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.