For most tweens and teenagers, developing a celebrity crush is a rite of passage. These crushes seem to strike hardest during the volatile years of middle school and early high school, blending the awkwardness of puberty with our first tentative forays into the world of love and relationships. The resulting combination is often intense and passionate, the flame of the crush fanned by voracious interview-watching, Instagram-stalking, and merchandise-collecting. Radio contests and meet-and-greet sweepstakes nurture the hope of one day meeting your celebrity crush and — naturally — falling in love and living happily ever after. But meeting the object of your one-sided affection rarely goes as planned.
(The following review contains spoilers for love in the time of corona: a texting experience as well as emotional abuse from a fictional character.)
In love in the time of corona: a texting experience, players get to live out their tween fantasies of winning a date with a hunky Broadway actor/Instagram influencer named Brock. Four days before my planned text exchange with Brock, I receive an email from an enthusiastic assistant named J. She reminds me that I am a huge fan of Brock, tells me I won a date with him at a Broadway charity event last December, and says he will reach out to me later that week to make plans for our date. She also casually mentions that she must wear a helmet at all times to protect herself from the household appliances he regularly throws at her head, but I’m so thrilled to meet him I look past it.
Our conversation has a rocky start. Brock is five minutes behind schedule and gets my name wrong, but as his adoring fan I’m quick to forgive. We banter a bit, reminiscing about one of his more memorable performances in Spring Awakening, before we begin planning our hangout. He asks if I’d like to fly somewhere together since flights are so cheap. When I express hesitation, he declares the pandemic a hoax. I’m torn between my obligation to correct him and my desire to pacify him so we can go forward in planning this date. He’s my idol, after all, so I go with the latter, and agree that it’s just an overblown flu. That’s what he wants me to say, isn’t it? But when he starts mocking people that are concerned about the virus, the tone of our conversation shifts. It culminates in Brock’s unveiling of an offensive, money-grabbing scheme and his attempt to swindle me before ending in an explosion of name-calling.
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As I sit at my kitchen table, trying to process where the interaction went wrong, I get an email from J. She apologizes for Brock’s behavior, particularly his denial of the pandemic, and tells me she’s quitting because he’s mentally unstable. She includes a list of links where I can donate to first responders. I text Brock several days later to wish him continued health and safety, but it’s J who responds.
love in the time of corona: a texting experience advertises itself as a “temporary cure for our sitting-duck anxiety during our global health crisis.” I’m not sure this is an accurate description. It’s definitely entertaining-for the roughly 20 minute duration of my conversation with Brock, I was glued to my phone. But it’s not accurate to describe an experience about the pandemic as a distraction from the pandemic. And while yes, donating to first responders might alleviate some of the guilt or anxiety we might feel, it’s possible to do that without participating in love in the time of corona. Perhaps the biggest issue with the experience, however, is that it’s unpleasant. Brock is a huge jerk. When his true character is revealed, he says some wildly offensive things. Slurs against disabled people, trans people, and his general denial of the current crisis have a huge potential to offend. And while it didn’t bother me personally, I can understand why someone would be turned off by an immersive experience with a jerk character. Life sucks enough on its own right now.
I think the value of love in the time of corona is that it serves as a meaningful exploration of the role of celebrities in our culture and the way those roles change during times of crisis. love in the time of corona is a digital LARP that casts the player in the role of an average person infatuated with a celebrity, forcing us to confront the inherent power imbalance in such a situation. Brock, an influencer, uses his platform to proclaim the pandemic a hoax and to call everyone wearing masks and gloves in an attempt to protect themselves “losers.” At a moment in time when fraudsters and scammers rise to take advantage of our collective fear, Brock too tries to cash in on the pandemic to swindle his fans out of their money. On the Broadway stage and on his carefully-managed Instagram posts, Brock is charming. But one-on-one, he reveals himself to be cruel and out of touch with the reality of regular people, including his fans.
As many Americans, and many New Yorkers in particular, grapple with job loss, fears of economic devastation, and the looming threat of getting sick, celebrity culture feels more and more disconnected. Gal Gadot’s much-mocked, star-studded cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” felt like the modern, COVID-19 version of Marie Antoinette’s proclamation: “Let them eat cake.” Celebrities that seemed #relatable are less so when their version of quarantining involves a compound filled with servants and no fears about losing health insurance or their homes. love in the time of corona: a texting experience gives us an opportunity to confront a “celebrity” directly, to examine the influence we allow them, and consider how the American celebrity culture might change on the other side of this pandemic.
love in the time of corona continues through April 30.
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