The curtain opens! Opening night report for WDW from If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet and Jake Gyllenhaal's NYC stage debut

Last night, Jake Gyllenhaal made his debut on the NYC stage in the 145-minute play If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet, which began its previews at the Roundabout Theatre. I'm delighted to report that we had our own eyes and ears in the audience (at the front, of course), in the lovely shape of BBMISwear, who has managed in all the excitement to send us some notes on the play as well as the production flyers from the theatre. With many thanks to her, here is what she said in a mixture of her words and mine, but I think I should begin with a warning. Should you be lucky enough to sit in the front row of If There Is, you might want to be prepared - it is a Splash Zone!

Needless to say, if you wish to remain spoiler free, you may wish to skip the following section of the post...

*Update* There are further reports in the comments!

The Play

It's fair to say that BBMISwear/Lisa loved the play, which is an intense ride - there is no intermission. But what was a big surprise is how funny the play is! 'It is very,very funny - I don't think the audience expected to laugh that much but most all did and did so a lot!' but 'It is also very intense and sad and one particular scene is heart wrenching - I was not the only person who shed tears.'

There is a lot of swearing. A LOT. Jake swears 'every 3rd word...seriously, every 3rd word!!' His character of Terry also doesn't hold back. Jake says and does and discusses 'all sorts of things you might not expect'. He wears the 'drifter look' throughout and apparently his British accent is very good (although personally I'm interested to hear how that holds up over the run and also what kind of accent it is).

After the Play

At the end of the play 'the cast and crew filed out of the theater in dribs and drabs over the course of two hours but Jake took the longest to leave. A fair amount of fans waited to see him - some gave up after waiting an hour or more - some stayed the full 2 hours and 10 minutes (yes, I was one of them)! He was good about pictures and autographs but not real talkative and looked pretty wiped out! (And for good reason)!

I mostly hung back as people really swarmed him and I've done the picture thing with him a couple of times already!' 'He had 2 guys escorting him away and I did catch up with them for a minute as they were walking away and said "Hey Jake - I just wanted to say hi" and he looked up and said "Hey, nice to see you" which was nice of him. I then told him he did a great job tonight and he thanked me and off they went! There was one pap taking pictures as he walked away and lots of fans taking pictures with him when he came out of the theater so I'm sure there will be plenty to see online in the coming days!'

Not surprisingly, Lisa focused on Jake's performance during this visit but she will be back so we can expect more!

Playbill

 While we wait for the paper reviews to come in, there's time to take a look at Jake's appearance in the September issue of Playbill. As well as talking about how his appearance on Man Vs Wild came about, Jake also talks about why he did If There Is and how difficult it is for him to do the British accent.

'"I fell in love with the character at the start," he says. "He brings a sadness to the play, and I'm drawn to that darkness. He's a real avoider, like everyone in the play. Perhaps that disconnection is what connected me to him. I love his techniques of avoiding, how he speaks in short sentences and unfinished thoughts. The way each character talks looks differently on the page. I love the architecture of the words."'

'"I've played British characters before," says Gyllenhaal. "I've spent, accumulatively, about two years in London, and a majority of my very close friends are British. It comes somewhat naturally. I gravitate toward roles with accents. The voice is a wonderful way into the eternal life of the character."'

Thank you BBMISwear!