Cast Changes

Looks like I saw my shows in New York at just the right time. After almost a year of the original cast staying together, Tarzan is getting its first major cast change. This Rob Evan guy is certainly cute, but he seems a little young to be taking on the role of Kerchak. Shuler Hensley had much more presence and really looked the part, as well as being phenomenally talented. I have a recording of him on the Frankenstein cast recording, and he really is a fantastic singer. I was glad I had the chance to see him.

In slightly more disappointing news (disappointment that the replacement wasn't in the show when I saw it), there are major cast changes going in The Drowsey Chaperone as well. Now it's already old news that Bob Martin has left, with an understudy filling in until April 17 when John Glover will take over. I am very glad that I got to see Bob, he is the show. I'm also glad I got to see Georgia Engel, she's very fun and really brought a lot of her personality to Mrs. Tottendale. However, seeing as how I'm not a big fan of Sutton Foster, I really would have liked to have seen Janine LaManna as Janet. I saw her almost 12 years ago when she stepped for Chita Rivera just before the end of the first act of Kiss of the Spider Woman the night of it's first performance at the Chicago Theatre. Poor Chita somehow got injured just before the Gimme Love number, and we had a 30 minute intermission while Janine got ready (which at the beginning, they only announced that there was a "cast injury", it wasn't until the lights came down again and the show was about to resume that they announced that the role of Aurora/Spider Woman would be played by Janine LaManna, and the audience became very expressive of its feelings), she did the number, then we got the regular intermission, and she completed the second act and in an amazing performance completely won over the audience that booed her first appearance. She really was completely fantastic and left the audience wondering "Chita who?" by the end. Chita never returned to the Chicago run, but unfortunately, Janine only got a couple of days of performances and they brought in someone else to permanently take the role. Chita returned to the show in the next city, and about a year later came back to Chicago for a two week run and made it all the way through. I still have bragging rights about being in the only audience to see her the first time around. It was a big night for me, it was my first Kander & Ebb, I was in the only audience that got to see Chita and experienced all the drama that attends an event like that, and it was my last hetero date ever. Granted, it was only my fourth hetero date (the other three having been high school dances, the last of which was with the same unfortunate girl that was with me that night), but once you know what you don't want, you don't need to mess around with it any more. She was so enthusiastic about the show I came bursting out of the closet on the way home. We haven't spoken lately. Anyways, Janine was so fantastic I was sure that it was her 42nd Street moment, but she disappeared again until a few years ago when she again turned up in Chicago filling in for an injured star. This time it was for Christina Applegate in Sweet Charity, who broke her toe on stage during a preview, and for a brief time, it looked like this was finally it. For a few days the Weisslers still planned to take the show to Broadway with Janine as the star, but Christina talked them out of it, and no one's heard from Janine until now. I've got my fingers crossed for her this time, she really deserves her break.

Trip Update

Eleven hours to go!!! As of 10:08 am, the flight is still on time. I'm a little apprehensive, there's still a lot of potential for things to go wrong. We don't have the clear and sunny weather that was forecast (I was right about the thunderstorms, those have been pushed back to tomorrow night), but at least it's not raining and hopefully won't. My companion and I have the same arrangement as the New York trip. I've got both the suitcases with me at work and have ordered a cab to pick me up at 5:00 to take me to O'Hare where he will meet me. However, last night, he informed me that he can't leave work until 6:00, which really means 7:00, which means he won't get to O'Hare until 8:00 something, which is starting to cut it close again. However, since he doesn't have any work functions to attend and it's just a weekend trip, he's not worried about his suitcase being heavy, and America West still allows 2 pieces of checked luggage per passenger, so I'm going to go ahead and check myself in as soon as I get there and check both suitcases in as mine, so that no matter how late he gets there, we shouldn't have a repeat of the New York debacle. The other concern then is that the flight is probably going to be full (there were only a few seats to choose from when I made the reservation back in January), and if he gets there too late, he'll get bumped while I'm already checked in (which has also happened before and was not a fun experience), which will cause additional headaches because I think we're on the last flight out to Vegas tonight, and the hotel reservation is in his name, so it's not going to do me much good to get there without him. I'm doing deep breathing exercises and trying to remain calm, and we'll see how it goes. There's still potential for much worse things to happen, so I'm trying not to obsess about the small things. I'll just be glad when we get there, and they can bump us as many times as they want on the return trip. After a weekend in Vegas who wants to come home and go back to work?

Almost Time

Less than 36 hours to go and I'll be on a plane taking me to Liza! I just bought a new swimsuit for lounging by the pool and some cute outfits for the shows, and made dinner reservations at Red Square for Friday night after Phantom. Last time I was there, about a year ago, I went to Red Square for drinks after seeing Hairspray, and it really won me over. The menu looks fantastic, so I'm very excited to see how the food stacks up to the vodka drinks. No calls from Ticketmaster yet with disappointing news. Hopefully if Liza's made it this far, she'll go the home stretch, as long as she doesn't injure herself during the shows Thursday and Friday. I'm a little worried that the weather may pose a problem getting there, we're supposed to have severe thunderstorms tomorrow night, but the rain that was supposed to come yesterday didn't arrive until today, so hopefully the storms will be a day behind as well and we can get out relatively easy. The flight's at 9:08 pm, which I did on purpose, even before the drama a couple weeks ago with the New York flight, so we shouldn't have any problem with getting to the airport on time, but I'm worried that if the flight is cancelled, we might not be able to leave until Friday morning, which would be cutting Phantom kind of close, as well as putting us out the money for the room Thursday night. We'll have to see, the weather on Friday is supposed to be good, so one way or the other we should get there. I did try once again to set up mobile blogging, and this time, shortly after I sent the email to go@blogger.com, it got bounced back as undeliverable, so it appears that once again my loyal reader is going to have to wait until I get back to read about the trip. I'm not lugging my laptop through airport security and the rates those hotels charge you for using the internet at their business centers are outrageous. Anyways, I hope to have a fantastic time and will be writing about it extensively (and hopefully posting a couple pictures of Liza at the bar) when I get back.

Countdown Continues

Four more months until Hairspray hits theaters!!!

CD Update

So you all know about my travails getting the Rebecca CD. It was worth all the trouble, but it's not the only CD I've gotten lately. A couple weeks ago I got Tarzan from the library and copied that. It looks like I saw the complete original cast, so I'm thrilled to have a record of all their performances, particularly Josh. I also bought the new revivial cast recording of A Chorus Line and the recording of Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (which, as much as I love Mandy Patinikin and Toni Collette, is far superior to LaChiusa's Wild Party). Then this morning I got an email from BMG informing me that Angela Lansbury's Legends of Broadway CD is now available, so I ordered that (for free using my music points). I checked for the rest of the series, and they do have Chita Rivera (which I'll be ordering soon, I still have a lot of music points) and Barbara Cook (I've never been a big fan of her's, but I'll probably pick hers up as a free or discounted CD as part of a larger order), but oddly, not Bernadette's, which is probably the one I want second most after Angela's. The CD's are a great concept and the four ladies are a great way to kick off what will hopefully be an ongoing series. I'd like to suggest some more Broadway legends for the producers of the series to consider:

Patti LuPone
Carol Channing
Ethel Merman
Mary Martin
Betty Buckley
Kaye Ballard
Gwen Verdon
Jerry Orbach
Robert Goulet
Raul Julia
Robert Preston

They all have such a massive body of work that it's so cost prohibitive to try to track everything down. It would be great to have compilation CD's with the highlights of their careers as well as some more obscure tracks for the hardcore fans (like some tracks from Carrie for Betty's CD, I understand she did a live performance of one of the songs a few weeks ago at a benefit, surely that had to have been recorded).

Speaking of obscure tracks and hardcore fans, I'm excited about Sony's upcoming release of the Broadway Scene Stealers CD's. They come out a week from tomorrow, I'll be rushing to Borders at lunch to pick them up. Sony's been on quite a role lately with Broadway related CD's, it certainly makes up for their Connect music store debacle, which crashed my computer 3 times before I finally let go of the songs I purchased from them and just removed the software from my computer. They never did respond to my email to their help department, it's going on almost a year now.

The Curtains CD should be in stores June 5, as I predicted just in time for the Tony Awards.

Lastly, after several announced release dates have come and gone, it appears that Barbra's concert CD will finally be released on May 8th (I believe this is the 4th release date). I'll be very excited to have a souvenier of that heavenly night as well. It looks like she's including only the songs that she sang in every city. The night I saw her, the Bush impersonator was not available, so she performed Stony End for us instead, which she said she hadn't done in any other city and that does not appear to be on the track listing. I've also heard that she performed Woman in the Moon at her final LA concert and added a one-night-only song or two in each city, to kind of customize each concert. While the track listing indicates that Happy Days Are Here Again is on the CD, it doesn't indicate whether or not the Bush segment is. It would be great, if, a few months from now, she'd release a companion CD that has the Bush segment (if it's not on this CD), selections from her question and answer sessions (which really allowed her to shine, her answer to a fan who asked her what Oprah was like was priceless), as well as recordings of all the one-night-only songs from the tour. This is probably her last tour, it would be great to have a permanent record of every moment.

The Ones That I Want

Well I will be buying the cast album after all; Max and Laura are Danny and Sandy. In a rare display of good taste, the American voting public got it right, which just goes to show that if us Theatre Queens ran the world, things would be so much better.

The show kicked off with a reunion of all the contestants reprising their We Go Together number that closed the first live episode. What struck me most about the performance is how fat Jason and Matt got since getting kicked off. Did they spiral into a vegatative depression and spend the last 5 weeks sitting on the couch eating ice cream? They're not going to make it to Broadway with that tactic, unless The Woman In White ever gets revived or Martin Short decided to make Jimminy Glick a father. On the plus side, it was nice to see Chad with his old hairstyle back looking as gorgeous as ever. If Broadway doesn't pan out, he can always model for A&F. Then, in the worst American Idol tradition, we got a boatload of filler including performances by the losers and the final four, montages of the final four, personal video clips, and family interviews. The only interesting part was the lack of significant others in Max and Austin's entourages. It's hard to believe two such gorgeous guys don't have anyone special in their lives. What are the producers trying to hide? I'm sure the audience has guessed, and in this day and age, why can't contestants live their lives openly, especially contestants for a Broadway show? Then we finally got the announcement of the winning Sandy. Channelling Ryan Seacrest at his annoying worst, Billy announced that it was. . . Laura!!!! Good taste won out and Ashley got the bum's rush off the stage. Then it was the guys' turn. Watching their clips, I did feel bad for Austin. He's got the Melrose factor working against him; he's so perfect that he's always going to lose to the underdog who needs the break more, and he's never going to get the star turn he deserves. Sure enough, Max was the winner, and in the most bizarre yet thrilling moment of the night, he and Austin hugged, holding each other very tightly, and as they pulled back, they kept their eyes locked on each other, and oh my god, for one brief second I thought they were going to kiss! They both so had that look like they were going to go there, but Billy stepped in very quickly and yanked Austin back and practically shoved him off the stage. All the past performers then started Summer Nights and then Laura and Max showed up to do the leads, and they clicked much better than they did during last week's duets. While I don't like Grease or Kathleen Marshall, I really hope the show is a success for the two of them. We then got introduced to the supporting cast, who all looked older than the movie's cast. They all performed together, and that was that. Time to start planning for next season, and I propose that they seriously consider Carrie, especially if the rumors of a summer London revival turn out to be true (and that would really present a dilemma when I'm there for one night in October; Billy Elliot or Carrie, I don't know how I'd decide). The show would get some momentum and casting it on live TV would be a great opportunity to capitalize on it, plus Betty Buckley could be one of the judges. How fabulous would that be? Then, I've got the perfect gimmick to keep people watching. Every week, the finalists line up on stage in their prom finery, with a bucket balanced on a rafter above each of them. A rope is pulled, all the buckets tip, and blood is poured on the losing two, who, in order for this to be effective, have not been told in advance that they were the losers. How awesome would that be? The thought of Ashley screaming as fake blood gets dumped on her gives me a naughty reaction in my pants, but that's a topic for a different kind of blog. Judging from how the producers made Austin sing first in the final group sing, only seconds after he lost, they obviously have just enough of a mean streak to at least consider this. Now, the bigger question is, until that happens, how am I going to get my weekly theatre fix?

Patti LuPone on Ugly Betty

So I just finished watching Patti LuPone on Ugly Betty on ABC's website and Comcast should be ashamed of itself. Patti gave a fabulous performance that really sets the standard for how guest stars should be used. I can't believe those incompetent hacks tried to keep her off the air. A true star can't be kept down.

My Night

Oh my god, what a night I had. To start with, when I was in Vienna last October, I saw signs all over town for a musical production of Rebecca. I really wanted to see it, but we were only there for one night and I had already purchased very expensive tickets to see the ballet Giselle at the opera house. I was browsing on footlight.com last December and saw that they had the cast recording of Rebecca. I wanted to get it but had just spent a buttload of money on Christmas presents, so I waited until mid-January when my credit card rolled over. I then went to order it, and it was no longer on their site. Amazon and Barnes & Noble never had it, even when it was still on footlight, and it wasn't on half.com or ebay. I finally found a German website, musical-shop.de that had it. However, only the product description page was in English. All of the ordering and shipping information pages were in German. The price seemed about comparable to what footlight had been charging, so I went ahead and took a leap of faith and ordered it. I got an immediate email confirmation and then didn't hear anything until the beginning of March when I finally got an email stating that it had been shipped. Well, yesterday, I got home around 6:00 and found a package notification slip in my mailbox, informing me that I had a package and it would be redelivered today. Well, I am never home when the mail carrier gets there, even on Saturdays which when I see clients at my private therapy practice. The slip said the post office (the Lakeview Station Post Office, by far the worst in the city and the most notorious for fucking up mail delivery) closed at 7:00, so I decided to run and pick it up. Now, this ended up presenting several problems. First, the illiterate mail carrier, who apparently thinks that the last names Johnson, Conner, and Mishrakawabithiam (the other residents in my building) all look exactly like Harms since I get mail for all of them in my box all the time as well as mail for other buildings on the block, wrote down my last name as Herms on the slip. Then, I drove to the post office, only to find that there were no spots on the two main streets bordering the building. I had to park on the side street which is permit parking only after 6:00, which only reinforces my belief that the sole purpose of permit parking is to raise money for the city. Why would they start the permit clock an hour before the only business on that block closes, especially since that's the hour that people are going to be coming to the post office after they get home and find these pacakge delivery slips. It's obviously rigged to generate as much parking ticket revenue as possible. So, with another leap of faith, I parked on that street, put my blinkers on, and ran into the post office. I was the first one in line, behind the two that were currently being helped by the two people still working the counter. These two postal employees were the slowest people I have ever seen in my life. Do they get kickbacks from the police for keeping people who park on that side street in the building long enough for the police to ticket their cars? It took 10 minutes for one person to finish and I could go up. Of course, I'm stressing the whole time about my car. So, I give the slip to the guy and show him my driver's license. Now, this led to the next problem. For certain financial reasons, I keep the address on my license as my parent's address, where I spent the first 18 years of my life in the suburbs. This has never been a problem picking up a package before. I just say that I just moved, they see that the name is the same, and give me my package. Well, this guy looks at the license and says, "That's not your name, this package is for Herms." Oh my lord, the only reason I didn't blow a gasket then and there is because I wanted to get the package as quickly as possible and get back to my car before it got ticketed. I said, obviously the mail carrier made a typo, it's a one letter difference, and he agreed to go find the package, but he would only give it to me if the name on the package matched my name on my license. I said fine, figuring we'd deal with that when we got there. The man then sauntered (yes, sauntered) down the length of the counter to the door to the back and went through it. Several minutes later, he came back out, opened a cabinet by the door, fiddled through it for a while, closed it and went back through the door, came back about 5 minutes later still empty handed, opened the cabinet again, fiddled through it some more, finally pulled out a package, looked at it, looked at the slip, looked at the package again, closed up the cabinet, and sauntered back to his station at the counter. My blood pressure was through the roof at this point, if my car had a ticket on it, I'd be going postal myself and taking down every major governmental agency in the city. He looked at it, held it out of my sight, and said "that's not your name on the label." I responded that I could tell him it was from musical-shop.de and I could even tell him what was in there if he wanted to open it up. He said "that still doesn't mean it's for you" and my reply was "Come on, how many Vienesse cast albums that are bordering on being out of print are going to come to two people in this neighborhood with such similar names, obviously it's for me." He looked at it again and said "Well, it's close enough" and almost handed it to me, then snatched it back and said, "I almost forgot, I have to record that I gave this out," and sauntered again back to the cabinet where he found the package and spent almost another 5 minutes writing down some sort of information before finally sauntering back, almost handed it to me and then snatched it away again, and said, "just have to scan it," scanned the label, and finally gave it to me. Then, the kicker was, the label did have my correct name on it, Harms, but the label was filled out:

Herr
Greg Harms
then my address information, which as much as I love all of you, I'm not copying here.

The fucking dyslexic postal carrier obviously mangled Herr and Harms together when filling out the package slip, and the fucking moronic counter worker who probably couldn't even find Germany on a map thought Herr was part of my name. I grabbed the package, took off running, and fortunately, when I got back to my car, there was no ticket. It had taken almost 25 fucking minutes to pick up a package when I was the first person in line, and they want to raise their rates? I headed back home, put the CD in the computer to copy it onto my mp3 player (a Cowan iAudio X5L, I highly recommend it over an ipod), and the CDDB couldn't find any information on it. I had to type in all the track listing information, but since the titles are all in German and most of the performers have weird German names like Wietske, it took a little longer for me to type it in and double check that everything was spelled correctly. I finished, started the copying, and finally got to Patti LuPone on Ugly Betty. It had started about 10 minutes earlier, but thanks to Tivo, I was able to start watching from the beginning and catch up. Then, about half an hour later (at the 7:30 mark on the show, it was about 7:40 in real time), the motherfucking goddam cable went out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My rabbit ears are locked up somewhere in the building's storage room, but even if I had had them, I was still about 10 minutes behind the actual broadcast. I grabbed the phone and called Comcast and after punching in all my information, got a recorded message saying they were aware of the outage and estimated that it would be fixed by 9:44 pm, and they were sorry for any inconvenience. The cable going out in the middle of Patti LuPone on Ugly Betty isn't an inconvenience, it's a fucking outrage! She's had a difficult enough year, losing the Tony to fucking LaChanze, and now they take this away from her? The only reason I have not called the FCC and begun proceedings to revoke Comcast's broadcasting license is because ABC makes their shows available online after they air, and I can watch the episode during lunch. I can't believe the fucking incompetence in this city sometimes. City that works, my ass. It's nights like this that make me so ready to leave this city once and for all. However, I've been listening to Rebecca as I've been sitting here writing this, and the CD makes all the hassle at the Post Office worthwhile. Leave it to musical theatre to fix what the city fucks up.

Another Big Event

Curtains has its official opening tonight. Run to see it as soon as possible, it's a fantastic show, there's nothing else quite like it on Broadway right now, and once The Producers closes, there will be nothing remotely like it. Here's to a long, successful, prosperous run.

Patti

Patti LuPone is on Ugly Betty tonight, 7:00 channel 7, don't miss it. Hopefully she'll get a better story line than she did on Will & Grace. For a show that had so many A-List guests, those writers never figured out how to effectively use them. They started out ok, Debbie Reynolds, Sydney Pollack, Blythe Danner, and to a lesser extent, Susanne Pleshette, were all fantastic as the parents. However, once they got into a position where they only got one shot at using a guest star, they were terrible at coming up with a good story line. I mean, Joan Collins eating tacos? A dance off with Janet Jackson (and having a star play themselves is the biggest cheat of all)? Madonna as a white trash roommate? Who thought of these? Then, the worst by far was Bernadette Peters in the second to last episode as Karen's sister. On paper it seemed like such a good idea, but man did they fuck that one up. I was so embarrased for Bernadette, she is so above having to do that kind of shit, that was on the level of making Carol Channing rap at the Tony Awards. Speaking of W&G and guest stars, did anyone catch Megan Mullally on Boston Legal Tuesday night? Now that was how to use a guest star. Let's hope Patti gets the same treatment tonight, maybe Emmy voters will show her more love than the Tony's.

Almost The Ones We Want

I tuned in to Grease. . . last night for what I thought was going to be the last time, but it turns out there will be an hour long results episode in which the winners are crowned next weekend. The show kicked off with another group performance, and it was mercifully short. There was no guest judge, but since America finally got its votes counted, that really didn't matter. The guest judges on seasons 2 & 3 of idol during the finals really didn't add anything, they've been much better on subsequent seasons showing up in the preliminaries. The girls elimination was first, and as I predicted, Allie got sent home. I felt really bad for her. She did start off awful, but she has grown so much and gotten so much better, that while she still isn't ready for Broadway, it really hurts to see her go while the consistently dreadful Ashley is still around. Then came the guys' elimination, and I was ready to say goodbye to Austin when we got some good news; he was safe! That meant that either Derek or Max was going to go home, and given how Derek has managed to sail through on some awful performances, I was so scared Max's time was up, but shockingly, good taste won and Derek was out. Even Billy, normally more inane than Ryan Seacrest, was shocked and mentioned that this was the first time the voting pattern for the guys has been broken, and it was quite a shock to everyone. Derek took it well and went out with more class than some of the previous contestants. While he wasn't the best singer, he's definitely more professional than a lot of the people we've seen so far. Then the bloodletting began. Ashley and Laura were up first, doing a tag team performance of "Hopelessly Devoted To You." Laura ran into some trouble early on, needing the backup singers to keep her on key during the bridge, but she got through it and gave a great performance. Ashley unfortunately got through the bridge trouble-free, but had her usual deer-in-the-headlights look throughout her performance. She just looks like she's on the verge of a spectacular meltdown and her performances make me more nervous than Julianne Moore's performance in The Hours did. The guys were up next and did a tag-team performance of "Sandy." We then got to see video clips of each of them talking about their experience on the show, and Ashley clinched her win. Laura's clip showed her fiance back home preparing for their wedding without her, and we then found out that the wedding was supposed to be next weekend, but Laura is postponing it because of the show. Ashley's clip showed her sister in Ohio wishing her well and saying how she's so proud of her and she wants to be there for her but can't afford the ticket. Cut back to the studio and Billy pulls the sister out of the wings for a "this is your life" style reunion. Laura comes across as the bitch leaving her fiance in the dust for her career, and we see how much Ashley's family loves her, she's got the better story, and in reality shows, it's all about the story. Then we got the guys. Austin was the best he's been in several weeks, but Max was right there with him. Seeing the two of them together, Austin is definitely more professional, but Max has the it factor, it's like the difference between the technically perfect Melrose and the loveable Carridee on last season's Top Model. Melrose should have won, but was punished because she was what the judges were looking for, and I have a feeling the same thing's going to happen to Austin. He deserves this more, but it's much more fun to vote for Max because he's the underdog. We then got their clips, and the first thing I noticed was that for both of them, it was them talking about their experience with the show, there was no family or, more importantly, significant other, in their clips, which was appropriate since I had the feeling that they were singing more to each other than to Sandy when they were doing their performance. However, Max's clip made me realize why my phone has not yet rung with the invitation to be a guest judge. He talked about how when he was in 5th grade, he got some disease that froze half of his face, like he'd had a stroke, and he had to undergo serious rehab for years to regain the use of that half of his face. Guess who felt like an idiot? If my foot could go any further down my throat, I could be a porn star. I do have to say that my issue with the faces he was making had nothing to do with looking like he'd had a stroke, which he didn't look like. My issue was that he needed to be aware of how he was presenting himself to the audience, and he was scrunching up his face and bugging out his eyes, exactly like Clay Aiken did on his first few weeks on Idol, and it really distracted from his singing. Obviously, he was able to get it under control and he's been totally polished and had great stage presence for about the past 3 weeks in dirrect correlation with the increase in his confidence. However, I am very sorry if anything I wrote got back to him and caused any amount of distress. I made my comments out of love and a desire to see him get better, I had no idea it could throw him back to Junior High and make him re-experience the worst thing that's ever happened to him, which is the last thing I would ever want to do to anyone. So, even though Austin is the better performer, I am throwing my support behind Max and I really hope he wins. He's worked hard for this, and, hopefully I'm not the only one that felt bad for him after seeing his clip. Talking about that experience could be the smartest thing he's ever done. Then, we got the duets, which were odd. Austin and Ashley started singing Endless Love, and again, Diana is not the diva Ashley should be copping from. Austin did great, but Ashley really dragged him down. Then, Max and Laura joined in, and while they're the couple I want to see win, I didn't feel the chemistry with them. They started weak and didn't totally recover. Then they switched partners, a good break for Austin, and did I've Had The Time Of My Life, and Austin and Laura were definitely the couple. They've both had professional stage experience, and it showed. They were right on, Max and Ashley struggled, although again, it was more Ashley than Max, but he wasn't able to cope as well as Austin did with being saddled with an inept partner. However, I still stand by him. They'll get a lot more rehearsal time before Grease opens than they get rehearsing for each week's episode, and I think Max will come through just fine. So, next week we get the results, and then we can start fantasizing about casting Carrie next season.

Updates

A few updates on previous posts:

It looks like Ragtime will not be happening at New York City Opera after all. The more I thought about that, the more I didn't think it was a very good idea anyways. I'm really not into mixing opera and Broadway and the experience more than likely would have been dull. However, another unjustly underrated and overlooked musical may be finally getting a second life. Kander & Ebb's The Visit, which I saw in it's world premiere here in Chicago and LOVED, is finally getting it's second production, almost 6 years later, this time in DC. The critics weren't very kind, but it was sold out, and I loved it. With a little bit of luck, the show will finally get to Broadway, or at least result in a cast album, like Bounce (another inexplicably underrated/overlooked show by a master that for some reason the critics just couldn't get behind despite obvious audience enthusiasm, that also went to DC after Chicago before disappearing before good).

Scarlett Johanson is reportedly up for the lead in the upcoming South Pacific. She's exactly how I picture Nellie (young and spirited, not old like Glenn Close), and I believe she can sing pretty well. I wasn't a big fan of her when she burst onto the scene with that Pearl Earring movie and the stupid Lost in Translation, but she redeemed herself with a great performance in what could have been a throwaway role in In Good Company, and she was superb in Match Point. I really hope this works out, it could be a match made in heaven.

Banana Republic

Ok, I mentioned earlier that I'd be writing more about the t-shirt I bought at Banana Republic. I didn't really pay attention when I picked it up, but there were about 3 security tags over the thing. It was one of their logo t-shirts, and it cost almost $30. When I checked out, the cashier removed the tags, wrapped up the shirt, and I didn't look at it again until I got home. When I got home, I unpacked the shirts, cut the tags off, and was about to wash them. As I was turning the t-shirt inside out, I noticed two holes in the back of the shirt, surrounded by slightly discolored circles. I'm assuming that they were from the security tags. I had already cut the price tag off, but I still had the receipt, and I work about 20 minutes away from the Old Orchard Mall in Skokie, which has a Banana Republic. So, last Wednesday, I took the shirt there to exchange it. They had another one in my size in stock, without any security tags on it, so I took them up to the cashier to exchange. She had a bad attitude from the start. I explained to her the problem with the first one and how I assumed the holes were from the security tags. Her immediate response was "We don't security tag our t-shirts." I had just told her I had bought the t-shirt in New York, but I politely said to her again, "I bought it at a different store," and explained to her that this one was closer to where I work (although still not that close, 20 minutes each way is still kind of far to go). She processed the exchange, and was about to hand me the new shirt when she noticed that the cash register was trying to charge me another $2.98, which was over 10% of the cost of the shirt. She called another person over and they determined that the register was trying to charge sales tax on the new shirt even though there wasn't a sale going on. Her response was, "you need to pay this to get the exchange." While I have no problem with the amount ($3 isn't that much), I was outraged at this act of extortion. The sale happened in New York (which doesn't have sales tax on clothes, which was the cause of the whole problem), this was just an exchange, and trying to make me pay over 10% (which is higher than Illinois' sales tax rate anyways, something just wasn't right about that) to fix a problem that they caused anyways with their poorly placed security tags seemed to me to be extortion. I told her I was refusing to pay it, and she just said there was nothing she could do to override it. Now, I worked at Target in high school and college at the service desk and I thought of three things off the top of my head she could do:
1. She could have voided out the transaction and just given me the new shirt with my old receipt, and sent the bad shirt back as a floor defect;
2. She could have voided the transaction, completely refunded the defective t-shirt, then done a new transaction to sell me the good shirt, and adjust the price to 10% off so that when the sales tax was added back on, it would equal the amount I had just been refunded;
3. She could have entered in that I paid the exact amount in cash, finished the transaction, given me the shirt and new receipt, and then just stuck a note in the cash drawer for the accountant stating that the cash would be $2.98 under and explaining why.
She continued to maintain that there was nothing she could do and after about 3 attempts to explain that there was no sale going on and that I should not have to pay more to fix a problem they caused and that I would have no problem paying the tax if I had just changed my mind and decided to get a different shirt, but since they caused this I shouldn't have to pay, I finally told her to just take the shirt back and give me a refund. She hesitated at first, but finally did it, although with a very bad attitude. As I left the store, my plan was to just wait and get a new shirt the next time I'm in New York. However, on the 20 minute drive back to work, I just kept steaming about this and getting madder and madder. I had already spent more than the $3 in gas plus over 40 minutes of my time to have to go back to fix this problem, I was damned if I was ever going to spend any more of my money at the Banana if that's how they're going to treat their customers. So, I got back to work, pulled up their website, and sent them an email explaining the situation and letting them know (politely) how pissed off I was at that poor excuse for customer service and that I was "disinclined" to ever shop at their stores again. A few hours later, I got a generic email back from them with a vague apology for my "disappointing experience" and an invitation to call them to discuss it further. If I had 20-30 minutes to spend on hold waiting for the next available operator, I would have called them in the first place. At this point, I was over the whole thing, but this got me upset again, that they really don't seem to value customer service and they certainly can't count on me shopping there again if they're going to treat people this way. I figured that they were doing this on the assumption that I probably wouldn't bother to call and they could forget about the whole thing. So, when I got home, I called them, and got a person after only about 30 seconds on hold. I told her the story and expected an apology, and she started arguing with me about the sales tax. Now what I didn't tell her is that I had worked at the service desk at Target and whenever we did an exchange from somewhere with a different sales tax rate, we never had this problem. The computer calculated the sales tax based on the subtotal, and if it was an even exchange, as my transaction was, it wouldn't matter what the sales tax rate was, any percentage of zero is still zero. On top of that, we were instructed to always take care of the customer, and if a transaction had ended like mine did with Banana Republic (losing the sale because of a $3 dispute), we would have been talked to. I didn't bring this up because I didn't want her thinking that I was trying to exploit what I knew about customer service to get something from them. Really, all I wanted was for the manager of the Old Orchard Store to find out about this and know that I would not be shopping at that store again (I will shop at BR again, I wasn't fooling anyone about that, but I'm definitely not going back to that store, I do have standards) because of his employee's actions and attitude. I couldn't believe this woman was trying to justify the experience. I gave her the same argument, there was no sale, and even if there was, the total sum was zero, so even if our sales tax was 20%, the amount of the tax should have been zero, there was no reason for their computer to insist that I should pay any other amount. She continued to try to argue that it was "state law" and there was nothing they could do, and I mentioned my ideas above. She said that they couldn't do that and just as I was about to hang up, she changed the subject and did agree (how generous of her) that I was right that I shouldn't have had to take the shirt back and deal with this in the first place because of their poorly placed security tags, and would I accept a $20 gift card? I said sure, because I'm not dumb, even though she really didn't seem to understand what was bothering me about the whole thing in the first place, and it wasn't until she took my information and hung up that I realized that she hadn't even asked for the identity of the store that this had happened at (I had the refund receipt with me with the Old Orchard Store number on it, and I did reference it in the email, but who knows what they'll do with the information, they'll probably just write it off as an expense to satisfy a crank and do nothing to improve their customer service), so what I really wanted probably wasn't even going to happen. So, when I get the card I'll go buy the shirt again (although not at the Old Orchard store), but I really am kind of over the Banana at this point. Target is barely a step above Walmart and we never would have let this happen, I can't believe that Banana Republic is fine with that level of customer service. So, it was a disappointing cap on the New York experience, but there's always H&M for next time.

Grease, almost done

After such a great theatre week, it was time for the final cap, my weekly dose of Grease. . . Last week they had mentioned it was going to be back to duets this week, but that idea seemed to have gone out the window without any mention why. First we got the results of last week's voting on the guy's performances, and first, not shocking at all, Chad was in the bottom two. Far more surprising was that Austin joined him and had the lowest number of votes. Apparently Austin fell victim to the Tamyra Gray syndrome in which the front runner, after a strong run of great performances, starts to get tired and gives just an ok performance. It's certainly not the worst of the night, but in comparison to her great performances in previous weeks it's a huge disappointment and her fans desert her, leaving Nikki McKibbin/Derek safe. What is it with Derek? He's becoming the male equivalent of Ashley, giving the worst performances for the past few weeks yet remaining safe in the voting. If the show ends up with Derek and Ashley I'm going to have a hard time coming back next season, even if they decide to cast a revival of Carrie (and how cool would it be to have a bucket of blood dumped on the ones getting sent home each week?). The guest judge was Rob Marshall, very fitting, but unlike Andrew Lloyd Webber's week, they still didn't sing any showtunes. At this point in the competition do I still have to perseverate on this??? At least Rob told almost all the performers that if they're not going to do showtunes, they should do their selections in a showtune style. Good advice.
Allie was up first and did Aretha Franklin's Natural Woman. It was an ok performance. She didn't show the intensity she has the past few weeks, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as her first performance. She's grown a lot, but I'm starting to think she may not be the one for this show. I don't think she'll be able to consistently be good enough 8 performances a week. In fact, almost 5 days later what I remember the most is her tripping going down the stairs, not her vocal performance.
Derek was up next and finally redeemed himself. He did Devil in Disguise by Elvis (for some reason all the guys had to do Elvis songs, which is marginally showtune related, All Shook Up was composed entirely of his songs), and for the first time in several weeks he hit all the notes, but as good as the performance was he still has the same consistency issues as Allie. His daytime soap looks aren't going to earn him a pass from theatregoers paying $111.25 a ticket no matter what his obviously dedicated fan base delusionally thinks. His performance was good enough though to practically guarantee him a place in the finals, especially if the voting pattern for the guys holds.
Laura did Please Don't Leave Me This Way and gave the best female performance of the night. Despite her poor rendition of Superstar I'm starting to think she's the best choice for Sandy. After that performance she's been the most dynamic and most consistent of the women. The girls' voting is more up for grabs week to week than the guys so we'll have to see how this plays out, but I have a feeling she'll make it to the finals.
Max was up next with Suspicious Minds and gave the best performance of the night. All his annoying affectations are gone and he is a true performer. He didn't fall victim to the frontrunner curse like Derek did. He has a solid fan base and I have a feeling he'll be going head to head with Derek in the finals. I'm so proud of him and of the judges for allowing him to have this chance to prove himself.
Then, in honor of guest judge Rob Marshall, we got a group performance of All That Jazz, and I am mystified why they chose that song. I know it's the best known song from Chicago, but it's a solo, and the tag team style just didn't work. They had the right number of people for Cell Block Tango, that would have been a far superior choice. The tempo was too slow, and it was a sluggish performance, plus giving Ashley the pole position slot with the dramatic entrance was a slap in the face to Bebe Neuwirth, Jasmine Guy, Karen Ziemba, Katherine Zeta-Jones, and every other actress that played this role. When Chicago first opened, I wasn't that thrilled with the idea. Then, I saw the touring company, headed by Jasmine Guy, perform this number on Today and I was hooked. I bought my ticket as soon as they came to town and have been back 5 times since, more than any other show. If this performance had been my introduction to the show, I never would have gone the first time.
Then we got the singoff. No surprise, Chad was sent home even though Austin had fewer votes. However, if this pattern holds, Austin will be sent home next week leaving Derrick and Max to duke it out (and please, can't we add some nude Greek-style wrestling to the competition?). However, we finally found out that we are officially out of the semi-finals and next week, only the votes will count, and whoever gets the lowest amount of votes will be sent home without any interference, just like the 2006 elections, the people's voice will finally be heard after several rigged rounds.
Ashley then did her number, You Keep Me Hanging On, and honey, I was so ready to let go. I've had such a Diana Ross weekend, and this ruined it. If you're going to pick a diva's song to perform, pick a diva that you can at least match in attitude and talent. Diana is way out of Ashley's grasp and it showed. She always has this deer in the headlight look when she performs and I keep expecting her to run off the stage halfway through, although there may be some wishful thinking in there as well. It was the worst performance of the night, but I have a feeling we'll see her in the finals.
Last up was saved Austin doing Can't Help Falling In Love. The key was way too low for him and it didn't sound natural. He was trying to be romantic with it, but it came across as stilted and silly. I think we've unfortunately seen the last of him.
That wrapped it up. We got a quick recap, but no clue as to next week's guest judge. It's Thursday afternoon and my phone still hasn't rung, let's get on this people. I'm predicting that Austin and Allie are going to be eliminated next week, the pattern is clear among the guys, and Allie's been in the bottom before while Ashley and Laura have not, making her the most vulnerable. One question remains though. This weekend is the finals, but how are we going to find out the results? They really can't do it at the end of the show, but they don't need an hour long show next weekend to reveal the winners. Granted, Idol manages to fill anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to give us the results, but that's not really a model anyone should be wanting to copy. Again, we'll have to see how this plays out. I'm hopeful we'll end up with Max and Laura as the eventual winners, but I have a bad feeling it could be Derek and Ashley. Stay tuned, there could be a big hissy fit coming up.

Spring Awakening

After the Drowsy Chaperone, I met up with my companion (he had taken his client to the show, so they sat far away from me), and we went to the Village to do some more shopping and then walked to Tribeca to have dinner at Blau Gans. It was totally worth the walk. It's kind of out of the way, but anyone in the New York area who likes German food needs to make the trip. It is an excellent restaurant, and yet another fantastic meal on the trip. We then took the subway back to Times Square and walked to the Eugene O'Neill theatre for Spring Awakening, the show that caused the most disagreement on our trip. Having seen Sweeney Todd from the balcony of the theatre last year, I knew that we would have a more advantageous view from up there for this show, so I purposely bought balcony tickets. I was hoping for a nice view of Jonathan Groff's naked behind (and possibly his fronts, I've heard rumors that it can be seen from certain angles although I'm not sure how, it certainly seemed to me like they were keeping it more secure than Area 51), but alas, we were on the wrong side and I got a better view of Lea Michele's breasteses, which was not what I wanted to see at all. Now, I knew what to expect. I've enjoyed the cast recording from the day it was released and knew what the story was about. I was expecting more of a concrete story rather than the episodic/vignette style it turned out to be, and even though I knew about the cast sitting off to the side, I was still expecting something more in the way of sets. However, I was fine with how it all turned out and enjoyed it. My companion did not. About halfway through he whispered to me "Do you like this?" and he complained non-stop through intermission. His main contention was that all it needed was a heroin addict and a transvestite and it would hit all the hot button issues just as trendily as Rent, a show neither of us like. I can see the comparison to Rent, but Spring Awakening is enough of a show in it's own right and has a much better story and way better music to boot. He ended up liking the second act better and was able to grudgingly admit afterwards that it was an ok show, but he still couldn't figure out why I liked it so much. It certainly caused the most discussion after any of the shows we saw, but I am still firm in my opinion of it. It was joyful, energetic, and very timely. It was a great end to the stretch of shows I got to enjoy. So, it was back to the hotel for the night and off to Laguardia the next morning. We were able to make it there on time and catch our flight without any of the drama we had getting there, and made it back home in time for Grease. . . I will most likely be going back in May, and I can't wait, especially since I'll have better weather and can walk around more. Next time I will hopefully catch Deuce, Chorus Line, and 110 in the Shade, and we'll see what else comes along. Maybe I'll finally get to see an opera at the Met, or hopefully Xanadu will at least be in previews (I think they're shooting for a June opening to avoid this year's sure to be competitive Tony's, but the previews start before the eligibility cut off), or some big star will be in an old favorite. I can't wait. Until then, I've got Vegas in two more weeks to look forward to.

The Drowsy Chaperone, or My Life Story

Saturday morning I spent shopping. The Barnes & Noble on 5th Ave. & 46th Street has a superb showtune section. Having been in a Diana Ross mood after thinking I could see her on the street the day before, I picked up the soundtrack to The Wiz (horrid movie but rocking soundtrack). I then made my way to the Marquis for The Drowsey Chaperone. Ever since last year's Tony Awards I've been saying this is the show that should have won, and now I can say it with full confidence. What a terrific show. I was in the balcony (there was no playbill.com discount for this one, so I had to get the cheap seats), but the seats were by far the most comfortable out of all the shows we went to, and it was still a great view. Bob Martin was superb, and I loved finally getting to see the show played out on stage instead of having to settle for listening to the cast recording and playing my own version of Man in Chair. Speaking of Man in Chair, I am very tempted to sue the show for appropriating my likeness without my permission, but it's such a loveable homage to theatre queens everywhere that I can't be angry at all. Other than Edward Hibbert, who moved to Curtains, we had the original cast, and while I'm not a fan of Sutton Foster, mostly due to her involvement with the thoroughly awful Millie, I thought they were all fantastic. There were a couple of slow spots where it seemed like they were going through the motions, which is the downside to keeping a cast together for so long, but overall the show sparkled. It also didn't help that the old people around me didn't seem to get the show, which kind of dampened the enthusiasm in the house, but I got every joke and every reference and loved the show. I don't care what the final result of the Tony Awards were, this is the show that will still be getting revivals all over the country and in every high school audtorium 100 years from now. Don't miss this show, it's unlikely Broadway will ever see anything like it again.

Curtains

The Hirschfeld theatre was by far the most annoying of all the theatres I was at. There was a long line of people waiting to get in, and once we were in, there are no signs directing people where to go. The one ticket taker for the entire theatre instructed us to go upstairs, which I knew we would have to. Upstairs, there are two doors into the balcony seating area, but no signs and no indication on the tickets as to which door to use for which seats. Everyone had to stand in line again at the door closest to the stairs and the usher would either direct people into that door or send them down the hall to the other door. We had to go to that door and then stand in line again to be lead to our seats. Then, I don't know who designed the bathroom, but putting the paper towel dispensers on a partition in the middle of the doorway really impedes traffic flow and causes massive confusion. Fortunately, once the show started, it took away all thoughts of the building. Curtains is a fantastic show and a very fitting swan song for the greatest show-writing team in Broadway history. The music was terrific, the plot was engaging and not too silly or overtaxing, and all the performers were at the top of their game. The theatre was packed, which is a good sign, there's obviously a lot of interest in the show. It is their best score since Chicago and their most positive, up-beat show since The Act. The audience seemed to love every minute of it, and for good reason, although I'm calling out the people at the Friday March 9 8:00 pm show sitting in the balcony, row N, seats 10 and 12: no matter how great the show is, there is no need for each of you to loudly comment on it to the other throughout the show. I paid to hear the actors, not you two. This show ties with Grey Gardens as the best show we saw on the trip. The cast album is being recorded March 26 and hopefully will be released sometime shortly after that, most likely in time to capitalize on the inevitable Tony nominations. So far all the chatter has been about Grey Gardens & Spring Awakening going head to head at the Tony's, but there's a new contender in town. The Tony's aren't nearly as sentimental as the Oscars, so Ebb's death isn't a factor, but the superb quality of the show makes it quite a threat. Here's hoping it has a long and prosperous run and paves the way for the rest of Kander & Ebb's unseen works to make it to Broadway.

Friday in New York

My original plan for Friday was to go to the Central Park Zoo and then the Guggenheim. Well, while I was waiting at the airport, I picked up some fliers and got one for the Frick. I thought that looked interesting, and it was much closer to the zoo, so I decided I would go there. Then I woke up Friday and it was still just out of the single digits, and after walking all over on Thursday, I wasn't in the mood for walking around in the cold even more. I lounged around for a while and flipped through the channels. I stopped at Martha Stewart and was ecstatic when I saw Diana Ross as her guest. I started throwing on clothes with the intent of running down to Rockefeller Center hoping to get a glimpse of Miss Ross leaving the studio, when Martha mentioned something about Diana's new CD being perfect for the "upcoming Valentine's Day". Well, Valentine's Day was several weeks ago, the show obviously had been taped much earlier and they were finally just getting around to airing it weeks after Miss Ross left Rockefeller Center. So, deeply disppointed, I crawled back into bed and my companion called a few minutes later. He had finished taking the deposition he needed to and was done for the rest of the day. We decided that he'd meet me back at the hotel and we'd go for lunch at Cafe Sabarsky and then go to the Frick, and it was a great afternoon. When we got to the Neue Gallery, Sabarsky had a wait, so we ended up going to Cafe Fledermaus, but it was the exact same menu, just a more casual atmosphere. We had a great lunch and then caught the bus down Fifth Avenue and went to the Frick. I thought we'd be out of there in an hour, but we stayed for the rest of the afternoon and still didn't get to fully appreciate everything. We left about 4:15 and still had about 2 more rooms to go through and listen to the audio tour. We'll definitely be going back, it's a very cool museum. I stopped at the Rockefeller Banana Republic on the way, I had a gift certificate and wanted to use it in a city without sales tax, so I picked up a dress shirt and a cool T-Shirt with a New York logo/design on it (and I'll be talking more about that later). We quickly changed at the hotel and went to Aquavit for dinner. Again, it was a fantastic dinner, which is pretty much a given at Aquavit, and we went to Curtains.

Company

I left the hotel around 7:40 for Company. The theatre was only a few blocks away and I figured by leaving that late I wouldn't have to stand in line in the cold and risk my cold getting worse, especially after I had walked around outside all afternoon. It paid off, I got there, got my tickets, found my seat, and it started just a few minutes later. I was in the balcony, first row of the mid-section, just off of center, with an aisle seat. It was a good view but I felt a little removed from the action, and Raul Esparza's uber-detached performance didn't help with that feeling. I did enjoy the show, although I thought John Doyle's production of Sweeney Todd last season was superior. Sweeney lended itself better to the actor-musician concept than Company did. It really only worked at the end when Bobby for the first time plays an instrument and it symbolizes him finally taking control of his life. It's ironic that Doyle won best director last year but his show lost best revival even though it deserved it, and this year he probably won't win director (my current bet is Michael Mayer for Spring Awakening, but that could change. This is going to be a very competitive year at the Tony's and there's a lot of potential for spoilers), but his show has a very real chance of winning best revival even though it's of a lesser quality than Sweeney. I loved the look of the show much more than I did the show itself. I would love to see it win best costumes (for which it has a good chance) and best set design (which it will probably lose to the gaudier Mary Poppins). They really nailed the visual part of the show. Everyone was good with their singing and playing musical instruments, but I just didn't feel as much of a connection with the show as I do listening to the original 1971 cast. There seemed to be a touch of self-awareness to the production that didn't work too well, and Raul's performance really threw me off. I expected Bobby to be more involved in his life, just confused, and he played Bobby as going through the motions without really caring. However, given that that's how they decided to play it, they went for broke and it did work in that context, I'm just not sure it's the best context for the show. Apparently a lot of people agreed with me, no one around me came back after intermission. The balcony was almost totally deserted for the second act. I can't imagine paying all that money and then walking out no matter how awful a show is. So, in the final analysis, I'm glad I saw it, but I'm glad I used the playbill.com discount. It's one of those shows that's easy to appreciate on a cognitive level but still not fully enjoy on an emotional level. My head loved it, my heart not so much. So, after a long, cold day, it was once again time to head back to the hotel and get some rest.

Thursday in New York

Thursday morning I had an appointment for a haircut and facial at Bon Bon Salon on Lexington and 38th. It was very needed and very relaxing. I was there for almost two hours and was so reluctant to leave the warm, inviting salon and head back out into the single digit weather. At least there was no more snow. I made my way to the South Street Seaport and saw the Bodies exhibit, which kept me inside for a couple hours. It was a very cool exhibit, although after going through about 6 galleries, I didn't really need to see any more samples of diseased lung tissue or cancerous stomach linings. It started to get a bit much, so I hurried through the last couple of galleries and made my way back outside for some fresh air. I walked all the way down one of the piers and saw the old boats and made my way to the river for a quick glimpse of Brooklyn, and then, as I was freezing, quickly made my way back to the subway and up to the Village. My first stop was the Strand Bookstore. I have such a love-hate relationship with that place. It is so cool to have all these old, fairly cheap books, but I can never find what I'm looking for. I checked their website before I left and it said that they had many of the books I was looking for in stock. However, when I got there, I could not find any of them in any of the sections of the store. I found some other books I wanted though and picked those up, so it was still a fruitful trip. I should just order the books from them online and make them try to find them. The aisles are so crowded I end up losing my patience trying to maneuver around people and then not finding what I'm looking for where it's supposed to be. I got a quick snack at Dean & Delucca and made my way back to the hotel to get ready for Company.

Grey Gardens

I was still somewhat tired when I got back to the hotel. Dealing with the cold and snow had not helped me wake up. I took a brief nap and by the time I woke up, my companion was back from work. We decided to have dinner at Firebird and that was a great choice. That was one of the best meals I have ever had. It must be a new restaurant. When I was there last year, I looked up Russian restaurants on Citysearch and only got Samovar. This year Firebird popped up as well, and since we hadn't been wowed by Samovar, we decided to try it. We had a fantastic meal and then headed to Grey Gardens, which was the perfect cap to the evening. We had main floor seats, probably about a third of the way back, on the aisle of the right section of the theatre, so it was almost center. Christine Ebersole was very definitely over her flu. That was one of the best shows I have ever seen. I've noticed that the cast recording can get a little grating, especially towards the end as it consists mostly of two old women yelling at each other, but on stage, live, it electrifies. We both loved it. The story is very well told and everyone's acting was top notch. We had the understudy for Joe/Jerry but it seemed like he was part of the cast. It was a very enjoyable two and a half hours. The only problem was that my cold was getting worse and I had to keep coughing, so I was trying to wait until the end of each song so I could cough during the applause and that got very uncomfortable, but the show was so good, I quit paying attention to my need to cough. Definitely if you are anywhere near New York, run to see the show while Christine's still with it, and let's hope she'll tour and do the movie version.

Tarzan

I slept for almost 10 hours and then woke up with a sore throat and cough that stayed with my for the rest of the trip, which I blame on waiting 20 minutes in the freezing cold to get a cab at LaGuardia. I looked out the window and saw everything outside covered in snow, which did not put me in any more of a mood to get up and get going. I lounged in bed until almost noon and finally got myself ready to go. I walked to the theatre, although it was more like sliding along the slick sidewalks (and whatever you do, don't step on a subway grate after a snowfall, you'll be lucky to keep your balance without grabbing onto the nearest passer-by). I picked up my ticket at the Richard Rogers and went to a nearby pizza place on 8th for lunch. I stayed there about half an hour and at 1:30 went back to the theatre. I had to stand outside for about another 10 minutes and then they let us in. Despite the modern looking facade, it is a very small theatre inside, and there were kids crawling everywhere. I found my seat and was thrilled to find myself in the 5th row, the very center seat of the center section. The pre-show show was cool, with maps and pictures of the ship projected onto the curtain and the sound of creaking timber and wind coming through the speakers. Then the show started. The first act didn't really wow me. It was a lot of spectacle, but the story was thin. The first 15 minutes of the movie are heartwrenching, and they really glossed over the loss of Kala's cub and her adoption of Tarzan. In fact, when the cheetah stole her cub, it happened so fast it was hard to tell what had just happened, and it really lessened the emotional impact. Then, as the first act progressed, they really lightened up on Kerchek's rejection of Tarzan, which I thought was the heart of the movie. The best line from the movie "He is not my son" wasn't even in the show. Come on, that line endeared every theatre queen in the audience to young Tarzan and helped create an emotional bond. The actor playing young Tarzan seemed to miss his cues frequently which created a feeling of the show lagging, and then the shadow puppet show really seemed out of place. Fortunately, just as I was wondering if I had wasted $65, young Tarzan was out and Josh Strickland was in. My oh my, what I wouldn't give to be stranded on a jungle island with him. Most of the rest of the first act was spectacle, particularly when Jane first showed up and was wowed by Africa, but Strickland helped to finally create some connection with the story. He did a fantastic job, throughout the entire show of being the outsider; human when he was around apes and ape-like when he was around the humans. It was a fantastic performance. The second act really focused on the story and was much more enjoyable. A lot of the emotional conflict finally came to the forefront, and although "Strangers Like Me" is no "Can You Feel The Love Tonight," "Beauty and the Beast," or even "Written In The Stars," the love story really took hold and I really enjoyed the second act and ended up very glad I had seen the show. Once it was over, I had to fight my way past all the kids milling around aimlessly, and was pleased to find most of the snow had melted. I made my way back to the hotel to meet my companion and begin the rest of the evening.

Traveling Drama

With all the shows I was planning to see, I was expecting a fair amount of drama on this trip, but I was hoping it would all be on the stage. Unfortunately, the act of getting to New York involved more drama than anything else. Our flight was at 6:20 last Tuesday night. I work about 20 minutes from O'Hare, while my companion works downtown. We decided that I would take both of our suitcases with me to work, leave my car there and take a cab to the airport after work, and then when we got back on Sunday we'd take a cab back to work and I'd drive us home. A round trip cab ride is much much cheaper than parking at O'Hare for 5 days. I had no problem with that and Tuesday morning we packed both of our suitcases into my trunk and my companion said he'd be at the airport at 5 to meet me. Now, he is physically incapable of getting anywhere on time. We are always slinking into the opera just as they are closing the doors and we have had several flights where they've closed the door as soon as we got on board. So, I offered to just check both of the suitcases under my name so that he wouldn't have to rush. However, he was afraid his suitcase would be overweight and wanted to check it in himself so that he could pay the extra if it was. I wasn't thrilled, but he promised he would be there by 5, so I said ok. I arranged for the cab to pick me up at 4:30, which it did. I then called my companion to let him know I was on my way, and found out that he was still at work, in downtown Chicago. It takes at least an hour to get to O'Hare on the el, and that's if it doesn't stop between stations for 10-15 minutes anywhere on the line while waiting for construction workers to clear off the tracks. So, I was not at all surprised, but he said he would leave right away and when I got there I positioned myself by the self-check in machines and waited. I assumed it was common knowledge that airlines stop checking luggage 40 minutes before takeoff. As 5:30 approached I called him and offered to check his suitcase, although I neglected to remind him that we had to be checked in by 5:40, and that is my fault, I should have known he wouldn't have been tracking the time that well, and he said he was 3 stops away and to let him check his own suitcase. Just as I resigned myself to the fact that we wouldn't be going to New York after all and I had just spent hundreds of dollars on shows I wouldn't be seeing, he showed up at 5:39. I ran to the self-check in machine and stuck in my credit card. He waddled along behind me, fumbled with his wallet, got a call on his cell phone and fumbled with that, and finally got his card into the slot. I processed my check in and the attendant called my name with the tag for my suitcase. As he was putting it on, my companion finished up, and got a second piece of paper out of the machine with his boarding pass that said "Pre-checked baggage only." As I was taking my suitcase to the x-ray machine, I heard the attendant telling him baggage check had closed before he put his card in the machine. He got furious since I had been able to check in, but the attendant said that all he could do was stand in line and see if the people behind the counter could help. So, my companion told me to go through security and wait for him at the gate. Now, there was almost no one in the terminal when I got there about 10 minutes before 5. However, by this time, the security line was almost half an hour long. I turned my phone off because I don't want it going off while it's going through the machine and freaking out the security people who aren't that smart to start with. So, by the time I got through security, it was almost 10 after 6, only 10 minutes to go before take off, and looking back, I could not see my companion anywhere in the line. I turned my phone back on and it immediately started ringing. It was my companion and he said that the woman at the counter was a bitch and would not let him check his suitcase, and he had to take the next plane to New York, which left at 7:15. I suppose it could have been worse, there could have not been a flight until 11 or even until the next morning. However, it was very annoying because we were flying into LaGuardia which is the grossest of the 3 airports in New York, so there was going to be nothing for me to eat when I got there and I would have to wait for almost an hour, assuming his flight didn't get delayed along the way. But, there was nothing I could do, so I said I'd see him there and proceeded to the gate printed on my boarding pass. When I got there, everyone was still sitting and people were coming out of the gangway. I figued the plane taking us to New York had arrived late and sat patiently. About 5 minutes later, with 5 minutes to go before take off, one of the attendants got on the overhead and said "For those of you just showing up for the New York flight, there has been a gate change and your gate is now. . ." I forget what the gate was but it was three terminals away, although fortunately still within the same secure area. I took off running and got there just as they were about to close the door. I was furious and told them that I had been sitting at the other gate for 5 minutes and that the screen had still said it was the New York flight and they didn't announce the gate change until I had been there for 5 minutes. So, I got through and was the last one onto the plane. The flight was smooth and uneventful, although they put us in a holding pattern around New York for about 20 minutes before we were able to land. Sure enough, everything was closed when we got there, so I went to get my suitcase and wait. After about half an hour, there was still no suitcase and just about everyone else had cleared out, and the conveyer belt had stopped. So, I had to take a trip to baggage services and found out that my suitcase was on my companion's plane. It's a good thing he ended up on that plane because we would have had to wait for it to come in anyways to get our luggage. He got there about 20 minutes after that. His plane had left on time and was no more delayed than mine was, and sure enough, both of our suitcases came out together and we went out to get a cab. It was only a few degrees above zero and we had to wait almost 20 minutes because of the weirdly designed cab area at LaGuardia. Eventually we got a cab that fortunately had good heating and got to the Sofitel a short time later. We unpacked and were both passed out a short time later.

I'm Back!!!

Obviously, I never got the password I needed from Blogger to do mobile blogging, so I've had to wait until today to start posting about my trip. However, as soon as I got to work this morning, I found out that for the first time, a buttload of shit happened while I was gone, and I've been busy dealing with it all day, leaving me only a few minutes now to catch my two faithful readers up on my trip. To make things worse, I'm going to be at another office tomorrow with no computer access, so although I'll try to get some reviews up tonight, it's not going to be until well into Wednesday that I get everything posted as well as my thoughts on last night's Grease. . . So for now, let's just say that there was a ton of drama involved in getting there thanks to my companion who has some sort of genetic incapability to get anywhere on time, I came down with a persistent cold, and the weather sucked, but I still had a fantastic time. I more or less liked all the shows I saw(More: Grey Gardens & Curtains, Less: Company & Tarzan, Liked: Drowsy Chaperone & Spring Awakening; reviews on all to come), I got a lot of shopping done (and spent too much money), and I ate a lot of fantastic meals. Anyways, it's about time to rush out of here and off to my private practice, but look for more details soon.

New York, New York

Six hours to go until my flight takes off. There were reports this morning of high winds causing problems at O'Hare, but according to American's website, my flight is still on time, so we'll see if that holds throughout the afternoon. I just ordered my cab to take me from work to the airport and I should get there with plenty of time to spare. I can grab a couple drinks so that I can get myself on the plane. I really hate flying, but almost as much, I hate dealing with airports. They were never pleasant to begin with, and they've just gotten worse over the past 5 years. The airlines are never going to recover until they stop treating their customers like criminals. The problem is, 5 years ago, 19 of their customers were criminals and have caused no end of problems ever since. I don't know how they're going to fix it to make the process more pleasant (seriously, isn't it anti-competitive or something to only allow drinks purchased in the airports onto planes???), but until then, I keep my flying to a minimum. Twice this month is going to be enough to last me for the next year.

At least I have the thought of all my shows to keep my spirits up. The tickets have all been bought, and the schedule is:

Wednesday Matinee: Tarzan (great seats)
Wednesday Evening: Grey Gardens (fantastic seats)
Thursday: Company (decent seats)
Friday: Curtains (bad seats, but they were the best available)
Saturday Matinee: The Drowsy Chaperone (decent seats)
Saturday Night: Spring Awakening (good seats; I got balcony front section b/c I've heard it provides a more advantageous view of certain scenes, we'll see if that's the case, even if not, it's the theatre where I saw Sweeney Todd last year and I'm in the same section, so I know the seats are good).

I've got an appointment for a facial and haircut Thursday morning and will spend the rest of the day going to the Aquarium, and then coming back and wandering around the village, checking out Strand Books, and doing some shopping before heading back to the hotel to get ready for Company. Friday I plan on going to the Central Park Zoo, wandering around the park, possibly hitting the Guggenheim, and possibly popping into the MOMA once the free tickets are in effect. Then Sunday, it's time to head home, hopefully (or not so hopefully) we'll remember to change the clock before we go to bed so we get up in time to make it back to LaGuaradia, deal with all the shit involved in flying, and make it to the gate on time so that I can get back home in time for Grease. It's going to be a quick trip, but filled with activities. As I mentioned earlier, I'm hoping to be able to post about each show as I see them, but that's looking like it may not happen. In order to mobile blog, you need to send an email or text message to Blogger's mobile email address, and they send you back a password so you can set up your mobile site and set it to automatically post anything you email or text them to your regular blog. I sent the email last Thursday and have yet to get a password back. I'm going to try again this afternoon, but if it doesn't work, I'll have to post extensively on Monday when I'm back at work. See you then.

Linda Eder

Halfway through a very busy weekend, I got to see Linda Eder at the Palace Theatre. This was the 5th time I've seen her and she gets better every time. I was in the second row, left aisle seat of the center section and it was amazing. She looks very different up close, but not in a bad way. An interview in the Times revealed that she is (gasp) 46 (and here I thought she was in her mid-30's based on her album cover pictures), and she's starting to show signs of maturing, but she's doing so very gracefully. Her face has more character up close and it really works for her. The best part though, was that every time she goes for the high notes, she pulls the mic back so she's not overwhelming the sound system, and at those moments, we in the first few rows heard her actual voice, and not the voice coming through the speakers, and what a voice it is. She did a wide range of material, with something from just about every album, except for Gold (although the two selections from her first CD, Someone Like You and Vienna, are better known from and also found on, other, later CD's). She did a lot of songs I haven't heard her do live, including Almost Like Being In Love, This Time Around, and Bridge Over Troubled Water, which opened the second half of the show. She did a lot of the Judy Garland songs from the new CD, and for her encore, instead of doing If I Had My Way, which has become her standard, she did I'm Always Chasing Rainbows/Over The Rainbow, and OMG, it was so fabulous. It was so delicate and beautiful, it was the perfect ending to the night. She said that she's working on a new album, and it's going to have more of a pop sound (I'm guessing like Gold), but the only song she said for sure that will be on it is If I Could, and after having heard her do it twice now in concert, I'm so glad to finally be able to have it permanently recorded. She also said that she pays attention to a lot of the internet chatter and tries to incorporate the feedback she gets and accommodate requests for songs, so Linda, if you're reading, I don't know what prompted me to think of this, but I would love to hear your take on Rainy Days and Mondays. It's my favorite song by my favorite group/singer and I think it's perfectly suited to Linda's voice. A lot of Carpenters songs have become standards, and they sang a lot of standards, so I think this could really be a match made in heaven. Although the time flew by way too fast (by the time we got to intermission, exactly one hour after she started, I could have sworn she'd only been on stage for 10 minutes), it was a wonderful evening, and I'm glad I braved the cold and the hassle of my hectic schedule to go see her. I can't wait for the sixth time!

Grease, a two for one recap

I finally got around to seeing last week's episode of Grease. . . on Saturday, but did not get a chance to post my thoughts. I then caught last night's episode and figured I'd just sumarize together. As I mentioned earlier, Kate and Kevin were sent home last week. I'm not surprised about Kevin, but Kate was rather puzzling, as was Kathleen's inclusion in the bottom two. So, the show started off with the girls singing Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee. The singing wasn't bad, but again the staging was rather bizarre. They must be getting paid a lot to be dancing around on a heart shaped bed wearing sheer nighties. We were then informed that the girls had done acting auditions that week, but all we got to see were very brief clips before they sang. Since this is an audition, why don't have the contestants act out a scene on live TV? It would really show how well they can do under pressure as well as provide some better filler. Ashley then kicked off the performances with "These Boots Are Made For Walking." If this was 10 years ago, she could have landed the part of Fem-bot #2 in the first Austin Powers movie with that audition. She had the plastic sex appeal, lack of emotion, and near-monotone voice all down pat. It was a horrid performance and I just don't understand why she's still around.
Allie was next with the most adventerous song of the night, It's Oh So Quiet by Bjork. She had the perfect costume that totally emulated Bjork's swan outfit while keeping the Grease sensibility. It was a bizarre song, but she did a good job embracing Bjork's looniness and turning the number into a piece of bizarre performance art.
Laura was up next and did Fever, which finally put her worlds away from her horrible performance of Superstar a few weeks ago. She seized this one and ran with it. While it still can't compare to Peggy Lee, she did a great job turning it into a showtune-esque piece, more appropriate for theatre. It was far and away the best performance of the night.
After the safe three were done, it was time for the singoff. Kathleen seems to do a better job singing under pressure than in her regular songs. She was flawless during the singoff, but when it came time to do her own number, Let's Hear It For The Boy, she floundered again, which is too bad since it was the only showtune of the night. Why am I still harping on this after so many weeks? You're auditioning for a Broadway show, not a Vegas celebrity impersonator revue, you might want to throw in some showtunes and show the judges and voters that you can do more than just sing Karaoke. Unfortunately, Kathleen couldn't carry it and I spent more time looking longingly at Max providing the backup dancing than I did paying attention to her performance.
We then got a performance by Frankie Avalon, who was the guest performer, but did not fill the guest judge function. Then, it was time for the boys' show.

The show opened with the remaining four doing "Greased Lightening" which left me wondering why none of the mechanics at my garage look like that. If I had mechanics that looked like that I'd crash my car on purpose just to have an excuse to take it in. Once again, there was no guest judge, and this time we didn't even get to see the guys acting. They each got a short pre-recorded clip showing something they did during the week that they felt would help them excel. They were rather odd and again, we would have been better off without them and getting live acting auditions instead.
Austin kicked it off with "Fun, Fun, Fun", which was anything but. He showed his first signs of vulnerability with this poor performance. He hit the notes, but just wasn't that convincing. I was rather bored
Derek was next with Heaven by Bryan Adams, and it was the worst performance of the night. He started off well, but couldn't keep it up. He really hit a lot of wrong notes in the middle and end of the performance, and the choreography with Laura as his backup dancer was really bizarre. Her appearance was completely pointless and I think he would have been better off on stage alone singing. Given that he was kept safe last week after a horrible performance, while Chad was sent to the bottom two with a mediocre performance, it will be interesting to see how the voting plays out next week.
Max was up next and was the surprise of the night. He did "Hard To Handle" and while I would have preferred seeing him slink through Mae West's version from Myra Breckenridge rather than belting out the over the top Tom Jones channelled through Matt Rogers from Idol Season 3 version, he carried the show. For the first time, he hit every note, and this was while dancing up a storm. The strange sex faces were almost completely gone, and he had a confidence that he had never before displayed. Plus, he managed not to sound out of breath while dancing. It was a great performance and really showed how much he wants this and how right he could be for the part. Billy also mentioned the fact that Max has done every single thing the judges have asked of him, there's no ego on his part and he's a real trooper. There's a very good chance he could fly in under the radar and take this. Given Derek's falling apart though, we'll have to see how well Max does next week and if he lets one good performance go to his head.
Chad brought up the rear with "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen, and I really wish someone would have stopped him before he even started. It was not good. To start with, his new haircut makes him look creepy and psycho, and once again, he couldn't hit any of his notes. He really can't use the flu as an excuse any more, I think it's becoming obvious that he just doesn't have enough talent to pull this off. Again, we'll have to see how the voting plays out. Given that every guy who's been in the bottom two and was saved ended up in the bottom two the next week and was not saved, he's in a lot of danger. Given how much pre-audition screen time Max and Austin got and Derek's come from behind performance in the second week and the momentum he's gotten off of it (reminiscent of Nadia Turner from Idol Season 4), Chad is in real danger for next week, and as much as I love looking at him, the sad fact is, it's time for him to go.
So, after all four guys performed (none of whom did a real showtune, again, why do I have to keep harping on this?), it was time for the girls singoff. This time, it was Kathleen and Allie in the bottom two, and Allie received the lowest votes. WTF??? How the hell is Ashley is still here and managing to avoid the bottom two? I'm starting to suspect an Idol-style manipulation of the results, and given how they've already rigged the show when they're not happy with the results, that may not be an inaccurate assumption. Kathleen deserved her spot, not having given a great performance last week, but Allie was great. I think she was being punished for her song choice, and that's a shame. She's grown a lot and learned from her first week debacle and it would really be a shame to see her getting sent home because she's the most adventerous one of the bunch. So they sang, and it was finally time to say goodbye to Kathleen. I was a little surprised as this was the first time since the blatantly manipulated first week when the second lowest vote getter got sent home, but as David said to Jason, at some point they have to pay attention to their audience, and the audience doesn't like Kathleen (although David also oddly made it a point to say that he did not agree with this decision). I'm really hoping Ashley doesn't make it through this, if she manages to be in the bottom two next time, they have got to send her home. The judges don't seem to be liking her and hopefully they'll seize their opportunity to get rid of her. However, I'm starting to wonder, now that we're down to three, when do we officially reach the end of the "semi-finals" and the audience vote becomes the determining factor? They've still offered no clues on that. Also, as an aside, why do they continue to show clips of the guys being catty with each other, but not the girls? It's not helping the guys any. I'm not sure if the guys are actually saying these things or if they're being prompted for comments and then it's edited so that it looks like they're being so bitchy, but either way, it's not helping any of them come off well. None of them are sympathetic. However, it does open up a career path for all the losers; they can band together and put on a production of The Women. I'm seeing Austin in the Norma Shearer Role, Chad as Joan Crawford, Jason as Rosalind Russell, and Matt Nolan could be the countess, whailing "L'amour, L'amour" over the top every 2 minutes. No clues as to the identity of next week's guest judge, if there's even going to be one, but it does look like they're back to doing duets, hopefully it will work out better for some of them than it did the last time.

Hot men in loincloths

I just bought my ticket for Tarzan, which I will see next Wednesday, the 7th, at 2:00 pm. And to think, just a couple of weeks ago I was peeved that I couldn't get tickets to Chris Daughtry at the Double Door for that night. How things change. With a hunk swinging around the stage wearing nothing but a loincloth for 2 and a half hours, the score could be pure crap and there's a good chance this will still be the best thing I've ever seen.