From yesterday:
Jose: I just don't want to get to a point and time where the number one consideration for an aspiring playwright, screenwriter, author, composer, director, etc., has to be the projected running time, number of pages or opportunity for "potty breaks".
And now today BK wonders "Where Time Goes".
To both of these I answer: after 90 minutes Times' bladder is speaking up, oftimes loudly! Try telling women in their third trimester, 7 year old boys, or 60 year old man to "just hold it in for a while".
It would be nice if we could all plan our lives so we could spend the 4 hours before the theatre training our micturation system in preparation for Act I of Les Miz; however, it often happens that we have dinner and the Theatre in pretty close order. (I prefer Theatre then Dinner, but other than NYC, most cities offer little in the way of grand dining after 11 PM.)
To confound the problem, we often get little advance notice of how long a stretch we will have prior to the intermission (if any). I knew LOTR:ROTK was going to be an exercise in bladder control so I was very careful in my intake, was successful in convincing Mr. Bladder to cooperate right before show time, and picked an aisle seat just in case. These preparations were rewarded with an uninterrupted journey to MT Doom.
To Jose I say: we all don't drink an extra glass of wine at dinner just to have an excuse to get up and annoy other theatre-goers at the 90 minute point, but "pee happens"! If the creative team has a tale to tell, and wants the audience's undivided attention, they must be aware of competition. I, for one, would have no problem with 2 intermissions if that helped break the show into manageable parts. (Remember when movie theatre owners’ pockets were more richly rewarded with concession sales than second showings? Most big film outings had an Intermission.)
der Brucer (and after 2 cups of morning tea, Time goes - it's time to go!)