I’d been to the Boston Opera House before. So there was a certain familiarity as I lowered myself into the seat fit for a king. If that king were Gimli. But I was not a dwarf from The Lord of the Rings. As such I had to angle my legs towards the aisle in order to fit. Mercifully, Julie had procured an aisle seat.
Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to fit in the seat at my first live musical.
The last time I was at the Opera House was with my mom to see “The Nutcracker.” The last time I saw a musical was on TV.
I have a hard time understanding lyrics, so the appeal of a musical was on par with walking around a beach in July decked out in a leather jacket. Watching musicals on TV, I could make use of captions. Historically, live musicals didn’t have such accommodations.
The times, they are a-changing.
The Boston Opera House now offers open captions performances. And my DHH BFF always snags tickets to the show. Yeah, that’s right. Show. Singular. For the entire run of the show, there is only one performance with open captions. Another DHH friend of ours, Anthony also snags tickets to the open caption performance. And the last time the three of us had lunch Julie mentioned she had a ticket to “The Outsiders”.
A musical based on a book, you say?
I was suddenly interested. Both because I loved the book and because the open captions would accommodate my hearing loss. So plans were made to go together. Since the seats in sight of the screen with captions are huddled together, it wasn’t just dumb luck that Julie and I sat behind Anthony and Raymond.
As the lights went down, I tossed my right leg over my left. They stuck out into the aisle but since the seats in front of me were all occupied, I didn’t worry about my legs getting in the way. But that didn’t mean my seats didn’t give me something else to worry about.
I had to choose to look at the actors or the captions.
The screen was tall enough to show two lines of text and set off to the right side of the stage. When Ponyboy was spotlit for his opening number, he was on the left side of the stage. While I wasn’t familiar with the number, I was familiar with the plot. I’d reread the book the week before. Which helped me not write off the entire thing. Still, though, it was quite disappointing to be forced to choose between watching the dance numbers and reading the captions. And with the captions on the right of the stage meant that sometimes the choice was made for me. When the action was happening on the right side of the stage, the actors were hidden behind the set.
There were also times when it was too loud for me.
At the crescendo of a couple of particularly energetic numbers, I feared for my bionic ears. I know that the magical algorithm will prevent my aids from blowing their speakers but I was concerned just the same. I even toggled down their volume at one point. Because there is such a thing as too loud for the hard of hearing. It takes quite the effort to be too loud, which means it doesn’t happen that often. But when it does, it’s shocking.
That said, I did enjoy the music. Periodically losing the lyrics was a familiar experience. As the show went on, and I found myself comparing it to the book, I got caught up in the performance. This helped stave off the annoyance at not being able to always understand the lyrics even though it was purported to be accessible.
And it was accessible. Well, more accessible that it’s historically been.
And that’s the issue. The open captions are good but not good enough. Not anymore. Julie has helped me want more. I’ve not been speaking up for my hearing needs for that long. And my introvert-bred aversion to conflict leads me to take what’s offered unquestioning. Even if they’re but breadcrumbs. I’m slowly coming around to Julie’s higher level of demands, though.
At the end of the show, the cast made a plea for…something. It must not have been expected because the CART dude didn’t caption all of it. That disappointment was intermingled with appreciation. I’d thought it was just a timed script up till then. Hiring a CART captioner isn’t cheap. That tells me that The Opera House wasn’t afraid to spend a little money.
They should have spent more.
They should partner with Captify or Meta or one of the other companies that make caption glasses. With captions appearing in front of our eyes, we hard of hearing folks wouldn’t have to choose to look at either captions or actors. We could look at both. And we could sit anywhere, not just the obstructed seats. Those glasses aren’t cheap. There’s some technical hurdles to work out, too. It would be an investment. But I think investing in accommodations shows you think accessibility isn’t just a checkbox to check, that it really matters.
Before I end this post I wanted to mention something non-hearing related. Because I’m more than just my hearing loss. I’m an English major and I’m interested in equity. That said, it’s a spoiler and it talks about race. So you can read my spoiler here or you can just read my haiku and go on your way.
I’d go again if
‘tis a book-based musical.
Music soothes the soul
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