Central Park Bacchants

"Look! Dionysus is being played by Mika!"
We sniggered into our programs. Even with my new glasses on the likeness was uncanny... the blood-hungry, woman-maddening God in the body of 2007's favourite fey Lebanese pop poppet. When Phillip Glass' ambient score swelled around him, actor Jonathon Groff seemed only a pout away from launching into 'Big Girls, You Are Beautiful.' No doubt the Bacchants would have enjoyed that.

Meanwhile out of the spotlights, in the darkness of the sticky night, a conspiracy was mounting. Central Park is not used to being upstaged. When the puny special effects aped a storm, the real thing swept in, lightening cutting up the purple sky. As the thunder rumbled, nature's soldiers readied themselves for a stage invasion. Singly at first, then in lines of ten together, they trotted out of shadows and onto the set.

"Look! Raccoons!"
Whispers and nudges were passed along the audience, and it took some serious Theban cross-dressing to drag our attention back to the play. In response, the raccoons raised their game.

"Fuck me, there's one under the seats!"

And after that not even Mika and his glittering trousers could compete with the Grace Kellys of the animal world.