Condolences

Condolences go out to Audra McDonald on the sudden passing of her father this afternoon.

Let The Awards Begin

Awards season is in full swing, and as yet, there's no clear consensus on who the big winners and losers will be. First of all, Playbill has a good article about the different awards that should clear up any confusion about the differences between the Tony's, Pulitzer, Outer Critics Circle, etc. etc. Shortly after the previously discussed Outer Critics Circle nominations were announced, the Drama League and Drama Desks announced their nominees. The Drama League only nominates best new and revival musical, and best new and revival play, and then lumps all performers into one category for a distinguished performance award. Grey Gardens was ineligible for consideration this year because it was a nominee last year, however Spring Awakening is one of the nominees, as is Mary Poppins, and, for some strange reason Legally Blonde made the cut, but Pirate Queen, an original musical, did not. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie Legally Blonde (but not the stupid second one), but I am so over any popular movie automatically getting turned into a musical. Where's the creativity? I'm predicting Spring Awakening to win, but Mary Poppins is proving to be more popular than thought, and could end up winning. Company is a lock for revival, and I'm leaving towards the Utopia trilogy for best play, although Frost/Nixon could be a spoiler, and Inherit The Wind for revival. The Distinguished Performance category is anyone's guess. With 78 nominees, there's almost no way to predict how the voters will go. If I had to guess, I'd go with Brian F. O'Byrne. While all the other nominees are nominated for one performance, he's nominated for an entire trilogy, and while the last play did not live up to expectations, the first two got raves like they were the second coming. After a disappointing Tony loss for Doubt, I think voters will make it up to him.

The Drama Desks are more traditional, everyone gets their own category. This time, Lovemusik came away with the most nominations (12), and Curtains, Spring Awakening, and Legally Blonde all got 10, as did Coast of Utopia. Once again, Grey Gardens was ineligible because of its nominations last year, which is not going to help it at all going into the Tony's, which is too bad because it is really one of the best things I have ever seen. Mary Poppins was almost totally shut out of the technical awards, only getting a tech nomination for Set Design (big surprise), although it is nominated for best musical and has several acting nominations. Once again, the Pirate Queen is shut out, even Steph Block didn't get a nomination. The only major consensus so far is that while Curtains is a major contender for Best Musical, its director, Scott Ellis, is getting the short end of the stick. He has not gotten a single nomination either for Curtains or for The Little Dog Laughed. Maybe the nominators are feeling that he'll get nominated in the other category and leaving him out of the one their considering, but so far he's 0 for 2. He's the Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton of the theatre world. Anyways, I would love to opine all day on the awards season and the nominees we've seen so far, but I have an appiontment and must be off. Next Friday is Ragtime, I can't wait.

The Countdown Continues

Three months left to go until Hairspray!

Updated Theatre News

Ok, I know some of this may be old news, and there's nothing that irritates me more, especially on radio morning shows, than people getting excited about old news. The worst is Q101's new morning show (please, let's start a petition, bring back The Shuffle). About a week after news confirming the last Harry Potter book's title and release date, the woman who does the entertainment reporting suddenly acted like she'd just heard of it and got really excited proclaiming that the last installment would be called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and nobody'd better be bothering her for two days when it comes out, and the days were. . .(I don't remember, but they had been announced a week earlier and she thought she was breaking new news to us). If anyone knows of a morning show in the Chicago area that's actually listenable, please let me know. So, please keep in mind that this news is delayed because of my previously mentioned work committment, and I'll try not to act too excited and remember that most of you have probably heard this already. Speaking of Harry Potter, while the London run of Equus is coming to an end in June, the production, complete with a naked Daniel Radcliff will be coming to New York next summer. They have to wait until he turns 18 to stage it here (of course, if he was in Sweeney Todd and slashing everyone's throats, he could come over now and play it), and then the production is currently planned to play in June and July of next year. You know who's going to be there, front and center!

News of a movie version of Doubt has been circulating for a while, and it appears that Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman will be the stars. Interesting casting, I'm not sure I would have gone there for either of the roles, but they're both good, and since Shanley's both writing and directing, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Unlike the recent production of The Apple Tree, 110 in the Shade will be releasing a cast album on June 5, just in time for the Tony's. I'll be picking up that one, and I would strongly encourage Roundabout to give us a cast album of Apple Tree. I'd love to here Kristin Chenoweth's take on What Makes Me Love Him.

Speaking of Kristin Chenoweth, she's going to be on the season finale of Ugly Betty. I can barely keep track of the divas on that show anymore. If I had to guess who was next, my money would be on Idina Menzel showing up in the season 2 premiere with twice as much screen time as Kristin and a song to boot.

After a dismal tryout in Chicago, The Pirate Queen opened on Broadway a few weeks ago. Entertainment Weekly gave it a C-, but I'm impressed by the civility of the review. Most Chicago critics were downright nasty and mean spirited in their assessment of the show. It wasn't a bad show, it just wasn't good either, especially when you consider that this is the team that created Les Miz and Miss Saigon. They obviously know how to tell a complex story and keep it understandable without dumbing it down. I think they just couldn't figure out whose story they wanted to tell. Entertainment Weekly was able to point out the shortcomings without making it personal, which was nice to read.

Lastly, the Outer Critics Circle Award nominations were announced today. In a big surprise, at least for me, Mary Poppins leads the pack with 11 nominations, dramatically shaking up the Tony race. Grey Gardens was completely shut out, not getting a single nomination. I'm not sure if that's because its Off-Broadway incarnation was last year's big winner, but even so, Spring Awakening also had an Off-Broadway incarnation, and that got nominated for several awards this time, so I don't know why it got a second chance but not Grey Gardens. Regardless of the reasons, it's going to slow down Grey Gardens' momentum going into awards season. It's still guaranteed several nominations, but it's not going to be in the front of everyone's mind while they fill out their ballots. I would caution several sources who have already declared Christine Ebersole the best actress winner to remember two words: Patti LuPone. While Christine is most certainly going to be nominated, it's far more likely that we'll see Lea Michelle, Rebecca Luker, or even Karen Ziemba walking down the aisle on Tony night. Granted, part of Mary Poppins' sweep is due to a similar reason that Dreamgirls got the most Oscar nominations: it's a lock for all the technical awards. Even for those of us that are sick and tired of movies, whether musical or not, being turned into stage shows (although Xanadu was such a craptacular movie that seeing it live is worth being excited about, only a musical Roller Boogie could excite me more), there's no denying the creative team's achievement on this one. I think Company was more tastefully done and would really like to see it win Stage Design and Costumes, but I think Poppins will take it. Whether it goes on to take the music, acting, and best musical awards is still yet to be seen. I'm still betting on Michael Meyer to get the directing award, although Doyle could take it again, after all Joe Mantello got it two years in a row, so you can't count Doyle out. I have a feeling Spring Awakening could be this year's Avenue Q, although I'd really like to see Grey Gardens play that part. Fuck the file limitations on my mp3 player, I'm getting the Broadway cast recording of Grey Gardens after all, someone's got to keep the show alive. Check playbill.com for a list of all the nominations.

It seems that the email posting option is working well, although it's harder to do the hyperlinks. So, for now anyways, I'm getting around the internet filters, which by the way, won't let me access the US Ticketmaster site, but I was able to access the UK Ticketmaster this morning with no problem to get my Billy Elliot tickets. There's no slowing me down. Except for death and taxes, there's ways to get around just about everything in life. See you soon.

Personal Update

Well, it's been a busy several days. On Thursday, I ordered my Ravinia tickets, and got a quick confirmation that the order has been filled. Patti & Audra, here I come!!! Friday, I had the day off since I had tackled a very unpleasant job at work earlier in the week. My boss said if I could get it done by Thursday afternoon I could have Friday off, hence the lack of posts in the past few days. On Thursday evening my printer died, a week after I spent $35 on a new ink cartridge, so I used the day off to go to Best Buy and get a new one. On the way out the door, I found a package waiting for me from BMG of new CD's I ordered: Lorelei (the 1993 remastered edition combining the pre-Broadway tour recording and the Broadway version recording), Barbara Cook's Legends of Broadway CD, and Chita Rivera's Legends of Broadway CD. When I got to Best Buy, I first looked at their CD's to see if I could get the Bernadette Peters one since for some reason BMG is not carrying that one, even though out of the four women in the series, she's the only one that they have other CD's of. I don't understand why they don't have her Legends of Broadway CD. Of course, Best Buy did not have it, or many other showtune CD's. They had one disc of the Drowsy Chaperone, one of the Color Purple, and a few Miss Saigon and Phantom CD's. They didn't even have the just released Fame Becomes Me CD, which had it's world premiere in Chicago. I then looked at DVD's and they did not have the rereleased deluxe edition of All That Jazz, one of my all time favorite movies. So, I got the printer, and when I got home, I took the online survey of my shopping experience that they always try to get you to do. While most of the questions they asked me concerned my experience buying the printer, at the very end they ask you for any comments related to Best Buy, and wrote quite a long essay about the 10 year decline in their showtune and Broadway-related recordings selection. I doubt it will make any difference, but it felt good. The CD's are all really good. I particularly like Lorelei, much more than I expected to. I am not a fan of the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes movie, mostly because Marilyn Monroe was a piss-poor substitute for Carol Channing, and the Lorelei recording presents the songs the way they were meant to be heard, retooled to capitalize on Carol's strengths. I was also impressed with the Barbara Cook CD. It pulls from several different shows, most of which I do not have recordings of. I have the Broadway Cast recording of Follies, but not the 85 concert version, the 92 Show Boat recording, and the Music Man movie soundtrack, so it was nice to hear different takes on the songs from these shows, particularly the Show Boat numbers. The Candide numbers were a little too operatic for me (ironically, Renee Flemming recorded a definitive version of Glitter and Be Gay, which could be the theme song of my life, about 10 years ago that has more of a pop flavor to it), but I really loved the final track, the song Ice Cream from She Loves Me as performed in her 1975 Carnegie Hall concert. That was a revelation, and I'll definitely be paying more attention to her in the future. The Chita one is more of a mixed bag. I have her London recording of Bye Bye Birdie, and the movie soundtrack of West Side Story, the 1996 revival cast recording of Chicago, and the Vanessa Williams Kiss of the Spider Woman, so I already have all but 1 of the songs on the CD in one form or another. The CD pulls from these shows and one track from Bajour, ignoring Can-Can, The Rink (which she won her first Tony for), Bring Back Birdie, and the 2003 revival of Nine (which she was nominated for a Tony for). I do have The Rink and Bring Back Birdie, but it would have been nice to include some tracks from these shows to introduce to her fans since they have all but faded into obscurity at this point. While it is nice to have her renditions of tracks from Spider Woman and Chicago, they could have cut Cell Block Tango and When Velma Takes The Stand for maybe Chief Cook and Bottle Washer and Twenty Happy Years. Then there's still time they could have fit in a track from Can-Can and Nine. Seven of the 16 songs are from Chicago, and with another 3 from Spider Woman, that's over half the album spent on songs that the people who would buy this CD probably already have. A little diversification would have been nice. However, I am thrilled to have her renditions of these songs, as well as her songs from West Side Story (which I think are much better than Rita's renditions of them), and I actually prefer the Broadway English Teacher on this CD to the version she performs on the London CD. So, it's a good CD to have, but it could have been a great one to have. Speaking of Chita and Rita, how awesome would it be to have Rita's upcoming Ugly Betty character come back for an episode next season, but played by Chita instead? You read it here first, if it happens, I want a writing credit. Then, most exciting, this morning I ordered my Billy Elliot tickets for my night in London on October 30. The box office is holding them for me, so I don't have to worry about leaving them at home or having them get stolen at an earlier stop (Dublin, Prague, Helsinki, or St. Petersburg). My companion and I will be about halfway back on the main floor (affectionately called The Stalls by our friends across the pond) and apparently there's one aisle going down the center, and we'll each be on either side of it (me on one side, him on the other). I can't wait to see it. I just hope to god that the rumored revival of Carrie doesn't happen or I will be paralyzed with indecision whether to sell the Billy tix and see Carrie or to see Billy and forgo what could be my only chance to see Carrie. I'm going to actively try not to pay any attention to any London theatre happenings until after October. You'll be hearing all about it as soon as I get back. Speaking of trips, my hoped for May trip to New York is delayed and shortened. It looks like I'll be going in early June, but only for 2 days. We're hoping to make one of those days a Wednesday so that I can still get 3 shows in. The shows would most likely be Deuce, 110 in the Shade, and Xanadu, with A Chorus Line and Frost/Nixon as backups. Of course, this could change 10 times between now and June, we'll just have to see. There's enough going on between now and then as it is, but any time I can see more shows, it's worth making the effort.

Bait & Switch

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the cover of the Dreamgirls DVD is exactly the same as Sparkle's? Same color, same costumes, same poses, same font, everything. Homage or creative ripoff? Given the lack of creativity involved in making the movie, I vote for the latter.

Test

OK, I'm trying this email mobile posting one more time. The internet filters are allowing me to still access playbill.com, so I can read the news and then hopefully be able to email in my posts. Apparently Blogger has now gotten its act together and came up with a new way to do email posts. We'll see how well this works.

First up, after much speculation that there wouldn't be a winner, it was announced yesterday that Rabbit Hole has won the Pulitzer for Drama. My feelings on this are rather mixed. It definitely sounds like an interesting play, but I can't get past Cynthia Nixon's involvement with it. I fucking HATE Sex and the City and the cult that surrounds it, which far more obnoxious than Allie McBeal's cult ever was. I hate S&C and everyone involved with it and everything they do so much that I couldn't even bring myself to go see it when the Steppenwolf recently did a Cynthia-less production. A movie version is reportedly in the works, as long as Cynthia stays out of it, maybe I'll go see that.

Speaking of hate by association, The Color Purple starts tonight at the Palace. Please, stay away.

Further proof that the 60's are back, we've got 3 major movie musicals coming out in the next year to look forward to: Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, and Mamma Mia!. Rumors are circulating that Christine Baranski may be cast as one of Donna's friends, I think the older Patsy Stone-looking one. She can sing and given her involvement in Chicago, this is gearing up to be THE movie event of the decade. Meryl & Christine singing Dancing Queen, the only thing better would be to bring Chess to the big screen.

Lastly, there was an intriguing article on playbill.com about an upcoming musical based on Spider Man. It makes sense that Julie Taymor has been tapped to direct, and I would be interested in seeing it, but apparently fucking U2 is writing the music. The only thing worse would have been if Dave Matthews wrote it. What the hell are they thinking? The bizarre story (the spider that bites Peter Parker is actually an ancient woman that was turned into a spider by the gods because of her inability to love and she keeps appearing to him in various guises while a Greek chorus recounts spider man stories) is going to turn off the fanboys that the producers are obviously counting on to show up in droves while music by U2, the most obnoxious band ever, is going to turn off the theatre goers that are needed to keep the show running. I don't understand what they're thinking. At least It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman, despite having surprisingly bad music, stayed fairly true to the Superman story and did spawn one good showtune (You've Got Possibilities), which is one more than U2 is going to be able to come up with. Let's chuck this idea and get cracking on making that Frankenstein tour happen instead.

I Love Diana

As expected, Saturday night's concert by Miss Ross was fantastic. Once again, she completely surprised me. This woman knows her audience and gives them what they want. There were very few ballads (Touch Me In The Morning, Mahoganny, 2 songs from Lady Sings The Blues, and the title song from I Love You), and very few recent songs (after I Love You, the most recent was Why Do Fools Fall In Love from the mid-80's, thankfully there was nothing from her horrid last album, Every Day Is A New Day, that was so bad it is now, only seven years later, out of print). She once again stuck to her big disco hits and threw in a liberal dose of Supremes songs. I counted only 4 costume changes instead of the 5 mentioned in the Sun Times article, but on the plus side, the concert was closer to 90 minutes instead of 75. I ended up with a terrific seat. I was in the front row of the upper balcony section, so I was able to sit or stand as I pleased instead of being at the mercy of fans in front of me, and I had an aisle seat, so I was able to get out quickly when it was over. She started fairly on time with one of the most dramatic entrances I have ever seen. She had strobes, smoke, flashing lights, and a pounding band whipping the audience into a frenzy bigger than Madonna and Britney Spears put together while she remained off stage belting out "I'm. . . Coming. . . OUT!!!!" each time setting off louder and louder cheers. Finally she appeared in a gorgeous red sequin dress with a gigantic ruffled boa and got the night started. If I can look half as good as she does at 63, I'll consider myself very lucky indeed. As usual, she showed class and warmth throughout the entire set. It boggles my mind that she can't keep it turned on whenever she's in the public eye, like going through a metal detector at Heathrow or outside a closed Blockbuster Video in Phoenix. While this concert focused mostly on the bigger hits (this was a highlights tour for casual fans who recently rediscovered her through Dreamgirls rather than the for-the-fans outing she did in 2004 that featured more obscure but well loved tunes mixed in with the career highlights), she did manage to work in It's My House, which is probably my favorite of hers, and Ease On Down The Road, giving the hardcore fans a treat. It was a fantastic night, and the audience seemed unwilling to leave at the end, always a good sign. Here's hoping she can find her Believe and turn out at least a couple good CD's in the years she has left and really go out in style.

In other news, what the hell is the USOC thinking? I know this topic isn't really theatre related, but it does relate to something most hard core theatre queens hate; sports, which means its worth at least keeping tabs on. Chicago does not have the infrastructure or room to accomate all the people that live and/or work here now, and there's no attempt to try to improve it other than a years long project on the CTA slowing it down to a crawl for the next several years and will already by outdated and insufficient by the time it's done. Where the hell does the city think it's going to put another 100,000 people for 20 days 12 years from now? I have a cousin in Atlanta, a much more modern city, and I've heard enough horror stories about the 1996 Olympics to know I never want anything like that in my city. At least it's still 12 years away and there's a chance we may not get it after all. If we do get it, hopefully I'll have the vacation time and money to go to Europe for 3 weeks and I can sublet my place for $10,000. Maybe it won't be such a bad thing after all.

Lastly, this may be my last post for a while. My employer is switching to a new internet provider at noon today and has informed all of us that our previously unfettered access is about to be severely restricted due to the new provider's filtering capabilities. I don't know why they're bothering, they don't provide enough work for us to do as it is, hence this blog to keep me entertained. Of course, they have to do this 4 days before Ravinia tickets go onsale and a week before Billy Elliot tickets go onsale, they couldn't have waited until the end of the month to make the switch. My plan is to twice a week lug my laptop in and I can use my cell phone as a modem and access my sites and make posts. The only downside is that I can't hook it up to the printer to print up ticket confirmations, but that's ok, I've never had a problem where I needed the confirmation yet. It's not as fast as broadband, but it will have to do. I won't be here forever. At some point I'll have another employer to provide my unfettered broadband access. I also have my cell phone itself for low-bandwidth sites so I can still check on Playbill everyday and see what's going on in this fabu world we call Theatre. See you soon.

More News

Another day, another post. I'm getting very excited about Diana tomorrow night. Check back Monday for a full report on the fabulous night.

Playbill.com had an interview with Janine LaManna today. She discusses, among other things, standing in for Chita in Spider Woman. She doesn't specifically talk about the opening night experience, but she does allude to having to overcome audience expectations when filling in for an established star long associated with the role. It's a good article and I have even more respect for her now than I already did. At the end, there's some brief tidbits on other divas and it mentions that Liza is preparing an album of Kay Thompson material. After seeing her perform some of the numbers two weeks ago, I'll be running to get that CD as soon as it hits shelves.

Another guest star, another chance for Comcast to fuck up. Rita Moreno will be on Ugly Betty sometime next month. That show knows its audience. While Rita isn't as big of a get as Patti, it's still an inspired bit of casting. Actually, if this was 10-15 years ago, it would be bigger than Patti, but time has not been kind to Rita. I saw her a couple years ago at Ravinia and it was a disappointing experience, to be generous. She has not aged well and her voice has lost its brassy luster. It was very thin and she had a hard time projecting over the 3 piece band. I thought she was going to break a hip just standing there center stage she was so frail. She did about 5 songs, took an intermission, came back for another 5 songs, and that was it, no encore. The entire show, including the intermission, was over in an hour and I paid $75 apiece for myself and my companion to be there. It was his birthday present, and I was kind of peeved that it wasn't better, although he enjoyed it more than I did. I was disappointed that she did a lot of jazz songs (and I HATE jazz) instead of theatre or torch songs, and while she did a LOT of name dropping, she did not say one single thing about West Side Story, nor did she do any of the songs. I completely understand about not wanting to be typecast or associated with one thing for an entire career, and I understand and admire a performer's attempts to branch out and try new things instead of sticking to past glories, but why did she think the audience was there in the first place? It certainly wasn't to hear her scat the words "salt peanuts" over and over in her opening number. However, she is theatre royalty, and I'm very much looking forward to her appearance on my new favorite show. Here's hoping Comcast can keep it together this time and show her the respect she deserves.

Current events

Ok, I'm trying out something new. As I normally post in the morning, my brain never functions well enough to think of witty titles for each post. So, I'm going to try doing one long post per day with everything I want to say, regardless of how it all fits together. To start with, the Sun Times had a nice profile of Diana Ross in today's edition. Aside from a couple of snarky comments that I didn't appreciate, it was a really well written article that provided her with the best press she's gotten in the Chicago area in the past 7 years. I'm a little disappointed that the show's only going to be 75 minutes as opposed to the 2 hour Supremes concert and 2 and a half hour 2004 concert, but it sounds like it's a tight show that provides a good overview of her career. I also found out from my Tivo that The Wiz is going to be on one of the HBO channels next week, so I'm going to record it and finally try out my recordable DVD player that I got last Christmas and have so far only used to watch DVD's. The Tivo has a save to VCR feature that can be used to record saved movies onto video, and hopefully if I connect the Tivo to the DVD recorder instead, it should record the movie to a DVD. Since the movie's showing on an HBO channel, it will probably be full screen (another one of the differences in the viewing experience this time was getting to see it in a crisp wide-screen presentation as opposed to the fuzzy full-screen of VHS when I watched it all those years ago), but it should be a good way to keep a copy of the movie for those moments when I want a guilty, not really good for you in a cinematic junk food way, pleasure without having to spend money on what really is a bad movie. If it works, I can then copy the 1936 James Whale directed Show Boat that was on TCM while I was in Vegas. I snagged that on the Tivo, and since that is not yet available on DVD (yet the horribly inferior 1951 version is), I haven't been able to bring myself to delete it yet. Hopefully I can give myself a permanent copy of it. I'll let you know how it works.

Next, this is a question I've had on my mind for the past few days: Who the hell is Don Imus? I've been posting faithfully here for almost 4 months now without anyone providing a single comment, and some no-one coming out of nowhere makes a mildly humorous comment on radio and the whole world's in an uproar? What do I have to do to get some attention here, start actually printing what I've been saying in private about LaChanze since last June? Seriously though, we've got a 4+ year war dragging on in Iraq with no end in sight, terrorism rearing up in northern Africa and threatening to spread to Europe, Iran being crazy, and the topic dominating the national discourse is a supposed shock jock's offhand comments? No wonder the world's so fucked up.

One week from today and Ravinia tickets go on sale. At first look, I wasn't that excited about the overall programming; the CSO is notably absent for some reason this year. However, there are several guests and special events that have me salivating. First off is Philip Glass and his ensemble premiering a new work. I saw them with the US premiere of Orion two years ago and it blew me away (as well as introduced me to the work of the fabulously cute Ashley MacIsaac). I have such an idol-type crush on Glass, I'm very excited to hear his new work. Then in July we have a staged concert production of The Most Happy Fella with George Hearn. At first it seemed like a bit of a letdown after 6 years of Sondheim (actually 5 years of Sondheim and one year of Jule Styne with lyrics by Sondheim), but it looks promising, and I'm always happy to have a lesser known show come back into the spotlight. Maybe next year we can have Darling of the Day? Hearn is always fantastic (I've seen him in Ravinia's productions of Sweeney Todd and A Little Night Music, and he was the Wizard in Wicked when I saw it in New York in 2004), and after hearing two of the songs on the Broadway Scene Stealers CD's, I'm excited to see the full production. The Sulzer Library has both the original cast recording and the 1992 revival recording, so I'll pick one or both of those up sometime and familiarize myself with the entire work. August is the best month, starting with Heather Headley performing in the Martin Theatre. Right now tickets are only available if you get a subscription to all 4 Martin Series concerts, and I really don't care for the other 3, but if they do what they did last year, after the first one, they'll open up single ticket sales for the remaining three. Hopefully she'll do her Broadway stuff and leave the R & B crap behind, where it belongs. Then we have Deborah Voigt, who is always good. I've seen her in a couple productions at the Lyric and have her Obsessions CD, and while Renee Flemming really has the spotlight, I think Voigt is the better singer. She cancelled a performance there a couple years ago, hopefully this time she'll make it and I will be there. Then, last, but absolutely not least, is the event of the decade: Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald together in concert on the pavilion stage. I will spend whatever money it takes to get as close as possible. I've seen them together before in the productions of Passion, Sunday in the Park with George, and Anyone Can Whistle, and then Patti showed up to perform Happy Days are Here Again with Audra at Audra's Lincoln Center concert last fall that was broadcast on PBS and it was so fabulous I almost had another naughty reaction in my pants! I can't wait for that one and you can bet I'll be getting my tickets first thing when I get in to work next Thursday.

Lastly, speaking of tickets, my companion brought up the possibility of another New York trip in May. I told him we need to go after the 23rd so that I can see Xanadu, and he'll try to arrange what he can. The problem is that Chita Rivera is going to be in Milwaukee for Memorial Day weekend, and that's the closest she's getting to Chicago, so we need to be back for that, and then he said he will probably only need to go for 1 or 2 days, not the marathon that we had last month, which means I get less shows. I was kind of counting on another 6 show streak since I want to see A Chorus Line, 110 in the Shade, Frost/Nixon, Deuce, Lovemusik, and of course Xanadu. If we have to go for a shorter time, then Xanadu and Lovemusik will probably be the ones that get shed. Since Xanadu is only in previews until late June, it won't be that hard to give it up and hopefully go back in the fall to catch the finalized show, and while I'm ecstatic about all the shows, Lovemusik is the weakest one, I want to see it more for Michael Cerveris, Donna Murphy, and Harold Prince's production (and god that man needs a hit in the worst way) rather than for the music. I'm not the biggest Kurt Weill fan, particularly after seeing the horrid production of Threepenny Opera last year. I really only like Ute Lemper's contemporary take on his works on her Punishing Kiss CD. So, we'll see how that plays out. Of course, given that 2 trips already didn't happen prior to the March trip, we'll have to see if this even becomes a possibility at all. Otherwise, I'll be waiting for Light in the Piazza and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to get here in July and August for my next Broadway fix.

Deuce

Deuce starts previews tonight with an opening in about 3 weeks. I've got my fingers crossed for a successful run. It's too bad it can't capitalize on the Drama Desks for more publicity, but with Angela Lansbury, it should have enough buzz to make the run profitable. Cross your fingers, hopefully I'll be able to get to New York and see it before it disappears.

Diana

To get ready for this weekend's concert by Miss Ross, I overcame a bit of nausea and rewatched The Wiz for the first time in 13 years last weekend. I hadn't realized the first time around that it was written by Joel Schumacher. It obviously would have been after Sparkle, so apparently Sparkle was pure luck and he really doesn't have much talent for writing musical screenplays, or maybe he can do original musicals, he just can't handle adaptations (see Batman & Robin for further proof of his inability to carry out someone else's original idea). It definitely helped explain the mess that was Phantom. However, The Wiz was much better the second time around. I don't know if it's because I've now been to New York several times and can appreciate all the locations (when I saw it the first time when I was in high school, travelling to New York, while a fervent dream of mine, seemed like something that was never going to happen), the fact that the 70's have since come back and the music is now cool (again, when I was in HS, it was painful to listen to), or that since I've gotten older, I can really appreciate more of the jokes (the cabs going off service as Diana & Co. approach them, the line about the service entrance to the Emerald City being around the corner, etc.). Whatever the reason, it was a much more enjoyable experience this time around. I think it also helped that I watched it alone, whereas in HS I watched it with my musical theatre hating family around and their incessant comments didn't help any. Don't get me wrong, it's still not a good movie. The locations are too haphazard (the Emerald City is the World Trade Center Plaza, yet Evelline's lair is Shea Stadium in Brooklyn even though she's supposed to be the Wicked Witch of the West; her lair should have been in New Jersey), a lot of the visual effects are cheap (the tornado blowing down 125th street and Dorothy's subsequent travel to Oz, the subway monsters, and the sun turning into an apple as it rises above Manhattan in something out of a '30's Loony Toons cartoon), and too many of the dance sequences are done in wide angle, so it's more like watching something on a stage instead of a movie. Speaking of dance sequences, what was with all the workers taking off their clothes and dancing around in their underwear for the Brand New Day number? Oddly, I had no problem with the biggest complaint I've heard about the show: Diana Ross. Granted, she was nowhere near 24 (and really, all they had to do was cut that line and it would silence all the critics, what delusional editor left it in?), but if you could accept that, there was no problem. Unfortunately, coming on the heels of Mahoganny, this put the nail in the coffin of her film career. Given her inability to find suitable music projects, I highly doubt we're going to see another movie from her anytime soon, but The Wiz stands as kind of a fun time capsule. It's not good, but it's certainly enjoyable.

Porchlight

I just ordered my tickets for Ragtime, and I'm very excited. It got a rave review in this morning's Sun Times. I'll be seeing it on Friday, May 4. I've been impressed with Porchlight over the past 10 years or so since they first showed up on the scene. As editor of my college newspaper's entertainment section, I often got free passes to shows and movies, and somehow, when Porchlight first formed, I ended up on their mailing list and got to see several of their first shows, including 2 productions of Macabaret and an original musical called, I believe, Hereafter (it's been almost 10 years, so I'm a little fuzzy on the title, but I think Hereafter was it). Even then the productions were outstanding, although I'd like to know what happened to their first leading man Elic (yes, that's spelled correctly) Ryan Brammlet. He was hot and was the leading man in the productions mentioned above. He definitely seemed like he was going somewhere in the theatre world, but obviously he went somewhere since I haven't seen him again since the second Macabaret. I continued to follow Porchlight after I graduated and didn't get the free shows anymore, and they have continued to impress me. They became an Equity company a few years ago and really stepped up their game with a stellar production of Sweeney Todd (out of the 5 Sweeney productions I've seen, it's second only to last year's great Broadway revival). While the space constraints at first seemed like a problem, it appears that they tackled Ragtime, one of the greatest shows ever, and surmounted the technical problems. I can't wait to see it, and of course will be reporting all my thoughts after.

Spring Season

Oh Joy!!! After being disappointed about Ragtime being done by an opera company, and then it's cancellation after I was starting to come to peace with it, Chicago's own Porchlight Theatre Ensemble announced that they will be performing it starting later this month through May. They've always been superb, and their recent productions of Amadeus and Sweeney Todd were spectacular, so I know they're going to get Ragtime right.

Other notable spring productions include Frozen, by the Next Theatre Company which I am very excited to see since the Broadway production never toured. Too bad we won't have Swoozie Kurtz, but from what I've heard, it's not performer-dependent and should stand well on it's own. Next has a great reputation, and since I didn't get to see Adding Machine, I'm going to be sure to catch this one. The Writer's Theatre in Glencoe is doing an interesting one I've never heard of called The Puppetmaster of Lodz, which the Sun Times gave a glowing review to. The Goodman, which can also be counted on for quality (they did pre-Broadway productions of Hollywood Arms and The Light In The Piazza, as well as the world premiere production of The Visit, what were supposed to be pre-Broadway productions of Bounce! and Finishing The Picture), is doing another very interesting sounding one called Massacre (Sing To Your Children), which sounds like it bears a resemblance to The Visit but with a good twist of Stephen King thrown in. The Sun Times was also enthusiastic about this one. Then, in May, Bailiwick, which has done some awful productions in the past (The Party, Gypsy with a transvestite as Mama Rose), but has recently redeemed itself with superb productions of Parade, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Thrill Me, is presenting the US premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera. Forget about the Fucking Color Purple and head to these instead. They should nicely fill the wait until Light in the Piazza and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels arrive this summer.

Lastly, as you know, I've been on quite a Diana Ross jones lately, and will finally see that come to fruition next Saturday when she performs at the Chicago Theatre. I've seen her twice before, first in 2000 for the so-called Supremes reuinion tour, which, even though it really was a Diana Ross concert with two women who joined the Supremes after she left, was a fantastic concert. She is such a great performer, and is so warm and personable on stage, you'd think she could corral some of that charisma for her interviews and daily life, but that's what makes her a diva. Even though it was at the Allstate Arena, it really felt like she was singing just to me (and really, she almost was, there were only about 15 other people in there with me). Then in 2004 she did a 2 week mini-tour of smaller cities to counteract the bad press she'd gotten over the Supremes tour cancellation, the Heathrow flap, her DUI, and her botched jail term (which really just goes to prove what a true diva she is, even Martha Stewart couldn't arrange a deal to come and go from jail as she pleased, order pizza for all the women on her block, and wear her street clothes while cooling her heels). We were her last stop, and she performed at the Chicago Theatre, which was a good choice of venue. She was able to sell that out, and yours truly was 5 rows from the stage!!! I was expecting an evening of ballads and love songs, but oh no, she gave the fans what they came for and did all of her 70's disco stuff. It was a 2 and a half hour dance party with 8 costume changes, and while she didn't do I'm Coming Out, she did do It's My House, I Ain't Been Licked, and Ease On Down The Road. The audience went nuts for each one. The only ballads she did were Touch Me In The Morning, Mahoganny, and Endless Love. It was a fantastic night. This time, I'm going to be in the balcony since the tickets went on sale while I was in New York, and by the time I got back, the only main floor seats were off to the sides, and I'm not going to pay $100 for a partial view of the stage. It's a small theatre, so the balcony won't be bad, and I have a feeling that she'll be doing more ballads this time since she's supporting an album instead of doing a greatest hits tour, and the album is all ballads, so I can comfortably sit and enjoy. She did sell out again, good for her, and it should be a fabulous night.

Scene Stealers

The Broadway Scene Stealers CD's that I wrote about a couple weeks ago hit the stores yesterday. I planned to go out on lunch and pick them up, but before going out, I wanted to know where I could find them because they're not the kind of CD you're going to find at Target. I started with Best Buy, which is the closest to work. Years ago, and I'm talking early 90's here, Best Buy had a fabulous music department. They had just about any CD you could imagine, of any kind of music, but particularly showtunes. Of course they had the big ones; Les Miz, Phantom, Miss Saigon, Cats, etc., but they also had a lot of the lesser known ones, like Blood Brothers, Pippin, Song & Dance, etc. Starting in the late 90's, their music holdings started to decline in quality, and it's been a plummet to the floor over the past 3-4 years. Now we're lucky if they even have the big ones in their showtunes section. However, because it's the closest, I decided to check. I went to the Best Buy website and both CD's were listed, but when I did an inventory search, I could not find one single store anywhere in northern Illinois that had either of them even though the product description page said they were available for pick up in most stores. I then went to Borders' website, even though it's a longer drive and they would probably cost more, I could at least rack up rewards points. I entered the title in their inventory search engine, and it came back as No Matching Titles Found. I tried doing a keyword search instead of a title search and still got No Matching Entries Found. Up until about a year ago, Borders seemed more than happy to pick up the mantle Best Buy dropped when it came to stocking showtunes. For several years, they have had just about any Broadway related CD you can imagine, albeit at slightly higher prices. However, just over a year ago, they declined to carry See What I Wanna See when it was released, and since then, have begun paring down the Showtune section in most of their stores. They seem to stick to Broadway-only cast albums (although I did recently find the Lippa production of The Wild Party at a Border's, but that seemed to be an aberration, and I can only imagine they stocked Grey Gardens and Spring Awakening because they transferred to Broadway even though the recordings were technically the Off-Broadway casts) and Broadway performer solo albums, like Bernadette Peters and Audra McDonald, but they've chucked a lot of the smaller stuff, which is a real shame. I really thought though, that they would have had these CD's, but for whatever business reason, they've decided not to carry them. However, Barnes & Noble seems to be more than happy to step in and fill the void. The one I went to in New York was fantastic. So, I went to their website, even though there is no Barnes & Noble near work at all, I would have to stop by Old Orchard after. They did have both the CD's at the Old Orchard store and the Evanston store. Now, my roommate recently heard about It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman for the first time, and he has a thing for Linda Lavin, so he's been bugging me to get that CD (which I have never seen in a store, even the New York B&N). I figured I'd look that one up, and while the Old Orchard store didn't have it, the Evanston one did, so after work I hopped in my car and went to Evanston, only to find that the B & N had moved. That threw me at first, and I ended up driving around the block and finally stuck my car by the train track and walked back, and discovered that it had only moved across the street, I just didn't see it because of the way I had turned. Now this store combined all its soundtracks into one section (movies, TV shows, and showtunes were all mixed together), but what a section it was. Not only did they have the Scene Stealers CD's and Superman, they had Carol Burnett's That's Entertainment CD, Coco, See What I Wanna See, and just about any other showtune CD you could ask for. I was in heaven. It totally made the annoying drive through Evanston worth it (really, who the hell designed downtown Evanston? With all those one way streets, barricades, split lanes, they should be shot). If I wasn't careful, I could have spent my entire life savings at that store. I grabbed what I came for, painfully leaving Coco and Carol for another day, paid (only slightly more than what any of them would have cost on Amazon, and I was able to listen to them that night instead of waiting a week for the post office to decide to deliver them), and went home, where I found my Angela Lansbury CD that I ordered from BMG waiting for me. I went upstairs, left the Superman CD for my roommate, and put the other 3 in the computer to copy them onto my mp3 player, and not one of them had a CDDB entry, even the Angela Lansbury one which has been out for about 3 months now. I had to type every track and performer in, and submitted it so hopefully the next queen to buy them won't have to go through the same thing. I'm not quite sure how info gets submitted to CDDB, but you'd think the record labels would get that taken care of before the CD's are released. The same thing happened with the Spring Awakening CD (which I also got the day it was released, I probably am the first person to buy these CD's and try to look them up online), but the Grey Gardens CD did have its information in, except the performer for every track was "Original Off-Broadway Cast," which isn't that helpful when you want to know which songs Christine Ebersole sang. Fortunately, winmx lets you edit the tags, so I was able to change the artist on each track, but that's another cumbersome process. I would have thought someone would have tried to look up the Angela Lansbury CD by now, but I guess not. I don't mind putting the information in when I've got the booklet in front of me, but it's more of a problem for ones I get from the library that don't have a booklet. I had to search online to get track listings for Edwin Drood and Wildcat and then again use winmx to edit each file's tag since I had already copied the tracks without any information (they were track 1 by artist, track 2 by artist, etc.). These labels should know their customers and get a queen on their payroll to make sure these issues are taken care of before the CD's hit the shelves. Since I'm already doing it, I'll happily take that paycheck.

Vegas

I'm back!!! We had a fantastic weekend in Vegas, and it is so hard to be back in Chicago. As with any quick weekend trip, this one had its share of ups and downs, but there were far more ups than downs (the biggest down being that I couldn't find Liza anywhere and didn't get my CD's and DVD autographed). We had an uneventful flight out of Chicago. As planned, I got to the airport first and checked both bags and went through security. My companion called at about 6:20 pm and said he was leaving work and he showed up around 7:40, giving us enough time to have dinner at Chili's in Terminal F and get back to the gate and onto the plane. The flight was smooth and on time, but once we landed, we hit several snags. There was a backup in luggage handling, so it took almost an hour to get the suitcases, and then my companion's did not come out with the rest of the Chicago group's. We went to baggage services, and it was sitting there outside the office. Apparently, his got onto an earlier flight, but not mine, which I don't understand since they were checked together. It would have been nice if they would have let us know so we wouldn't have been standing there waiting for another 20 minutes after I got mine. We then went to the cab line and waited almost another 30 minutes to get a cab, because everyone on the plane was now ahead of us in the line and McCarran has a weird cab setup, so there isn't a continuous line like at O'Hare or any of the New York airports. We finally got the cab and got to the Luxor around midnight Vegas time, which is 2 in the morning Chicago time. We again found just about everyone from the flight already in line to check in, so it took forever to get up to the desk, only to be told that there were no more non-smoking rooms even though we had requested one through Travelocity. They said they could give us one the next day, but we would have to take a smoking room for that night. They then tried to be sneaky and offered us a complimentary upgrade to a tower room to make up for the inconvenience, but we had already reserved, and paid for, a tower room, when we made the reservation, so there really wasn't anything they could give us, and I'm kind of irked that they tried to be that sneaky. It's like when you go to Hertz and they offer you an upgrade to a larger car for an extra $30 a day, you decline because you like driving smaller cars, and then they tell you that they don't have any more in the size you requested and they have to give you a larger car, but won't charge you any more for it because you had reserved a smaller car. So, we went to the room, and it REEKED. It was really awful. We called the front desk and complained vociferously, but all they would do was offer to send housekeeping up with some air freshener. We agreed to that, and it helped, but by the next morning, it reeked again, and my eyes were so bloodshot, even though we had gone right to bed and slept until almost 10:30. We woke up, got ready, and went out to explore Vegas. I have been there several times, but my companion has not, so it was nice to have someone to show around. We walked up to the MGM (going through all the resorts on the way, playing a couple dollars here and there) and hopped onto the monorail. We went up to the Sahara where I went on Speed (the ride, not the drug), and then went back to the Vegas Hilton to have lunch at Quark's, which is always a fun experience. My companion really enjoyed that, although we didn't stay to do the rest of the Star Trek Experience (even though the rides are so cool, it's kind of a waste to pay $45 to do them once, it's better to plan a whole afternoon and do them several times). He then just had to go to the Barry Manilow store, which left me feeling a little nauseous, although it's better than the Celine store, and we headed back to the Luxor to change rooms and get ready for Phantom. The new room was much better and they gave us a complimentary coupon for a 2 for 1 IMAX admission, $30 off the total bill at Fusia or the Steakhouse, and a discount on the spa services. After showering and changing, we headed to the Venetian and had time to walk around, played a couple more slots, and then went to the show. Our seats were in the second row, edge of the center section, and they were totally worth the money. That was a fantastic show. I have loved Phantom since my high school days, and it gets better every time I see it. This production really played up the gothic elements, and I really can't argue with any of the cuts or changes. As usual, the prologue and overture are really the best part, and they ramped it up. When you come in, the theatre looks like an opera house, and there are pieces of the chandelier hanging all over the theatre (for this production, they changed the chandelier to a wedding cake type design instead of the weird ark of the covenant type design of the full length show). When the main piece, on the stage starts floating up as the overture thunders, all the other pieces lit up and started circling around as the main piece worked it's way up. We had to look backwards for this, but it was still so cool, it was like a bunch of UFO's flying around the theatre and then they all came together to form the chandelier. The only other major changes were a big improvement in the mirror scene. Instead of opening the mirror like a giant medicine cabinet and walking into it, they really made it look like Christine walked through the glass. Then the chandelier fall at the end of the reprise of All I Ask Of You was eliminated (since this was a non-intermission production) and delayed, and instead as the Phantom returns to the top of the proscenium, the stage darkened and was then illuminated by a flash of lightening, and we then got an amazing on stage fireworks show celebrating the New Year, which then segued into Masquerade. The initial Don Juan rehearsal was cut completely (thank God, that being the weakest scene of the show, I always had a problem with the Phantom's music being portrayed as an Amadeus-type situation; he's such a genius the music sounds terrible and no one likes it), and Masquerade segued directly into Wishing You Were Somehow Here again, and we were so close the flames as Christine and Raoul ran off the stage seared themselves into our vision. The chandelier then fell as the Phantom and Christine ran off stage after The Point of No Return (another example of the Amadeus-style of the Phantom's music, but done with enough urgency by these two performers to really improve it), and then there was one final change, that I will leave secret, but it really ups the stakes as Raoul enters the Phantom's lair. We were close enough to see all the details of the costumes and props, which really raised my enjoyment of the show, and they improved the Phantom's makeup so that he really looked more deformed instead of just bearing an uncanny resemblance to Neelix from Star Trek Voyager. The only downside was that this fantastic production left me even more pissed off about the movie, but what can you do? My companion loved it just as much and really wants to go back and see it again, which he never does. I can't wait, and I think next time I'll try to sit more in the middle of the theatre so we can get the full chandelier effect without having to turn around and crane our necks, and hopefully we'll get Brent Barrett as the Phantom (we had Anthony Crivello, and while he's not Brent, he was fantastic himself). After the show we watched the volcano at the Mirage and then went to Red Square at Mandalay Bay for dinner, which was fantastic. I highly recommend the Siberian Forest martini, and the pan seared duck breast was excellent. My only regret was that I couldn't finish the phenomenally rich chocolate mouse and had to leave about half of it behind. By that time we were dragging and went back to the room and fell asleep. We woke up earlier the next day and went to the Pharaoh's Feast breakfast buffet, which led to the next down part of the trip. The buffet was good at the time, but a couple hours later, the omelet I had really did not agree with my stomach and I didn't feel too good for most of the afternoon. After the buffet, we went to the IMAX and saw the Mysteries of the Nile film, which was awesome. It was 55 minutes, but it went by so fast. We both really enjoyed it. We then went back out to explore more of the resorts (I've been in all of them before, but my companion hadn't and wanted to see as many as he could). We took the monorail to the Imperial Palace, and started to work our way back from there. It was in the palace that my stomach first started bothering me and I kind of hurried the trip along a little faster than either of us would have liked, but then he started not feeling so well himself (he also had an omelet), so after a couple hours (going through Caesar's and the Bellagio), we were glad to get back to the room and take a nap. He felt better when he woke up, but I didn't, although thankfully not worse either, so he went to dinner at Fusia by himself, to use the $30 credit, and while I'm sad I wasn't able to go, it was probably for the best, Asian food is not what you want to put in an upset stomach. I was feeling better by the time he got back, and we changed, and it was time for the big event. Ms. Minnelli was AWESOME. Our seats were better than I expected (it turned out we were in the first row behind the sound booth, so we were able to remain seated and had a clear view of the stage), although the audience was a real freak show. People were yelling to her, requesting songs (which she did a great job of politely refusing: "I just turned 61, I'm already losing my mind, I don't have to sing it"!!!), and getting bitchy whenever anyone tried to leave the aisle to go use the bathroom or get a drink and then come back. Some woman behind us got the people next to her thrown out, although it did seem like they were high and they were being disruptive. However, the focus was on Liza. She looked fantastic (she claimed she's lost 31 pounds on Jenny Craig), and while her voice isn't what it used to be, she sounded much better than she did on the 2001 Liza's Back CD. She opened with I Can See Clearly Now and then went into Old Friend. After a couple more up-tempo numbers, she pulled out a chair and settled into the best song of the night, "You've Let Yourself Go." She then did Sarah Lee, which was a great surprise, and then belted out What Did I Have (That I Don't Have) before taking her first leave of the stage. I can see why people are always thinking she's drunk, she has such a unique personality that bubbles out in her own unique ways, but it definitely did not seem like she was anything other than pure talent. We then got the guest performer, Teri White, who wasn't bad at all, and then Liza came back and spent most of the second act in a tribute to Kay Thompson, her godmother (and MGM master orchestrator, songwriter, and actress), who she is planning on starring in a TV biopic about. She did several songs Kay is known for and was backed by the actors who will play the Williams brothers (Kay's nightclub backup act). While I wasn't familiar with most of the songs, Liza won me over. This woman meant a lot to her (it sounds like she was more of a mother to her than Judy was), and if she wanted to use this concert to tell us about her, I was going right there with her. After the Kay tribute, she wrapped up with And The World Goes Round and New York, New York, and then did her standard a cappella rendition of I'll Be Seeing You for her encore, bringing the audience to its feet with all three numbers. It wasn't until we were leaving that I realized she hadn't done a single thing from Cabaret, and you know what? It didn't matter at all. She gave a thrilling concert, that was totally worth the entire trip, and that I will remember for the rest of my life. She may not have as much as she used to, but she's still got more than enough. I then picked up a snack since I was finally starving and we headed back to the room to get packed up since we had a very early flight. We got to McCarran around 8:00 am, and it's a good thing we did. It took us almost an hour to get through security. That airport has the worst setup and it's only about 10 years old. What a waste of taxpayer dollars. The security guards were all foul tempered, as I'm sure most of the passengers were after having to stand in line that long so early in the morning, and I'm sure a lot of them expressed their feelings going through security. The guard in one of the lines was yelling to people going through that he didn't want to hear anymore about it, which really is not professional. If they don't want to hear anymore about it, they need to come up with a better setup. Granted, the airport was built in the 90's, before anyone could foresee what a pain in the ass air travel was about to become, but all the other airports in the country have adapted more or less, it's insane that McCarran hasn't. So, we made it to the gate with only about 20 minutes to spare before our 9:20 flight, and I was even more glad that we checked in so early. The flight before us had been cancelled (the weather in Chicago was awful), so our flight was totally full with a long line of people on standby. We took off about 25 minutes late and were then held over Peoria for about half an hour before getting clearance to land. We arrived about an hour later than scheduled, but we got our luggage very quickly, and were first in line at the cab stand, so we were back home around 5. It was a very quick, and exhausting weekend, but so much fun. I can't wait to go back to Vegas again soon, and hopefully this will not be the last chance I will have had to see Liza. I will travel to wherever she is to see her again any time.