Netflix makes it easy to visit Broadway from home
While Chattanooga is frequently passed over for many independent and small market films, it also (along with the majority of the country) misses out on another important aspect of the arts, namely live theater.
Of course, most cities have their own playhouses and theater companies, offering a variety of shows. The Chattanooga Theater Center does its best to bring quality plays and musicals to the city, but the newer works, like the much lauded Hamilton or more recent Dear Evan Hansen, are far out of reach for most Americans.
Unless you happen to live within the Five Boroughs of New York City, you’re simply out of luck, and even then you’ll need to be spectacularly wealthy (and lucky) to get your hands on a pair of tickets for the hottest new show on Broadway.
It may take two to three years for a popular show to finally become a traveling show, and then access is sometimes limited to larger metropolitan areas. Most of the time, the only first-hand experience anyone has with these Broadway shows comes from limited performances on network television shows or during events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
That The Tony’s are broadcast nationally is almost laughable given that only a small fraction of the viewing audience even has had a chance to see the shows being honored. For once, however, audiences have a chance at seeing a show as it was presented on Broadway, this time only a mere five months after the show closed.
Oh, Hello, a strange, hilarious dual improve show created by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, has arrived on Netflix and is more than worth the cost of subscription.
Oh, Hello ran for six months on Broadway to rave reviews and it’s easy to understand why. Kroll and Mulaney are expert performers and comedians, and the show itself is as funny as it is elusive. John Mulaney has long been one of my favorite comedians—those unfamiliar with his work should also check out his stand-up specials New Kid in Town and The Comeback Kid, also on Netflix. He is simply outstanding.
Nick Kroll is likely the more familiar of the pair, with a resume stretching from The League to Parks and Recreation to Comedy Central’s The Kroll Show. He’s the type of performer that can pop up anywhere and is always a welcome addition. The combination of the two was certain to be successful.
Still, the weird “New York” personalities of their characters George St. Gleegland and Gil Faizon may not be especially accessible to many outside the bubble of the Big Apple—clearly, this is a show about New Yorkers for New Yorkers.
Hopefully, enough of the country has seen their share of Woody Allen movies and can recognize some of the mannerisms on display, although Kroll and Mulaney have exaggerated them so much that this recognition is the barest qualification for understanding the show.
Oh, Hello is on its face a play within a play, a story written by geriatric Upper West side resident Gleegland for his equally ancient actor roommate Faizon. The two perform the show in real time, dreadfully speaking stage directions at each other while pointing out the subtext to ensure the audience doesn’t miss their intentions.
The effect is to simultaneously deconstruct the lamentable current trends in theater production while dabbling in absurdist humor involving raccoons, tuna sandwiches, and Steely Dan. Somewhere in the center of the show, the two reenact their public access prank show, Too Much Tuna, which features a celebrity guest, in this case Steve Martin.
More of these celebrity interviews can be found on the Oh, Hello YouTube channel—there’s a lot of material for those that enjoy the show. It’s important to remember that much of Oh, Hello is improvised—by the time the show was filmed, the pair had done it enough that the lines between that which is scripted and that which is improvisation is uncannily blurred. It’s absolutely beautiful to watch.
These characters may be familiar for fans of Nick Kroll—they were featured frequently on The Kroll Show and would pop occasionally elsewhere one late night television shows like Comedy Bang! Bang! and Late Night with Seth Myers.
According to Kroll and Mulaney, they were inspired to create them when they encountered two older men wearing turtlenecks and blazers purchasing separate copies of Alan Alda’s book Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: and Other Things I’ve Learned at the Strand bookstore in New York.
If you’re the type of person that can see the humor in something so seemingly innocuous, then Oh, Hello is for you.