space odyssey

Like the warped fabric of Albert Einstein’s space-time continuum, the curvature also recalls the famous opening frames of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” where the blinding white light of the sun seems to rise from behind the black orb of an Earth buried — and maybe even lost — within the surrounding void of outer space.

Analysis of the show, by Chase and others, is thorough, sometimes surprising — the staging of the finale was influenced by “2001: A Space Odyssey” — and sometimes poetic.

Cue the crescendoing cascade of instruments from the theme music of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” a film that featured a large monolith.

There are multiple copies of “The Precipice,” a book about the existential risks facing humanity, along with science fiction classics like “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

As plume of smoke covered the stage, the white-tailed Hollywood Chamber Orchestra blasted “2001: A Space Odyssey” theme “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” and opening rapper Lil Dicky challenged Roseanne Barr for the most strained “Star-Spangled Banner” rendition of all time before launching into “Freaky Friday.”