This song seems like a turning point in the narrative. There was no actual play, so the plot never got acted out, and it's left to us to interpret what exactly is happening to that crazy Frank. The first act (though I can't tell where exactly the act break is) seems to be the source of the conflict, where Frank is kind of a loser, and certainly nothing is going well. In the song previous (Innocent When You Dream) the main character seems to looking at his sleeping lover, and is now contemplating suicide, with a whole "I'll show them" mentality. I believe that the main character does in fact die during this song, taking his own life by hanging himself (it's entirely possible that he takes his wife along with him). What follows seems to be an intricate dream, Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen surely paint a picture with the lyrics and the atmosphere of a cloudy, grey little place. Frank claws his way out of this depressing fantasy, and eventually (in his dreams) takes on Vegas and Broadway, finally becoming the winner he wants to be, but only in his dreams. :(
oops, it was my fault for not doing more research, but it seems the operachi romantico in two acts was in fact performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company at the Briar St. Theatre in chicago in 1986! i wish i had seen it, too.
oops, it was my fault for not doing more research, but it seems the operachi romantico in two acts was in fact performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company at the Briar St. Theatre in chicago in 1986! i wish i had seen it, too.
This song seems like a turning point in the narrative. There was no actual play, so the plot never got acted out, and it's left to us to interpret what exactly is happening to that crazy Frank. The first act (though I can't tell where exactly the act break is) seems to be the source of the conflict, where Frank is kind of a loser, and certainly nothing is going well. In the song previous (Innocent When You Dream) the main character seems to looking at his sleeping lover, and is now contemplating suicide, with a whole "I'll show them" mentality. I believe that the main character does in fact die during this song, taking his own life by hanging himself (it's entirely possible that he takes his wife along with him). What follows seems to be an intricate dream, Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen surely paint a picture with the lyrics and the atmosphere of a cloudy, grey little place. Frank claws his way out of this depressing fantasy, and eventually (in his dreams) takes on Vegas and Broadway, finally becoming the winner he wants to be, but only in his dreams. :(
oops, it was my fault for not doing more research, but it seems the operachi romantico in two acts was in fact performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company at the Briar St. Theatre in chicago in 1986! i wish i had seen it, too.
oops, it was my fault for not doing more research, but it seems the operachi romantico in two acts was in fact performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company at the Briar St. Theatre in chicago in 1986! i wish i had seen it, too.