The Collaboration

– – the play puts this meeting of artists in a somewhat fictionalized task to create art together.ย  They couldnโ€™t be more different.ย  Andy Warhol is on his way out in the world of art and Jean-Michel Basquiat is on his way up.ย Andy comes from prints of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell Soup Cans – – Jean-Michel Basquiat comes from street graffiti.ย  What is so interesting here is there actual lives and the biography behind them.ย  What is not so interesting is their insistent slam of the artwork of the other.ย  We get it – – you donโ€™t like the artwork of the other.ย  The plot is also too predictable.ย  The artists are miles apart at the beginning and then – surprise – they find a common bond together at the end.ย  The big moment of the play happens when Jean-Michel Basquiat returns back to the studio after finding out that one of his friends has beaten to death by the police.ย  He goes so over the top crazy running around and smashing things – and then with Warhols return it gets amped up even further.ย  Somehow Warholโ€™s insistent need to video everything related to Jean-Michel Basquiat throws more fuel on the fire.ย  It just seems like such a manufactured way of bringing the play to a climax. The characters are fascinating, the actors are sound – – but the script just didnโ€™t engage me.

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