Those Were The Days (My Friend)

Wow! Double wow!! We got blown away this weekend at Theater 3 in Port Jefferson by the world premier of the new musical “1968 – Rock the World.”

The short take: great music; a good “book” to tie the tunes together; and more than enough talent to pull it all off. Go see it. Twice. We’re gonna.

The story mixes a single mom (not very accepted in polite society in 1968); a returned Vietnam vet (burned out and barely hanging on); a new teacher (who gets radicalized by her school board); a goofy high school kid; a standard issue Latino youth; a young black girl; a WWII vet (who’s not getting the changes in society); a gay black artist who cooks in a luncheonette; a gal who gets all her news from the squirrels in the park; and her brother, the local pharmacology consult who deals off a park bench; plus the narrator, a journalist trying to write/sell the great American novel. Their acting is adequate-plus, their renditions of the 30 or so of the best tunes of the year 1968 hits all the right notes.

And it was written by two locals – Jeffrey Sanzel (one of the world’s best Scrooges, don’t miss Theater 3’s “A Christmas Carol”) and Theater 3’s musical director, Ellen Michemore.

For those who didn’t live through the ‘60’s it’s a bit of history brought to life. (It got top props from my two 20 year-old nieces.) For those who remember when the music was new, not only is it a living reminder of what our “good old days” were sorta like, but it’s fun to hear that music again, done live, by larger-than-life talent -- Corryn Manwiller blows the doors off the joint and Liza Colpa (a senior at St. Joseph Academy, Dolores and her sister Theresa’s high school alma mater) is gonna be a star some day.

The rest of the cast, especially Carolyn Droscoski (a Broadway pro and 20-year Actor’s Equity member) does a fine, fine job.

The real stars, of course, are the tunes: “For What It’s Worth (something’s happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear); Mr. Tambourine Man; Those Were The Days (my friend); California Dreamin’; Heard It Through the Grapevine; The Times They Are a Changing and more, more, more. ’68 was quite a year, musically.

The Dylan song, “The Times They Are A Changing” was the most interesting to me, ‘cause I think Dylan missed. He was a good song writer but a lousy seer.

His protests were on target -- warning parents, writers, politicians, everyone…that “the old order is rapidly changing,” and
“Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.”

The promise, back in 1968, was “we” would change things – end the war, end racism, end poverty, end all the wrongs in the world, or at least here in America.

Well, he was right to protest, there were major problems in the country need’n fix’n.

But he was wrong to prophesize “our” generation would fix them. While there have been improvements in many areas, most of the challenges of 1968 are the same challenges we face today, 40 years later. I can’t say we boomers have quite lived up to the promise everyone said we had, and we certainly haven’t lived up to the promise we thought we had. The hopeful lyrics Dylan penned in 1968 really brought that home to me in 2008.

It’s not quite the anthem it used to be. History dun killed it.

On the other hand, maybe it was just media hype in the first place; maybe we convinced ourselves we were different, and most certainly “better;” or maybe we just dropped the ball.

Or maybe, just maybe, Dillon saw an opportunity to appeal to an audience and cash in. Was he actually saying something new or just reinforcing our own vanity and stroking our ego to make some dough?
True art or crass commercialism?
That’s more than I have room for here. Besides, it sounds like at least a Master’s thesis if not a PhD dissertation.

No matter. The purpose of theater is to provoke thought, isn’t it? Or is it to sell tickets? Or maybe just provide some entertainment, relief from “life,” and a pleasant evening.

There’s no doubt about the pleasant evening. A great one, even. So invest the $25 or so, buy a bunch of tickets, line up some friends and go see it.
It’s good theater in a great old theater.

Here’s the web site: http://www.theatrethree.com/