Midea delivers a surreal and silly cityscape

This musically-inspired homage to a glitzy New York City that only exists in dreams and on Hollywood sets is a surreal La La Land dreamworld.

As a delivery driver brings a package to the waiting customer, windows sing, opening and shutting, offering peeks into the rooms of the nearby apartments. A young child has assembled a cardboard spacecraft and is blown back by the air, a man pulls clouds out of the air for his daughter’s bedroom, a yogi closes the window to get the silence needed for inner peace. The comedic takes of Open & Shut change in every room - a woman with too-large ears, an old man who becomes younger in the fresh air, the growling motorcycles that become little more than children’s scooters.

Open & Shut is full of fun takes and charming production that goes hard on Americana nostalgia, unashamedly borrowing cues from early 2000’s film media like Friends, Sex & the City, and 30 Rock. Director Kevork Aslanyan has captured the glossy, no-dirt-here feel of NYC that is emulated on Broadway shows and in television. The almost-musical was made by B2Y Productions, following the directive of F5/Shanghai.