Theatre for Book Lovers or Music Junkies

I just saw two completely different plays this weekend.  Boom X is over at Crow's Theatre.  It is a one-person show that delves into music and the main current events between 1969 and 1995.  Rick Miller does a very good job in mimicking the sound of the different bands and occasionally substitutes his voice for political figures on screen.  I will say his George H.W. Bush was more on point than his Reagan, though his take on Thatcher was surprisingly good.  He also interviews four Gen Xers that were part of his life.  It's hard to really describe it, but if you have any interest in the 80s at all, you should go.  It runs for one more week.

Coal Mine's The Sound Inside is a hot ticket over at Coal Mine, and I've read that they just added a few more shows.  The playwright, Adam Rapp, also wrote Red Light Winter, which was about two men and a prostitute.  (Apparently, I just missed seeing this at Steppenwolf, as I had either moved to the UK or was getting ready to do so and wasn't able to get out to the theatre.  But I did manage to see an interesting production in Toronto in 2016.)  Anyway, I appreciate that the plot flipped around in a few unpredictable ways.  While the professor (of creative writing!) ended up in an inappropriate relationship with her student, it didn't turn out the way I imagined it at all.  I did enjoy this, but it felt so aimed at the type of theatre-goer who is immersed in the New York Review of Books (or at least the NYTimes book section) and considers things that happen in books to be just as important as what happens in real life.  The play namedrops Salinger and David Forster Wallace naturally.  At one point, the professor talks about how she collects first editions of great novels.  There are a fair number of inside jokes aimed at audience members who have read Salinger or Dostoevsky or, a bit more esoterically, James Salter's Light Years.  I actually have read Light Years, though I seem to be one of the few who wasn't completely blown away by it.  I may reread it one day, but it is a pretty low priority.  I will say that this play will probably move Faulkner's The Wild Palms up on my reading list a bit and also lead me to add Wharton's Ethan Frome to the list.  One thing that did appeal to my somewhat snobbish nature is that within the novel-within-the-play written by the student, the main character is going to see a Caryl Churchill play in New York, but Cloud 9 (my favourite) and not Top Girls, which is the one that always seems to be revived.  Even from this short discussion, you can probably tell if The Sound Inside is for you or will just feel it is too precious and even a bit pretentious.