Here We Are Plot Overview - Act One
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Plot Overview - Act One (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)
"Here We Are" opens with the man and the woman cleaning the stage. Flanking either side of the stage are large mirrors which swing open, from which the servants retrieve cleaning supplies, a ladder (to better clean high up), and a vacuum cleaner, which they then proceed to use noisily, just feet away from the highest-priced seats in the theater. In the audience, members briefly tried to determine whether or not this performance was part of the show. Upon realizing that it was, they continued to discuss what TV shows they knew the actors from and whether or not they should have just gone see "Sweeney Todd" with Josh Groban or the production of "Merrily We Roll Along" with Jonathon Groff instead - wasn't this play unfinished? It seems the common understanding is that it just runs out of music by act two (someone sarcastically commented to me about being excited for the "Original Cast EP") and nobody that's seen it seems to be able to say what it's about. I think (to myself, naturally) that it's probably best they didn't see "Merrily We Roll Along" as they may find an uncomfortable reflection of themselves in the "blob" - though "Here We Are" would prove to be a much more vicious bite.
Eventually the overture picks up and takes away with it the audience's chatter. We begin the play in earnest at Leo and Marianne's "paradise apartment". There's a knock at the door and in comes the rest of our "core six"- Fritz, Paul, Claudia and Rafael arriving for a brunch the Brinks seem to know nothing about. The woman - playing the Brinks' maid Eva in this scene - maintains that she can not cook as there is nothing prepared. Unwilling to disappoint his friends, Leo offers to pay for brunch for the group and ushers everyone into the car. Once in the car, we launch into the first song - (The Road 1)
I'm going to get more into how the "road" songs are constructed later, but for now what you need to know is that these songs are how the core six reveal their contrasting motivations and schemes. The songs are a "patchwork" of different leitmotifs introduced by characters in a manner somewhat akin to a card game. Other characters either "play in" to the leitmotif or trump it with their own, giving the songs a very natural conversational feel. The songs start with an almost "combustion-engine-like" sound that then gives way to a smooth driving rhythm that gives the feeling of a luxury automobile gliding down the road. Very good stuff.
Anyway, in the first road song we learn that Raffael's trying to sleep with Marianne, the first hints of the cocaine plot and Fritz lamenting to the group that their world must come to an end. The group also, during the course of the song, decide to try "Cafe Everything" - which has gotten great reviews. Cafe Everything is the first of three stops that the group makes to a restaurant, and it's worth noting that each trip follows the same pattern: they arrive and Leo makes a toast, then something happens that prevents their ability to eat, and finally Leo announces that its time to leave and ushers everyone back to the car.
At Cafe Everything (Cafe Everything (Toast 1)), what prevents them from having a meal is that despite their limitless menu, the restaurant had a "very busy morning" and has completely run out of food. Our core six all respond to this situation differently - from Fritz apologizing to the waiter (played by the Man here) for their friends treating him like a servant (to which he responds "I am a servant - I'm your servant, what can I get you?"), to Claudia berating him for his inability to do his job (provide food). After a charmingly obsequious song about taking the groups order (Waiter's Song - insofar as anything broke through from this musical it would be the line 'we do expect a little latte later but we haven't gotta lotta latte now' from this song), the waiter shoots himself dead in supplication for not being able to provide the group what they want. They dismiss the trauma by insisting that "[no] waiter is innocent really" and move back to the road (The Road 2)
Back in the car, the engine roars to life and the conversation in the car begins anew. The group laments the unpleasant failed attempt at a meal, Rafael flirts with Fritz, and several plot lines advance at once. Fritz gets a phone call that reveals them to be part of a Morandan terrorist group called PRADA (not the shoe). The revolution they've been harping on about can be brought on by PRADA's leader, Inferno, but they would need $50 Million to bring it about. It's revealed Rafael has successfully seduced Claudia and it seems that they've been sleeping together for quite some time now. The group teases Fritz about their idealism and pretends to fret about what would happen if their revolution was successful and today was the end of the world. Rafael receives a phone call from Abdul (an invisible coconspirator in the drug plot) and Paul accidentally lets slip to Fritz that there's a problem with "the coke". In an attempt to cover, Rafael quickly pivots and explains the problem - "locusts" have descended on "the pumpkins" - to pay them off they'll need lots of "semolina". Leo insists there's "lots of semolina in the silo" so they can pay off the federales and relax. Claudia overhears this and wonders what it means. Marianne suggests "locusts have descended on the pumpkins" is poetry, almost. Fritz sees an opportunity to get the fifty million they need for the revolution and pledges the money to Inferno just as they arrive at Paul and Claudia's suggestion for a new restaurant - Bistro A La Mode. Once again, they all get out of the car.
They arrive at Bistro A La Mode and the group discusses with Claudia and Paul what to expect from the restaurant - a deconstructivist menu where food is served in piles of colored dust and none of the flavors match the item ordered. The Bursik-Zimmers explain that the chef there, Phillipe, is fairly whimsical - if you want steak, you order flounder, if you want chicken order bean dip... Fritz uses this opportunity to ask about pumpkin - signaling to Paul, Leo and Rafael that she's aware of their drug plot. Meanwhile, nobody appears to be ready to wait on them at the restaurant - the group seats themselves and Leo raises another toast (Bistro a La Mode (Toast 2)). A tearful Woman (playing the waitress at Bistro a La Mode) appears to take their order, but first clarifies that the deconstructivist menu is passé. The waitress' song (It Is What It Is) is an over-the-top Edith Piaf parody that builds to a crescendo where Marianne, unable to leave a party room unexamined, pops into the back and discovers that the reason the menu changed is Phillipe has died and is awaiting to be picked up from the coroner. Despite the waitress' attempt to continue to take the order, the group is too freaked out to continue. Leo barks for everyone to return to the car and the next road song (The Road 3) begins.
Marianne begins the road segment rhapsodizing about how lovely the day is, to which Paul responds that something very odd is happening. Fritz uses this opportunity to extort "semolina" from the guys, threatening to tell the feds if they don't fork it over. Rafael wonders if they should "save themselves" and "destroy capitalism". A no brainer. Despite Paul's insistence that something "doesn't fit", they continue on to Rafael's choice of restaurant, Osteria Zeno.
At Osteria Zeno, the group gets seated quickly - and for the first time - with food in front of them. Immediately after Leo quickly raises a toast (Osteria Zeno (Toast 3)) - keeping it quick lest something bad happen - Colonel Martin of Homeland Security arrives just in time to prevent them from taking their first bite. Marianne laments that they're starving, to which Martin retorts that if they were really starving it would not be a pretty sight. He and his soldier are looking for the leaders of an international drug cartel they believe to be run from "Mediterranean rathole" Moranda. Fritz, having secured the funds for her revolution, gleefully tells Martin that the guys are running a drug cartel out of Moranda which Marianne briskly explains away with a simple "My sister, the socialist"
In addition to looking for the drug cartel, the Colonel insists that the group listen to the dream the Lieutenant had - hearing their protestations that they don't particularly want to hear someone else's dream, he assures them its a good one. The lieutenant takes the stage, and he and Fritz immediately fall in love - bolt of lightning/Mambo in the gym style. As for the dream, it becomes pretty immediately clear that the Lieutenant has been dreaming about the events of the play. In it he found himself in a cafe just like Osteria Zeno and the core six were there, but all of them except for "the girl with a name like a rainbow" (Fritz) were wearing shrouds because they'd been dead for years. Then his mother (played by the Woman) comes in with a stuffed sheep and tells him to stop dreaming. Throughout he and Fritz are declaring that they've found the loves of their lives in each other. At this point, he realizes that the sheep was stuffed, the food was plastic and in the dream a curtain goes up and he realized that they were all in a theater. Naturally the houselights come on at this point and the actors look bewildered and terrified at the audience that they're suddenly aware is watching them. "Who are those people?" Marianne wonders. Soon the lights dim once again. The lieutenant and Fritz continue their duet - Fritz now shaken that she seems to feel compelled to follow the soldier instead of Inferno. He finishes the song by saying it's not just the end of the world, but the end of the play and the end of his dream. When they return to reality, Leo refuses to pay for fake food and Rafael suggests they go to the Embassy where his butler, Winston can prepare a meal for them. Once again, Leo ushers them back to the car and the final Road song (The Road 4) begins.
Once again, the segment begins with the group complaining about the experience. Although he doesn't join in on the road song, Fritz and the Soldier are together on the road and she sings, presumably about him, "What a perfect day", one of the recurring lietmotifs of the road songs, but collapses in gleeful giggles before long, prompting Marianne to look on in starry-eyed admiration. Rafael takes another swing at seducing Marianne, which takes us up through the arrival at the embassy.
Upon arriving Winston appears with a cart of dry martinis (presumably a reference to Buñuel's infamous love of the cocktail) and the group has their first... anything of the day: and it's a stiff drink. Just before the group retires to the study for dinner, the local Bishop arrives looking for a job (Bishop's Song). It seems nobody is looking to examine their lives or ask deeper questions any more which has been making his line of work difficult. Hoping to be of some use, he begins looking for work as a gardener or a cook. Although nobody has work for him, Marianne begs him to stay for dinner, which he accepts.
Shortly thereafter, dinner is finally served. Outside the embassy explosions begin to go off. Fritz is sure it's the sounds of the revolution but the rest of the group gleefully sweeps it under the rug with more chatter that sounds an awful lot like the road songs ("that's just one of the joys/ of the city - the noise"). Meanwhile, Fritz frantically tries to reach Inferno to call off the revolution - it seems the soldier has made them change their mind about the end of the world. Leo raises one final toast as they prepare to eat. Just before the curtain falls Winston reveals himself to be Inferno, putting the pieces in place for Act Two...