Theater review by Adam Feldman
“I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places,” promise the lyrics of the 1938 standard from which Seeing You takes its title. It’s a song about holding on to the memory of someone who may never return, and it struck a special chord for listeners during World War II. Immersive-theater impresario Randy Weiner and choreographer Ryan Heffington’s engrossing and evocative dance-theater show honors that sentiment, not merely rehashing traditional WWII iconography but infusing it with a ghostly charge.
Like Sleep No More, which Weiner produced, Seeing You has sequences in which audience members choose their own paths and moments of interaction with the 14 performers. In the initial orientation phase, we are free to wander among various intimate scenes of domestic, romantic and professional tension that introduce us to characters we can follow throughout the evening. Later, our attention is guided toward one or two sequences at a time. (Stories that have often been on the margins—racial discrimination, internment, same-sex desire—have pride of place.)
Designed by Desi Santiago, the show unfurls in a single, constantly evolving ground-floor space in the Meatpacking District. The skillful, well-drilled performers never stop moving, and Heffington—best known for Sia’s “Chandelier” video—gives them memorable showpieces: a guilt-ridden gay pas de deux for two soldiers (Jesse Kovarsky and Nicholas Ranauro); an unsettling jungle-jazz number for an African-American singer (Lauren Cox); a dinner-table breakdown for an anguished mother (Jodi McFadden); electric spasms of frustration for a Japanese-American artist (Eriko Jimbo), who also shares a split-screen duet of longing with her faraway boyfriend (Aaron Dalla Villa). A nightmarish U.S.O. show yields to a wrenching battle scene (rendered in shadows) and, finally, an evocation of nuclear warfare that is both spectacular and sober. It’s very much worth seeing.
High Line Building (Off Broadway). By Randy Weiner. Directed by Weiner and Ryan Heffington. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 30mins. No intermission. Through Aug 31.
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