring someone you love. Support greatness wherever you find it, and ask nothing less of those who take your money.
Good theatre should feel like Christmas, even when it breaks your heart. That is the promise, and it is one we will keep asking the theatre to make good on.
