Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays by Steve Martin

Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays Reviews

• 
  Kenny

  I could dream it forever and still not do it, but when the time comes for it to be done, God, I want to be ready for it, to be ready for the moment of convergence between the thing done and the doing of it, between the thing to be made and its maker. At that moment, I am speaking for everyone; I am dreaming for the billions yet to come; I am taking the part of us that cannot be understood by God, and letting it bleed from the wrist onto the canvas. And it can only be made, because I have felt these things: my lust, my greed, my hatred, my happiness. So this is what it's like.
  Picasso at the Lapin Agile ~~ Steve Martin
  
  
  3.5/5
  
  I like Picasso at the Lapin Agile; I don’t love it. I feel this partly because I’ve never seen a good production of it. Most directors don’t understand the source material. They think of this as being an edgy play by that wild and crazy guy who had a top 10 hit with King Tut. They forget that the writer Steve Martin is not the same guy as the comedian Steve Martin. I do wonder what this idea could have become in the hands of Woody Allen...
  
  Alas, not all the pieces here fit together. Take the character of Albert Einstein ~~ here he becomes a parody of himself.
  
  And let’s not forget Picasso ~~ for a man who spent his life bragging about his genius to world, he comes across as uninteresting and flat ~~ very flat.
  
  
  
  At the Lapin Agile is undeniably entertaining ~~ but it never quite finds its voice. Much of what could have been brilliant, deep conversations are often lost underneath carefully crafted dialogue and increasingly surreal events. Martin sets out to explore the nature of genius and creativity, but this exploration becomes muddled by the time a time traveling Elvis shows up ~~ complete with blue suede shoes.
  
  
  
  At the Lapin Agile is an undeniably well-written, funny play ~~ the script even makes me laugh out loud when reading it. Sadly, the one-sided caricatures of Picasso and Einstein themselves, along with dialogue filled with references only the over 50 crowd would understand keep this from being a great play rather than a good play.
  
  In the end, At the Lapin Agile is a play where the spokes have no hub to connect them. Perhaps the script is too self-aware. I would expect this script to take risks and push boundaries. The surreal moments seem thrown in to save a floundering playwright who isn't quite sure where to take his script.
  
  At the Lapin Agileis an okay script. But I expected so much more than okay from Steve Martin.
  
  
• 
  Danielle

  This book includes "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" which was censored recently when my hometown high school in La Grande, OR tried to perform it under the directorship of Mr. Kevin Cahill. After much bruhaha, the school board decided not to perform it, and the local college, Eastern Oregon University, tried to follow suit when Mr. Cahill and the students turned to them. The Democratic student group petitioned the college and the play will indeed be performed, but without all of the props and materials they had already put into it at LHS. Steve Martin came forward a few days later, and in a letter to the local paper, he offered to pay for the performance and what funds are leftover will be put in a scholarship for student thespians.
  
  I read a few of these plays in the 1990s, but had not read "Picasso at the Lapin Agile." I remember Martin's plays as interesting and quite good, but this time around, I really loved "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" for it's exploration of discovery, inspiration in art and science. That and I love Steve Martin's style, who breaks the fourth wall frequently and absurdly. I have not yet seen them performed, but will be going to see "Picasso..." when it is performed by the LHS students.
• 
  Amy

  This is the most phenomenal book Steve Martin has ever written. I suspect a lot of people would be surprised by the poignancy and bereft tone the permeates through these plays. But you have to remember he also wrote "LA Story," and there are some utterly heartbroken and masterfully passionate parts in that movie.
  
  This is Steve Martin unlike I'd ever seen before and remains my favorite thing he's ever given us.
• 
  Josh

  Steve Martin tricked me with this book of plays. They were so awesome and fabulous and funny and smart on the page that I thought I'd go see some of them, which didn't work out so well.
  
  The first was really my own fault. Even if the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile was a witty philosophical rumination on the nature of art, science, the 20th century and human nature set as a conversation between Picasso, Einstein and Elvis over drinks perfectly executed on the page, I should have known better than to see it in a community theater on the busmall in Vancouver Washington.
  
  The second time I saw a Steve Martin play, it was his "update" of a turn of the century German sex-farce called The Underpants. I hadn't read it previous. It was not good enough to be in this book.
  
  The moral of this story is that the pages of this book are gold, but that doesn't mean productions or other Steven Martin plays will be.
• 
  R. Parker

  I know of quite a few people who are familiar with Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which is a fine play, though the real treasure of this book is the one-act plays accompanying it. WASP in particular is riotously funny; when I was an actor I read from it for auditions. The Zig Zag woman requires several live magic tricks to be performed onstage in addition to the play itself, adding a wonderful extra element that you wouldn't normally expect to see onstage.
  
  These plays are much more in the voice of Steve Martin the comedian, as opposed to his far more serious novellas. That can be a bad thing and a good thing—they're very difficult to immerse yourself in (especially if you're reading the plays rather than seeing them onstage) because you can't help but picture the words coming from Steve Martin's mouth, but Steve Martin's mouth says a lot of hilarious things.
• 
  Yourfiendmrjones

  The 1st in the collection is the best. But overall, Martin shows off his driving concerns- magic and creativity versus the mundane. It all tracks for a waspy guy who has always been an organic mix of the vulgar of showbiz and the poetry of art and philosophy. So the real treat in this collection is in reading the shorter plays that take on the search for love through the art of stage magic. Even the longest of the short pieces “W.A.S.P.” has the sweet magical realism that shoots through everything he writes here as it looks at a family’s struggle for love amid what it’s been told normal should be. Just. Great.
• 
  Nathan

  Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a collection of plays written by Steve Martin. The headliner, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, is stellar. It imagines a bar in France where one day Picasso and Einstein find themselves meeting & discussing their lives, their worlds and their ideas. A surprise guest at the end shows the two of them who is really in charge of human destiny. Other plays, WASP for example, are hilarious and equally deserving of top billing. Worth it alone for the conversation about hell between a young student and his father.
  
  NC
• 
  Conrad

  In case anyone doubts the serious craft and intelligence that goes into Steve Martin's humor, they should read this stat. Lapin Agile is slapstick and wistful at the same time, sophisticated and erudite and witty but also accessible. It takes way more brains than I will ever have to put Picasso and Einstein in the same room and make it as hilarious as this play.
• 
  Kristine Morris

  I saw Picasso at the Lapin Agile many years ago at CanStage. It was excellent! Reading the play was also very good and funny. The other plays in this short volume are more downcast - dealing with failures in relationships.
• 
  Elizabeth

  Read this tonight at my book group. The play was witty and fun, but what added to the pleasure was having each of us take a part and read it out loud. Characters included Picasso and Einstein. A very creative idea for a night at book group! Lots of laughs from the always humorous Steve Martin.
• 
  Dennis

  It's a solid play. I wanted to like it more than I did. Favorite Quote, "I could dream it forever and still not do it, but when the time comes for it to be done, God, I want to be ready for it."
• 
  Kelly

  Found, basically brand new, at book sale!
• 
  Em

  This volume actually contains four short plays and I’d been wanting to read the title piece since it was staged in New York, but I just picked this up a couple of weeks ago. I’d heard it was brilliant and funny, but as much as I love Steve Martin and enjoyed his novella ‘Shopgirl’ I’d say ‘Picasso’, while interesting was a cup shy of brilliant and funny. And for the other pieces, I hated the last one ‘Wasp’ it was the worst piece of drivel and non sequitur junk, if he was aiming for ‘Godot’ greatness he missed. The two in the middle ‘The Zig Zag Woman’ and ‘Patter for the Floating Lady’ each had a couple of good speeches and some underlying good motivation but not great. No, I would say that ‘Picasso’ is the best of the bunch. It has a couple of fresh conventions but he takes them over the top at the end. The ending just fizzles out like really flat champagne. It’s going to be done and UWSP this fall, and I’m curious if a director can find bits to add that aren’t scripted that can put feet on it. I generally like smart and esoteric theater literature, but this left me wanting a rewrite. Too bad.
• 
  Douglas Cosby

  This feels like a lite version of Tom Stoppard; in particular, this is similar to the Waiting For Godot aspect of Rosencrantz, but in this case Picasso actually does show up. However, the thing I really enjoyed about Lapin Agile is that Martin breaks many of the rules and tropes of traditional absurdist drama, either on purpose or because he doesn't care / know better, but either way, it was a breath of fresh air. For instance, instead of ending the play with deeper and deeper subtle dialog amongst the main characters, he just says "screw it" and has Elvis show up. And it works. I really enjoyed this play.
• 
  Susan Liston

  Okay, maybe I missed something. I have always liked Steve Martin. I am fine with oddball anachronistic humor, I've written things in that vein myself. Why did I find this completely unfunny? A 60 year old man's running joke is "I have to pee."? I'm sorry, maybe it needs to be seen and not read, a couple of times I did think, I bet this part plays well on stage.
  
  (have to ask my sister about it, she's seen it I know, at the Westwood Playhouse. But she was on a famously bad date (I'll just tell about the finale) with a gentleman she refers to as "Uncle Fester" I'm afraid to ask why. Uncle Fester had a cold, and insisted on bringing a full size box of Kleenex into the theatre with him. When the lights came up, all around them were piles and piles of used Kleenex he had just tossed aside at will. Other patrons had to wade distastefully through the mess, while my sister tried to pretend she had never seen Uncle Fester before in her life. So the actual play has never figured in the story. UPDATE: I asked her, she said the play was weird, but she enjoyed it. In spite of Uncle Fester)
• 
  Steve

  I've been privy to read two of Martin's plays (the first performing in WASP) and Martin has the unfortunate ability to hook me with his interesting premise and then completely blow it up with an outlandish turn that makes the experience less exciting.
• 
  kameryn

  This was actually so fun to read
• 
  James Joyce

  Okay, let me put it this way: Steve Martin is weird. Good weird, to be sure, but weird.
  
  Do NOT read this if you're looking for some yucks. Do read this if you're looking for something that'll make you think. Less "The Crucible" and more "Waiting for Godot". Now, if you enjoy plays like Godot, then go for it. Martin, here, is putting on his best and shiniest metaphorical expressions, this time in play form.
  
  Enjoy. Without the laughs, but with more hmmms.
• 
  Tung

  Four plays, including Martin’s most famous one. Overall, he’s a terrible writer, simply amateurish. But because he’s so clever and funny, there’ll be one or two lines in each play that almost salvage the mess that is the rest of it. The grand fault of all of the plays is that Martin has no concept of subtlety, so he beats an obvious theme into the ground. WASP is a cliché condemnation of WASP families – but the play’s contrived surreality seems too out-of-place (aliens appear in a scene for no reason). The Zig-Zag Woman is clever but with no depth. Patter for the Floating Lady is my favorite of the four – very short, but the best-written of the bunch. I liked Picasso at the Lapin Agile overall, except for moments where Martin forces humor at the expense of the rest of the play (for instance, a moment where one of the characters anachronistically belts out “When a Man Loves a Woman” even though this play takes place in 1904), as if his standup comedy roots were at war with his artistic ambitions. And Martin’s inability to grasp subtlety makes the ending of Picasso completely overdone.
• 
  Greg Kerestan

  There are two schools of thought on Steve Martin, actor, writer and comedian. One would have it that Martin is brilliant, subversive and incisive in his combination of high and low comedy, blending philosophy, art, science, theology and vaudeville. The other would have it that Martin is a smug, pretentious tool, never able to write anything without his iconic cleverer-than-thou smirk lurking in the background. The reality, I suspect, is somewhere in between. "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" and "Wasp," Martin's two must famous plays, have exquisite dialogue and Martin's trademark droll, slightly surreal humor. Nonetheless, audiences tend to feel a little insulted by them- that the joke, which they may not particularly get (does anyone?) is on them in a way. I directed "Wasp" in 2011, and cast and audience alike had little clear idea what to make of it. Despite this, I remain fond of Martin as both performer and writer, though, like Stephen Sondheim, I would fear meeting him and feeling the sting of his sharp tongue.
• 
  Neil Schleifer

  Martin's absurdist piece at times succeeds at being merely madcap, Now madcap can be many things -- it can bring to mind the wildly ridiculous Marx Brothers movies of the 1930's or the sophisticated wit of William Powell and Myrna Loy ala The Thin Man. Martin gives us a little of both, with just a hint of existentialism thrown in for good measure. He mixes real life-characters like Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein (with a brief cameo by Elvis) and a collection of local Parisian eccentrics. The result is a mixed bag. It is a good read. I've also staged a production of the show and while it gives an audience a lot to think about, Martin is sneaky about how he gets you to do it. He lures an audience in with a zany pretense and the comic power of his own name and then drops a moral on them at the end. It's a little anticlimactic.
• 
  Steven

  I think the subtitle: "And Other Plays" is an understatement. Patter for the Floating Lady, while only a few pages long was outstanding, and managed to set up a walloping surprise in that short space. And WASP, may be the funniest thing Steve Martin has ever written, certainly as funny as The Jerk. Picasso at the Lapin Agile and the Zig-Zag Woman were both very good. The Older Man character from Zig-Zag had a delicious bit dialogue when asked about a lost love: "...She could write, sing, and draw, and she issued a declaration of independence every time she entered a room... Her hair was practically edible. Joy issued from her eyes and hands and her walk..." I definitely plan on returning to these plays often - pure delight.
• 
  Efrain

  This book was in fact very funny. I have a very bad sense of humor when it comes to laughing from a book, but I can say that there were some funny lines in the play. The idea of Einstein and Picasso spending the night at a bar and them having discussion about how they're going to change the century was amusing itself. But unlike other plays, where there's a big overall message, I didn't really get one from this play. I still loved reading it though, which makes me wonder, sometimes, you don'd need a message in a book to make it meaningful. Simply the fact that is was funny was enough for me to like it.
• 
  April Hamilton

  I always knew Martin is funny, but I had no idea how erudite he is until I saw a production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile. In it, Picasso, Einstein, and briefly, Elvis Presley muse on the similarities and differences between art and science. WASP is a darkly comic, biting commentary on the cold detachment of a modern family too proud or fearful to reveal their humanity to one another, even when that's what they want, and need, most desperately. Patter for a Floating Lady and The Zig-Zag Woman are much shorter and lighter in tone, with Floating Lady having more emotional heft than the almost throwaway Zig-Zag Woman. Worth buying the book for Lapin Agile alone.
• 
  P.M. Bradshaw

  Steve Martin (yes, THAT Steve Martin) turned out to be a very good playwright! This play revolves around a chance meeting between Picasso and Albert Einstein (and a guy named Schmendiman) prior to their great achievements. It manages to utilize both cheap, easy, low-brow humor, and deep, insightful commentary on both the men and society. A wonderful mix, and a lot of fun!
  
  The remaining three “plays” are more sketches than plays. While “WASP” has some amusing dialogue, none of these three rate higher that 2 or 3 stars.
  
  Worth getting the book for the main feature, though: Picasso at the Lapin Agile.
  
• 
  Lizzie

  I used to own this collection in high school, and I saw Picasso performed once and really thought it was great and hilarious.
  
  I also thought it was pretty great and cool that Steve Martin had this intellectual playwright side to him, which objectively I suppose is still true. But in this post-Shopgirl society in which we live, perhaps the shine is off of him as a pretentious literary figure. I haven't read any of his books for several years, and while I liked them all, they somehow didn't leave a great aftertaste.
  
  I guess that I went to college with too many guys exactly like him, only not famous.
• 
  Lauren

  I didn’t find this funny and doubt that it would have been produced (much less given a second glance) but for the author being Steve Martin.
  
  The play centers on a fictional meeting between Einstein and Picasso in 1904. It is neither as funny nor as intelligent as it thinks it is. It’s one of those plays that keeps winking at the audience (see how clever we all are?!).
  
  There are so many brilliant playwrights – so many unheralded plays that are funnier, smarter and effortlessly clever – that reading Picasso at the Lapin Agile mostly angered and annoyed me. Not recommended.
  
• 
  Marit

  Picasso at the Lapin Agile is amazing; all the other plays strange or mediocre. I've seen Picasso performed twice, once by a good troupe and the other time by the worst actors I've seen on stage who were not in elementary school. Both times the play made people laugh because it is simply that funny. (Hell, it's Steve Martin). But a really good performance (or read) will show you the magical beauty of the play. In a style that is all his own, Steve Martin blends together anachronisms, one-liners, sly winks to the audience, and three geniuses of science, art, and music with great success.