Disappointments, Schadenfreude, and Things to Look Forward To

There's certainly been a lot going on in the theatre world over the last week. First of all, did anyone else know that Tarzan closed on July 8, a week before I even got to New York? They really snuck out under the radar. I usually read playbill.com every day at work, but Disney decided to avoid the spotlight and published the closing notice over a weekend. So all this time I never knew it was gone, and since we didn't stay at the Marriott like I had planned, I never even once walked past the theatre to notice that the signs were down. No wonder Josh didn't show up at Starbucks, he's probably back in California pursuing movie and television projects. However, Max, Lance, and Jonathan, you three have no excuse for not showing up (I can admit that Matt may also have skipped town as soon as his show was over and it was kind of last minute notice for Cheyenne and Curtis, but there should have been three hotties waiting for me that Tuesday morning). Anyways, they way I found out that Tarzan was gone was that yesterday I fired up the computer and one of the top stories on playbill.com was that In The Heights will be moving to the Richard Rodgers Theatre in February for its Brodway run. My first thought was, "good for them" and that the RRT is a good option, it's a mid-sized theatre whree they shouldn't have to sacrfice too much of the intimacy of the Arts 37 theatre while pulling in a larger audience. Then I realized, "Hey wait, that's where Tarzan is," and that trigged the research that led to my discovering that Disney surreptitiously pulled Tarzan out, using Beauty & The Beast's closing as a shield since that show is going out on top while Tarzan has quite a loss and only lasted just over a year, by far the poorest showing of any of Disney's Broadway shows, although I'm curious to see how long they're going to let Mary Poppins go. Anyways, it just made me even happier that I caught it in March.

Speaking of sneaking under the radar, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels starts in Chicago this week, and I just got an email offer of 2 for 1 tickets, a prime indication that the show is not selling like it should. It's too bad because it's all the producers' fault, but they're going to blame the Chicago audience. There has been almost no publicity for the show like Wicked and a certain other local celebrity produced show that shall remain nameless got, and it's been over 2 years since the show opened on Broadway, and a year since it closed. Who remembers it? With Grey Gardens, Spring Awakening, and Curtains, there's been a lot to grab out attention since. They should have brought it here first when it still had excitement and then taken it to the culture starved secondary markets where they would show up to see just about anything, no matter how old it is. Unfortunately, the producers are going to see it as Chicago audiences not caring and continue to refuse to bring high profile tours like Avenue Q, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Sweeney Todd here. At least I can get to New York a couple times a year and catch up on these shows, a lot of people can't, and that's too bad.

However, what they can do is set their Tivo's for August 1. Cheyenne Jackson and Kerry Butler will be roller skating onto the View to talk about, and perform songs from, the greatest musical of the last 10 years. Really, with the possible exception of Grey Gardens, and maybe Aida, Xanadu is the best show since Ragtime. I'm looking forward to putting Cheyenne on slow-mo and catching every muscular ripple.

At least DRS isn't the worst off show in town when it comes to having to offer discounts to lure in audiences. I also got an email offering tickets for $39.50 to the Color Purple. Of course it's still not enough to entice me into the theatre, but I got a good chuckle at the show's desperation. They announced their final four weeks, and of course tried to couch it as a "triumphant" closing, but really, the audience didn't show and since Phantom is already booked for this fall, they've got to move on.

Speaking of other people I hate, did anyone else catch Beyonce's fall at her Orlando concert on youtube? At least she was professional enough to go on with the show, unlike a certain other diva, Britney, who stubs her toe and cancels the rest of her tour. Still, I laughed my ass off.

Wednesday I dropped off the Carol Burnett CD and On The Twentieth Century back at the library and when I got home, my package from BMG was waiting, and as I expected, it only contained Ain't Misbehavin'. I also got a postcard explaining that Man of La Mancha and Brigadoon were out of stock and would not be replaced. Of course, my first question is, "Why were they still being offered on the site if they were out of stock?" and my second question was "Why aren't they offering me some sort of credit, or 50% off, or a free CD or something to make up for it?" A very disappointing response. However, a quick trek to the Harold Washington Library downtown will fix that, I can pick up both CD's there and with a little luck they will be copy-able. At least Ain't Misbehavin' was the one they were able to send, the library system does not have that one. It's a very good CD and my companion is thrilled to have Nell Carter on CD in the house. However, the volume leveling is very strange, each song is a different volume level, which makes for uneven listening. I either have to adjust the volume for each song, or just set it at a mid level and strain to hear half of the songs, especially if I'm across the room, and then get blasted out of my seat for the other half. It's kind of like a musical theatre version of Nine Inch Nails. At least I can fix that by copying the CD's onto CD-R's and resetting the volume level of each track so that they're all consistent and then copying those CD's. I'll be doing that today.

Thursday my companion and I went to the Buffalo Theatre Ensemble at College of DuPage to see a friend of ours, Erinn Strain, in Seascape with Shark and Dancer. It was a strange play, but she was really good. I've never heard of it before, and I'm not quite sure what the take away point of it is, but I still enjoyed it. It was the perfect type of character for her, similar in a way to last summer's Communicating Doors, in which she played the lead, very over the top but vulnerable. This is the last weekend, try to get out there and see it if you can.

Lastly, Wonder Woman is coming to town. Although she most likely will not be in her Wonder Woman garb (although I might be), Lynda Carter is bringing her cabaret act to the Apollo Theatre in early September. I'll be there, with my companion and a friend on Saturday September 15 at a cabaret table near the front. Of course I had to order my tickets the instant they went on sale, but it seems like I wasn't the only one, there was a lot of background noise when I called the box office and it took awhile for him to confirm the tickets and finish the sale. Should be exciting. Anyways, that's it for now, as you can see it's been a busy week, but I get a bit of a breather until next weekend. Watch out for those staircases!

Definitely Bigger, Maybe Better

So I saw Hairspray yesterday afternoon, as did apparently quite a lot of people. The theatre was packed, so I was not surprised to hear that it did very well over the weekend. What did surprise me was the demographic, very few theatre queens, and quite a lot of middle aged married couples and teenage girls. I guess for the married couples, it's as close to a Broadway musical as a lot of them can afford to get, and the teenage girls were apparently there for Zac Effron, more on him in a few minutes. Overall, the movie is very good, however it's not great. I'd rate it a step above such fare as Gypsy, Pal Joey, Hello Dolly, and Anything Goes, but not at the level of Chicago, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Oliver!, Funny Girl, or Cabaret. On the bright side, it's nowhere near the depths of awfulness as The Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, Grease, or Dreamgirls. The best approximation would be New York, New York; flawed but phenomenally enjoyable. It is a big improvement over the stage version. The stage version has one of the greatest scores of the past 10 years, but also one of the most problematic books. The two acts have two separate story arcs, with very little to bridge them, so it has a hard time sustaining momentum. The 20 minute or so detention/sock hop scene that's all dialogue and no songs in the middle of the first act also doesn't help. The show almost grinds to a halt before it has a chance to get going. Then, once it does, it's at breakneck speed. Tracy's success comes so easily that there isn't a lot of dramatic conflict when she decides to risk losing it to fight for integration. However, despite the narrative flaws, it was still the best nominee for Best Musical at the 2003 Tonys and so deserved its win, but it won't be in the pantheon of true greats when history has its say. The Vegas production fixed some of the narrative flaws, but still left a large music-less chunk early on, which still caused momentum problems. However, it was overall a more focused work, which led me to hope that the movie would further fix the story. Adam Shankman makes an admirable attempt, but even with his changes, it's clear that he's still too emotionally attached to some of the material and it probably would have been better off with an independent director, or at least a co-director like with West Side Story. However, there's plenty of good to keep even hard core theatre queens entertained. To start with, Nikki Blonsky is heaven (I would say she's divine, but I don't want to create any confusion). She was perfect for the role and if fucking Jennifer Hudson could win an Oscar, we'd better see Nikki at the podium next spring. She provided much needed heart and focus to the movie. Michelle Pfeiffer and the gorgeous James Marsden were fantastic in their too-small roles, and Queen Latifah brought down the house with "I Know Where I've Been." These performances, along with the fantastic set design definitely gave the movie atmosphere. Plus, it is so great to finally have a musical where people actually burst into song walking down the street, not just on stage as part of the story or in their delusional minds. The songs also really spring to life with a full orchestra instead of the spare Broadway pit orchestra. There's a lot to love musically here. But, on the flip side, there's John Travolta, Zac Effron, and the ever-problematic story. John reaffirms himself as a terrific comic actor. His timing is great and he totally embodies Edna, especially by the time they get to "You Can't Stop The Beat." Unfortunately, he can't sing, and his voice has only grown thinner since Grease. Granted, Edna does not have to be a great singer, but Travolta's wimpy delivery really made me miss Harvey Fierstein's gleeful bravado as he sang out at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately, Harvey couldn't draw in nearly as many people as Travolta, so we're stuck with a sub-par Edna. There was never any delusion that Zac Effron could sing. It was common knowledge that his vocals in High School Musical were dubbed, and in order to accomodate him, he only gets two big numbers here, one of which was still cut down. He only gets to sing the very end of "It Takes Two," (a montage set to instrumental music covered for most of the number and then faded in to him finishing up the number on the set of the Corny Collins Show), and he particpates in the group sing "Without Love." Granted, Link doesn't have a lot of vocals anyways, but they really cut him down to the bare minimum. His obviously dyed black hair was also incredibly distracting, I don't know how Tracy could have thought he was cute. He's got nothing on Matthew Morrison. Then, there's still the book problem. The movie actually gets right what a lot of recent movie adaptions (Evita, Phantom, Dreamgirls) got wrong; it realizes that it's not a two-act show, it's one continuous story. Adam Shankman did make the necessary changes to streamline the narrative, and for the most part it does work better. Tracy's hard work and sacrifice are more deeply felt, and it's much more obvious what she's trying to accomplish. However, the pacing still is off in the first third of the movie, and cutting out "Mama I'm A Big Girl Now" doesn't help. Fortunately, cutting out the "Big Doll House" number helps immensely, although it also required cutting out the best line of the show; "Manipulating the judicial system just to win a contest? That's so un-American!" Something is still just a little off and after now seeing three versions of the show, I'm still not quite sure what it could be. Also, the changes to the script, while welcome, leave a couple of loose ends that are less than satisfactorily resolved. First, Tracy starts off all gung-ho about her protest, but at the first sign of trouble, she takes off running leaving everyone else to be arrested, which comes off as cowardly and really put a bad taste in my mouth. Then, while at the end of the stage show she gets a pardon from the governor, here at the end of the movie, she's still a fugitive from justice, which is a less than happy resolution and really gives the movie a feeling of being unfinished. An extra 30 seconds to resolve this issue really would not have hurt. However, I did like the fact that they upped Velma VonTussle's underhandedness and liked the way they took her down at the end, it was much more realistic and satisfying than the stage show. I also enjoyed the new song "New Girl In Town," which while it was written as a song to be performed as part of the story, still had a lot of entertainment value. I just wish they could have used this opportunity to give Tracy a This is Who I Am/This is What I'm Fighting For song when she's talking with Wilbur about why she feels the need to fight for integration. A moment that emotionally intense should be sung in a musical not spoken. However, while I did not come out of the theater with the same degree of euphoria I had after seeing Chicago, I still came out having enjoyed myself for two hours, which is much more than I can say about Phantom, Evita, or Dreamgirls. So, it's definitely worth seeing and while Oscars are deserved for Nikki as well as cinematography, costumes, makeup, and song, it's still not the next great movie musical we've been waiting for since Chicago. We'll have to see how Sweeney fares in December.

Side Show

Well, a little late, but it's been that kind of weekend. Side Show was wonderful! I know tonight's the last night, but if you can, you should go see it. I can see why it didn't do too well on Broadway, but it definitely works very well in the Theatre on the Lake setting. To start with, the weather was so much nicer than when I saw Gorey Stories, so that put me in a better mood to start with. Once again, I was in the first row, so I had a really good view. There wasn't a whole lot of eye candy, only ensemble member Ryan Guhde stood out, and Eric Lindahl as one of the love interests was decent looking, but that worked for this show. The music was almost all piano accompaniment with a little bit of flute and drums, I'd really like to hear the fully orchestrated score, I'll bet it's fantastic. The show started off well with the Come Look at the Freaks number, but then the next 10 minutes or so had me worried. It was a long string of recetitive that wasn't all that particularly musical, it sounded more like Michael John LaChiusa than I would have preferred (the show was mostly sung through like Les Miz and Andrew Lloyd Webber), but then it picked up again and became very musical. The leads, Vanessa Paneros and Andrea Prestinario were excellent. They both won Jeff Awards for their performance, and it was very well deserved, as was the show's overall win for Best Musical. Aaron Holland was great as the unrequited love interest from the freak show, and he got one of the best songs, "You Should Be Loved," which was the one song I had heard before from the score. It was definitely worth all the drama with Ravinia to see this one. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those like Chicago that comes back later and has a phenomenal life after a disappointing first run. I'm leaving to see Hairspray in a couple of hours and will stop by Borders on the way to pick up the CD. Speaking of CD's, a brief update; I got an email from BMG stating they just shipped Ain't Misbehavin' on Friday. However, Man of La Mancha and Brigadoon were out of stock, and since they were clearance items, they're not going to be in stock again, so I'm out of luck. The library has Brigadoon and he original La Mancha, so I'll get those there and copy them, Misbehavin' was the most important one to get since that's in the closed stacks. March of the Falsettos downloaded from emusic just fine, so I now have a good electronic copy for my mp3 player, and I finished up my free downloads with Skyscraper. I downloaded it last night and still have to listen to it, which I'll get to Monday or Tuesday on my way to work. That's it for now, look for my Hairspray review probably some time tomorrow afternoon.

Most Happy Fella

Well it looks like there's going to be an empty seat at tonight's performance, but the good news for all you ticket holders is that you're in for a wonderful show. The dress rehearsal went off without a hitch. I was actually hoping for a big snafu or the director to storm out on stage throwing a hissy fit, and ideally it would have been awesome to see someone get fired on the spot, but the drama was confined to the story. I'm not fond of Guys & Dolls, and neutral on How to Succeed. . ., but this is definitely Frank Loesser's masterpiece. In our internet age, the story seems a little silly and the setup is very dated (an older man sends his mail order bride a picture of his much younger foreman which leads to confusion and complications, this now happens on a daily basis on match.com and its ilk without all the drama), but once it gets going, the story is very involving. It was a long show (about 2 hours and 40 minutes), but it flew by, nothing got bogged down. The real highlight was the music, it sparkled and every number was a highlight, from the opening Oh My Feet, to Standing on the Corner, to Song of a Summer Night. The entire cast sang and danced to perfection, with lots of eye candy. Several of the male cast members came directly from Shenandoah, most notably Stephen Schellhardt, who played the B story love interest Herman here, and was the A story love interest Sam in Shenandoah. However, I still got the feeling that he was much more interested in the beefcake around him than the sole female on stage with him. Paula Scrofano, who I saw play Norma Desmond at the Marriott a few years ago made her much belated Ravinia debut, and while the role was somewhat small and not well defined (a problem with many of the smaller roles due to the cuts that were necessary in adapting the source material), she did a fantastic job as the bitter younger sister of the title character who tried to sabotage his marriage. George Hearn was of course fantastic (although I'm a little miffed that he left Wicked off of his list of credits in his program bio, that was his greatest performance as far as I'm concerned), and Sylvia McNair and Cheryl Avery were both wonderful as the waitresses transplanted to Napa Valley and who found love in unlikely places. I look forward to seeing more of both of them. It was a fantastic night, and it looks like the weather should be better tonight for the real event, so please enjoy! I'll be at Side Show and you can find my thoughts tomorrow, before I dash off to Hairspray (which has gotten fantastic reviews by the way). Then it will be time for a much needed rest before Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on August 4th.

A Big Rain Came

Well, Thursday turned out to be a great day, the last one I've had since as it turns out, but more on that later. I got up and going earlier and hit Starbucks around 11, very eager to see who would be waiting for me, and the disappointing reality was no one. Now guys, I understand most of you were probably in rehearsals or something, but the theatre for Grease was just a block away, Max you could have ducked out for 20 minutes, and Josh, Tarzan's been going for over a year, surely you didn't have any commitment. So, I got my coffee and hoped on the train to Brooklyn and the New York Aquarium. About a day and a half later I got there (ok, a slight exaggeration, but that is still one damn long train ride). The aquarium was cool, but a little underwhelming compared to Chicago's Shedd or even Boston's aquarium, and every day camp and daycare in the tri-state area apparently decided to take a trip there that day, and you know those were not well behaved children at all. They made a great argument in favor of birth control, or at the very least of moving spanking back onto the list of acceptable child rearing practices. It was fairly small, so after a couple hours I had seen everything and since it was mostly outdoors and it was still very hot, I hopped back onto the train and a day and a half later was back at the hotel, just in time to meet my companion. After a quick shower and a change of clothes, we headed out to dinner at Braiserrie 52, which was really good, and then headed to Studio 54 for 110 in the Shade. We were in the 5th row on the main floor, which was a nice change from the balcony where I had seen Pacific Overtures and Threepenny Opera. Whoever designed the balcony should have to sit in it for a few hours. The rows are about 6 inches apart, making any seat except for the aisle seats where you can stick your legs out into the aisle very uncomfortable. The main floor was designed for normal sized people and was very nice. For a show that initially had trouble catching fire, it's really become the show to see. It just needed a little time. I completely disagree with Entertainment Weekly's review. It was a superb, sublime show, and all the males were more than up to the challenge of keeping up with Audra, particularly Steve Kazee. It's such a heartwarming show filled with great performances and music, it's sad that it's closing so soon, but better to go out on top. During the intermission, my companion commented that it must be taking place in the most diverse town in 1930's Texas. The family had a white father, black daughter, one mixed son, and one white son, both of whom were obviously gay, and no one raised an eyebrow. John Cullum did a fantastic job as the patriarch of the family, it was great to see this legend while he's still in his prime. I was also fond of Bobby Steggert as Jimmy, the gayer of the two brothers who still managed to be the one who ended up with a girlfriend. He was quite cute and I expect to see a lot more of him. Then of course there was Audra. I can't wait to see her and Patti next month at Ravinia. She was fantastic. If Christine hadn't been in the running, that Tony should have been hers. I have never seen her less than fabulous and really hope she changes her mind about Private Practice and finds another theatre project. So, after the show we went back to the hotel and packed and went to bed. The wake up call got us up at 4:30, and we were at the airport by 6. We got checked in no problem, the plane was there and ready to go, and even though there were some ever so light sprinkles, we were all on time to go. We got on, we were about 10 minutes from take off, and suddenly the weather decided to act out the last two minutes of 110 at LaGuardia. I don't think anyone's seen that kind of rain since Noah. We sat on the tarmac for about two and a half hours, until there was just enough of a break to allow us to take off. Once we were out of the New York area the flight was great. However, because of the delay, I got to work several hours later than planned, and it's been non-stop ever since, which is why I haven't gotten around to writing this final post on the trip until now. My BMG CD's did not arrive while I was gone, but I did get to listen to most of Raisin today between meetings and phone calls and it's a great score. With the highly acclaimed revival still recent in everyone's memory, it might be time to bring this one back, maybe we could entice Audra away from that crappy TV show? That could certainly be a coup for her, winning Tony's for the same role in both the play and musical. Something to think about. So, now I'm sitting at Ravinia waiting for the dress rehearsal of Most Happy Fella to start. I still haven't sold the ticket, so I'm pretty much not counting on that to happen, it'll be an expensive lesson that at my age I need to start triple checking my calendar. I'll try to get the complete rundown posted tomorrow before Side Show. See you then.

Gypsy

Well, it's offical. Patti LuPone is the greatest actress to grace the Broadway stage EVER. Before we get to that, I had a very nice afternoon. My companion finished his work early, so I met him at the Russian Tea Room around 1 for a fantastic lunch. We came back to the hotel, and he was going to change and join me for the Circle Line Beast ride, but he decided he was too tired, so I went by myself and had a fantastic time. The Beast is a 30 minute speedboat ride down the Hudson that goes from 42nd St to Ellis Island and back. It's quite a wild ride and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see the Statue of Liberty. I took some pictures which I'll post when I get back home, I need to do it from a realy computer, not email. So then I came back, changed, and it was off to City Center, which hosted the gayest audience I have ever been a part of. Forget Barbra, Liza, Madonna, the Pride Parade, Xanadu, there were more queens in that audience than anywhere I've ever been. City Center itself is a fantastic building. It's almost as big as the Lyric Opera, it was the perfect setting for the larger than life Mama Rose. I was on the mezzanine, just off center, with a great view. There was a full orchestra on stage, and their playing was glorious The overture got a sustained ovation and the show was on. Now, anyone familiar with Gypsy knows that Mama is seen before she's heard, and the instant "Sing out Louise" rang out, the audience went nuts. Patti got a sustained round of applause as she walked on stage and then stood there, facing Louise, she hadn't even faced the audience yet but we were already loving her. Her performance was perfect. The supporting players were excellent, particularly Boyd Gaines, Alison Fraser (as Tessie Tura), and Laura Benanti, who has officially atoned for The Wedding Singer and is welcome back on the Broadway Stage anytime. The show moved along very well, it never dragged, and the performances all sparkled. Patti delivered on every song and got a standing ovation at the end of Rose's Turn. The almost 3 hours flew by, unlike the only other live performance of the show I've ever seen, a truly dreadful staging at the Bailiwick starring the transgendered Alexandra Billings as Mama Rose. The less said about that the better. This was the way Gypsy was meant to be done and hopefully we'll get a recording to forever preserve the greatest Mama Rose. So, afterwards, it was back to the hotel to get my rest before my final day in New York.

Sunday

Good morning. After walking around in the heat all day yesterday, I was just too exhausted by the time I got back to the hotel last night to write anything. We started the day off with a trip to the Village. However, upon leaving the hotel, I discovered Colony Records just one block north on Broadway and had to go in. While their selection isn't quite as comprehensive as Footlight's was, it's still good and you can get the CD's yourself, no writing down the numbers and trying to track down a disinterested employee to get them for you. I picked up Raisin and Sail Away, and even though the prices really are outrageous, I may head back again before we leave. We then went to the Village and popped into Strand, and I definitely like the place more when I'm not looking for anything in particular. I picked up several great horror books, although I spent way too much money, and my bag is now going to be stuffed going home. We had brunch at a very nice place called Jack, and then it was time to head back north. We stopped at Grand Central so that he could get the other tickets he needs for Tuesday and then we hopped on the shuttle to the 42nd St subway, and guess who I swear I saw on the train? My Max! I swear it looked just like him, at least from a certain angle, and he made a lot of eye contact. I'll have to swing by Starbucks, although its getting late. Hopefully he's waiting. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then went to Deuce, which was actually very good. I can see what the critics were complaining about when they said that not much happens, but it's more about what doesn't happen, and I think they both did a terrific job conveying the sense that there was a lot more going on that we weren't seeing. They were both great, although I have to say that I think Marion was actually the better one. At the Tony's, Angela had seemed to have some trouble with her lines, and she did here to. She stammered a few times, seemed to stumble over her lines, repeated a couple which I don't think was supposed to happen, but she kept her composure well and it didn't affect the show. I'm a little concerned for her, that's all. After the show we hauled it to Acquavit for a very quick, but wonderful dinner, and then it was off to In the Heights. It seemed that most of the audience was friends and family, and it was nice to have such an enthusiastic audience. It was a very good show, and it was great to see Robin de Jesus, from the movie Camp. He was terrific, as was everyone else, although I was surprised that Priscilla Lopez had such a small part without any featured singing. I'm not sure how well it will do on Broadway, it's very ethnic and the story might not be compelling enough for a bigger house, so I'm glad I got to see it where it started, and I do wish them the best of luck as they transfer, I hope I'm wrong and they succeed wildly. So then it was back to the hotel and I fell asleep very quickly. My companion left around 5:30 and was supposed to be gone all day, but called around 10:30 as I was getting up and said he was already done for the day and on his way back. So, I'm waiting for him and we're going to have lunch and then do the Circle Line Cruise and Top of the Rock together, and then it will probably be time to get ready for Gypsy. So, guys, let's try this again tomorrow at Starbucks, and I promise I'll be there before heading off to the Aquarium.

Children's Theatre for 40 year old Gay Men

On 44th Street did Douglas Carter Beane, Jeff Lynne, John Farrar, Christopher Ashley, and a whole bevy of producers a kick ass musical decree. Yes, Xanadu lived up to all the hype. Prior to the show, we had dinner at La Masseria, and it was fantastic. The service was very friendly, the food was excellent, and the décor was great. I highly recommend it and hope they are successful. Then we headed to 44th St, quickly ducking in to the Broadway New York store. They didn't have the new 42nd Street CD or any of the obscure others that I was looking for, and they were completely sold out of Grey Gardens merchandise (speaking of GG, the hotel borders the Walter Kerr, hopefully tonight or Tuesday we can run into Christine as she's leaving), but I picked up a book called At This Theatre, which is about all the Broadway Theatres and the shows they have hosted. It was updated in 2000, so it's already a little outdated, but it's still phenomenally interesting, and best of all, its got a picture of Carrie's Playbill cover in it. I also got a 2008 calendar with posters of old plays. Then, it was down the street to the Helen Hayes. The line stretched down the block and it appeared, at least to me on the main floor, that it was sold out. I'm not sure what the balcony looked like, but the main floor sure was packed, and since it's the smallest Bway theatre, it was a little uncomfortable. However, the gigantic mirror poised over the stage immediately got us in the mood for the show, and it only got better from there. As we all know, I am not a fan of the current trend of turning movies into musicals, but if you're going to, this is how you do it. The story had very little to do with the movie, but it kept Sonny Malone's monotone muted reactions, the roller skates, and Kira's Australian accent, but just about everything else, including Joel Silver's character and the Don Bluth animation were jettisoned. The show was a very lean 90 minutes, avoiding the movie's interminable feeling, and the camp factor was through the roof. In fact, while I wish I could take credit for the title of this post, it is actually the best received line out of the entire well received show, delivered with deadpan accuracy by Jackie Hoffman, the true str of the show. That's not to say the rest of the cast are slouches, they are all top notch. The producers really got a gift when Jane Krakowski dropped out, Kerry Butler is perfect, channeling Sarah Michelle Gellar more than Olivia Newton John. Cheyenne Jackson was drop dead gorgeous in his skimpy outfit and is more than welcome to meet me at Starbucks tomorrow as well, and had Sonny as played by what's his name in the movie down pat. My other favorite was the gorgeous Curtis Holbrook, who for all the hype about roller skating, brought the house down with his tap dancing in the 40's flashback scene. However, the true stars were Jackie Hoffman and Mary Testa. They made the show. Now, it heps your enjoyment if you've seen the movie, but it's not essential. The first 30-45 minutes definitely derive their entertainment value from making fun of the movie but then by the time Cheyenne sings Strange Magic, it really becomes its own show. This is no Snakes on a Plane, this is real entertainment that deserves a long, prosperous life. I can't wait for the CD!

I'm Heeeerrrrreeeee!!!!!!!!!

Hello New York, it's great to be here. First off, my companion can be kind of a dingus sometimes. Last week he told me he had made reservations at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. Well, this morning at O'Hare, he was looking at his itinerary and started freaking out about the address, he thought it was much farther north than Times Square (now how he could have known enough to be worried about that is a little baffling, there is no rhyme or reason to the street numbers in New York), and it then came out that the reservation is at the Crowne Plaza, not the Marriott. It is a couple blocks farther north on Broadway, but it's nice not to have to push through quite so many people to get in. It's actually phenomenally nice and could end up becoming my new favorite. So, Lance, Max, Josh, Matthew. And Jonathan, I'm not quite sure where we'll meet Monday ot Tuesday, but I'll get back to you on that. Ok, there's a clip from Xanadu on the Broadway Channel right now, I'll be right back. . .

Ok, I'm back, god I can't wait for tonight! So, the flight went off without a hitch and we actually got in early. We got the luggage, and there was no line for the cabs, so we got one right away, which was actually a problem because the A/C was broken. It was very hot and the stop and start traffic between LaGuardia and the Crowne Plaza combined to make my motion sickness kick in. Fortunately it was a fairly short trip, and the room was ready for us, so I'm lying down right now and feeling much better while my companion is going to lunch (it allows him to get his Indian food which I won't touch, even when my stomach is in tip top shape) and to buy his train tickets to get to Connecticut Monday and Tuesday. He picked up tickets for Frost/Nixon (he decided The Year of Magical Thinking would be too sad) on the way and I'm going to meet him there around 1:40 and then since its short we can do some quick shopping and sightseeing before Xanadu. So except for one little hiccup which is now mostly history, we're off to a good start.

Frost/Nixon

Well, once I got to feeling like my usual self again, I went and met my companion for Frost/Nixon. We were in the balcony, but for the most part the seats were good. I had a hard time hearing in a few spots, and Frank Langella's replica of Nixon's mumble and Michael Sheen's British accent didn't help, but it was still a great show. The first half could have been trimmed just a little bit to tighten it up, but once Frost got Nixon in the chair it became riveting. Frank Langella earned that third Tony, although Michael Sheen certainly didn't fade into the background either. Of interest, one of the cast members was a guy named Remy Auberjonois, and in profile he certainly bore more than a passing resemblance to Lieutenant Odo. What's the story? He looked a little old to be Rene's son, are they brothers, cousins? Anyone who knows what the story is, please let me know. As for the show, I am excited to catch the upcoming movie and need to look for the DVD's of the actual interview on Netflix. My companion is now getting ready and we're off to a new Italian restaurant down the street and then its time for some Magic! Oh, and btw, Lance, Max, Josh, Matthew, and Jonathan, you can meet me at the Starbucks across the street on Broadway, but let's say closer to 11, and Josh, you'll need to bring the loincloth. See you there!

Getting Ready

Welcome back suckers!!!!!! As we all know, Xanadu opened on Tuesday night after over a month of star crossed previous. Now, I have been championing this show for over six months, getting nothing but a chorus of "is it really necessary"'s from anyone who would listen and seeing negative article after negative article in the press. Well, Wednesday morning, guess what the best reviewed new show in years was, and by Wednesday nighgt was setting box office records and well on its way to selling out? That's right you cynical skeptics, Xanadu is the show to see and yours truly will be there front and center tomorrow night because I had to foresight to see how awesome it was going to be. Look for the full rundown Sunday.

Speaking of the trip, I am finishing up preparations here. I am already checked in, which should hopefully reduce some anxiety tomorrow morning as you know a certain someone isn't going to have his act together. I'm finishing up a load of laundry and charging all the electronics and should be finished packing shortly. I've been keeping an eye on the weather, and while its not supposed to rain here until tomorrow afternoon, the New York weather could be a bit more problematic, although as far as I know they're not calling for anything extreme, so hopefully we should be good to go.

Lastly, the music drama just doesn't end. As I mentioned earlier, I had picked up Annie (and oh my God Andrea McArdle was an ugly child, she's really had to grow into her looks), the 2001 revival of 42nd Street, I Love My Wife, Fiorello, and Kismet from the library. Being typical library CD's, they of course were phenomenally scratched and scuffed. However, between my two home computers and my work computer, I was able to get complete, blemish-free recordings of all of them except 42nd Street. The second to last track, which is less than 2 minutes long, refuses to copy cleanly, and of course its the only CD that's out of print. There are no other copies in the library system, it's not in my parents' library's system, and I can't find it on any download sites, and it starts in the mid-$30 range on half.com. Hopefully I can track down a copy in New York, although I still hate to have to buy the entire CD just to get one short track. Still, it could be worth it, especially if they dnt have any plans for a re-issue any time soon. So on Wednesday, I fired up my laptop and attempted to copy March of the Falsettos. Music Match ran fine and acted like it copied ok, but the sound quality was still horrible. So, I hooked up my cell phone, hopped online, and took a closer look at emusic.com, and was much more impressed with what I saw. They may not have the blockbusters that I had been looking for, but they have plenty of little known gems, including Skycraper, High Spirits, the 1995 concert recording of Pal Joey with Patti and Bebe Neuwirth (whom my car is named after), among others. So I signed up and downloaded March. I haven't listened to it all the way through yet, but the spot checks appear fine. On Wednesday I also got Coco in the mail, and in the age of The Devil Wears Prada and Ugly Betty, it is totally due for a revival. The score is superb even though Katherine Hepburn's performance cannot be called singing no matter how you stretch the definition, and the story is full of backstabbing, bitchery, and strong independent women which are really in vogue on Bway right now. The only disappointed was that Rene Auberjonois only had one song, but I can see why he won the Tony with just that song. I do have to say though that whoever wrote the original liner notes, which were reproduced in the booklet, must have failed out of grammar school. That was the most incoherent, rambling, self-indulgent drivel I have ever read. I'm also a little offended by the characterization of Rene's character as half man half woman, but the show's willingness to at least hint at the character's orientation (come on, would the leading fashion critic in Paris really need a roommate and would a real roommate be anywhere near as flamboyant as Rene's character?) in 1970, several years before the APA de-classified being gay as an illness is commendable. I'd love to see this show make a comback. Yesterday I returned the CD'S to the library and while I didn't want to stock up on a whole stack of them with the trip coming up, I did have to check, and this time I was able to find Carol Burnett, right where she was supposed to be, so I grabbed her and picked up On the Twentieth Century Both lof them are hardly scratched, and Carol did copy fine, and about halfway through, Twentieth Century so far has copied fine. Then when I got home, The Act was waiting for me. I was a little worried because it was on the same label, DRG, as March, but it copied fine as well. Now I'm just eaiting for the CD's from BMG, it's been about 2 weeks since I ordered them, I'm not sure what's taking so long, although the last time I ordered clearance CD's from them, it took about 6 weeks before they shipped them, so we'll see. I just hope they don't come while I'm gone because our post office has a nasty habit of thinking that if we don't pick our mail up for one day that we've moved and they start sending everything back. For now though, that's not much of a worry. I got the half.com CD's and BMG will always get in touch with me if they get the package back at their office. My bigget worry now is the weather tomorrow. So, it looks like the laundry is done Time to get packed and make it an early bedtime, I'm getting up at 4 in the morning. See you in New York!

Oh My

Fresh off the AP wires, apparently a producing company in London is planning a Blondie jukebox musical based on, get this, Desperately Seeking Susan. Personally I'd prefer Shanghai Surprise, but that's just me. No opening date was given, but the lead role has been cast and Debbie Harry has written additional songs for the show. I'm still kind of in shock so there's not much more to say.

Some good news, I looked up emusic last night and not only do they have March of the Falsettos (in non-DRM mp3 format), they also have the Broadway version of Grey Gardens. Unfortunately that's about the extent of their showtune offerings but that's enough for me. With a 2 week free trial and 25 free downloads, I should be able to get both of the albums for very little money. That's a lot better than having to do an audio capture.

March of the Falsettos

First the good news, it appears that the Triumph of Love CD copied just fine. It's a superb CD, everyone does a fantastic job, particularly Susan Egan. It took me about half the CD to realize where I'd heard her voice before; as Belle on the Beauty and the Beast Broadway cast album. The score is gorgeous, it's too bad it didn't last longer, although to be fair, the plot synposis is confusing as hell, which I'm sure had something to do with its brief run.

On to the more perplexing issue, the March of the Falsettos CD still wouldn't copy using Music Match on my work computer. I was able to get it to ek out the second track, but it crapped out on the third, and wouldn't even try any of the the other tracks no matter what I did. However, it gave me a different error message than the Music Match on my home computer, saying it wasn't compatible with the .cda format, which I don't quite understand how that's possible. So, I tried copying it with Windows Media Player. WMP only copies into wma tracks, which I'm not thrilled about, but beggars can't be choosers. I didn't look up the CD information on the chance that maybe there was something about the title or the long track names with "/"'s in them that confounded MM, so it copied as Uknown Album by Unknown Artist, with Unknown Track 1, Unknown Track 2, and so on. It made it through copying all 13 tracks, but when I opened up My Documents, the Unknown Artist folder contained 30 Unknown Album folders. One folder contained tracks 1-9, another contained tracks 10-13, and the remaining 28 were empty. I deleted the 28 empty folders and randomly clicked on a track in the folder containing tracks 1-9 to see how well it copied, and the result was not well at all. There was skipping, popping, static, it was really abysmal, and I copied it at 128 kbps. However, the disc plays fine either in the computer disc drive or in my CD player. I cannot figure out why it won't copy. I did a quick search online to see if anyone else has had this issue but couldn't find anything. I've got one more chance with MM on my laptop, which will sometimes copy discs better than my desktop computer, although sometimes worse (my desktop uses Windows 98 and MM 3.0 while the laptop has XP and MM 6.0, so I often retry CD's on the laptop if they don't copy well onto the desktop computer because of scratches or other problems, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't). If it doesn't work, I'm going to have to do an audio capture which I dislike. I have to play the entire CD in real time, so I have to have the free time to do that, any skips or other interference get recorded, and then I have to burn the massive WAV file as a CD to create the individual tracks, then copy that CD into mp3's, which takes forever, especially if the WAV file is particularly large and needs to be cut into several tracks. Then, CD-R's don't always copy as well in Music Match, even if the surface is flawless, it's still possible to get some skips or static. I really don't have the time to do all that right now, and probably won't until after I'm back from New York. Then after doing all that, I'll need to listen to the mp3 files to make sure they copied ok, so I'll need another free hour or so for that. I'm totally perplexed as to why it won't copy. I've only had this happen a couple of other times before, and it's been either because the CD was copy protected, in which case I just ejected it and reinserted it while holding CTRL, and then it copied fine, or the other problem was a Czech CD and the title of one of the track titles contained an unrecognizable character, and MM would crap out on that track because it couldn't write the character to the hard drive, so I just copied the rest of the disc and then copied that track by just naming it the track number and that took care of the problem. This perplexes me, all the track names are in English, the disc is too old to be copy protected (and the second CD copied just fine), and the surface only has a couple of light scratches, I've copied CD's in much worse shape that turned out just fine. Has anyone else had this problem? The final option would be to see if I can purchase a digital version of the CD, but that's kind of a waste since I already paid for this one. However, as I was browsing to see if anyone else had this problem, one of the results was Buy March of the Falsettos on emusic. Of course, the new internet filters wouldn't let me go to that search result, so I'll have to look it up when I go home, but I believe emusic sells its files as mp3's without DRM, so if it's less than $10 I may just do that. Plus, I already have Four Jews in a Room Bitching and I Never Wanted To Love You on other compilations, so I'd only have to buy 11 tracks. I'll keep you updated on what happens. Hopefully Coco and The Act won't have this problem. In seven years this is the first time I've been so stumped, I don't like it.

Gorey, Superman, and Hotties

Well, it's been an eventful few days. First of all, on Thursday I went to the library after work and picked up Fiorello, 42nd St (the 2001 revival with Christine Ebersole), Annie, Kismet, and I Love My Wife. I wanted to get Carol Burnett's Let Me Entertain You, and the computer said it wasn't checked out, but for the life of me I could not find it. There was some crazy homeless person going through the stacks and kept picking up CD's (he was holding about 20 of them, which is way over the 6 at a time max), so he may have had it and I wasn't about to interrupt his delirium to ask, so I'll check again next time I go. On Friday I got the March of the Falsettos/Falsettoland and Triumph of Love CD's that I ordered from half.com. The Falsettos discs are in fairly good shape, but for some reason everytime I try to copy the MOTF CD onto my mp3 player I get a message saying Music Match committed an invalid page fault and needs to shut down. I brought it to work and will try it here with a more recent edition of MM, otherwise I may have to do an audio capture. The Triumph disc has a large scratch in the middle of it, but it plays ok, and it looks like it copied ok (I didn't get any red boxes next to the track numbers as it copied, they were all blue except for the), except for the first track, which got a yellow box next to the track number in Music Match as it copied, and will not play on my CD player at work. However, the CD player is pretty basic, so I'll try it on another one later, and hopefully it at least copied fine which is really what I care about.

Saturday afternoon I looked up playbill.com and found out that my longtime crush Lance Bass (and I totally pegged him as royalty back in 2000, he wasn't fooling anyone) is going to be in Hairspray on Broadway starting on the 19th. Since I'm coming back on the 18th, I won't be catching him, but he should be in NY next week rehearsing, getting fitted, etc., so with any luck I can run into him and since he's newly single, finally fulfill a longstanding fantasy I've had for about the past 7 years. Lance if you're reading, I'll be staying at the Marquis Marriott in Times Square, catch me at the street level Starbucks on the south side of the hotel Monday or Tuesday around 10 or so. I also realized that Max should be deep in rehearsals for Grease and in the absence of Lance, I certainly wouldn't mind running into him and making an apology in person for what I said about his facial expressions. Max, I'll see you at Starbucks too. I also wouldn't mind running into Josh Strickland or Jonathan Groff, but ideally, I also realized reading New York Magazine, Matt Morrison should still be in town. They had a review of 10 Million Miles, and while they weren't enthusiastic about it, they weren't totally negative, and they had a picture of him and he looks so good, even better than I would have thought, with a buzz cut. The show ends right before we get there, I'm not sure if it ended yesterday or if it will play out the week, but with a little bit of luck he'll be sticking around, so Matt, see you at Starbucks as well, and guys, don't worry if more than one of you show up at a time, it'll be more fun to go around for all of us!

Now, on to the serious critical commentary, as you know, I saw Gorey Stories and Superman this weekend. Saturday night I went to Theatre on the Lake for the first time for Gorey Stories, which was the hottest night of the year so far. The building is totally nasty. It's falling apart, the bathrooms were disgusting (the frame around one of the windows had almost totally rotted away, makes you wonder what kind of creatures nested in there over the winter), and the theatre space was basically a tin shack with ceiling fans, no a/c. It's a Park District building and I can't believe with all the various taxes we pay in this city, the city can't keep its own buildings in decent shape. If it was a private building, it would have been condemned years ago. So, being underwhelmed by the surroundings, I counted on the show to blow me away, and it didn't quite do it. I was hoping for re-enactments of Edward Gorey stories, instead it was done in more of a Shockheaded Peter style, with a narrator basically saying what was going on and actors acting out what was being said, it was like watching a movie with all voiceover. They did a good job, and the costumes and what few props they used were fantastic, but it didn't grab me. I could have stayed home and listend to the Tiger Lillies (the theme of the night apparently) The Gorey End CD and sat in the air conditioning. However, after intermission, the second act really took off and provided more of a frame for what we had seen before. It was definitely the more enjoyable half of the show, especially since it wasn't narrated quite as much, and most of the narration that did occur was part of the story, as it concerned a crazy writer seeing his storey acted out in front of him. So, by the time it was done, I had a better opinion of the show. The cast definitely was very good, especially Jennifer Santanello, J. Predie Predmore (who bore an uncanny resemblance to the character Jason on Cartoon Network's Home Movies show), and the very cute Brent Frost. Then on Sunday, which turned out to be even hotter, my companion and I trekked to Oak Brook for It's a Bird It's a Plane It's Superman. We had a very nice brunch at Mon Ami Gabi, did some shopping, and then headed over to Drury Lane. I had been in the building once before about 10 years ago for a job fair, but have never seen a production there. I must have been in a different part of the building, because when my companion and I walked in the front door, he just burst out laughing at the decor. It was very over the top 70's Vegas. It really could have been kitsch if it wasn't obvious that the owner took it seriously. However, the theatre was very modern and nice. We were in the second row, which I think was about 5 rows too close, we were directly under the hanging speakers, so we didn't get any projection, which made it hard to hear sometimes. However, the set design was superb. It was so 60's it was perfect, as were the costumes. The musical has definitely improved with age, as 40 years later it can now be done with the kitsch factor set to high, which would have been much harder to do in the actual 60's when it first premiered. Yeah, the music still isn't great, but the performers did a good job selling the songs. I don't think it'll ever see a full scale Broadway revival, but it was great seeing it with such a dedicated cast and creative team. Superman (the character) was a bit older than I would have expected, but there was still some eye candy in the persons of Jason Bayle (as almost-love interest Jim Morgan) and Sean Michael Hunt as a member of the Rascalnikovs acrobatic troupe. However, the highlights were David Perkovich as the villain Dr. Sedgwick who bore an uncanny resemblence, not so much physically as emotionally/mentally, to my high school chemistry teacher, and Holly Stauder, as the Linda Lavin character Sydney. Their performances brought the show to life. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, and I'll have to keep an eye on that theatre, it's definitely one to watch for. Next season they're doing The Goodbye Girl, but it's unclear if it's the play or the musical. If it's the musical I'll definitely be out there. One of the other great things about this show is that one the way out, we were behind two fanboys who obviously don't get out much, and they were talking about the show and how it compared to the Superman mythos. It was nice to see a show bring in people that normally wouldn't go to a musical, hopefully they liked it and will consider checking out other shows in the future. It's kind of the Harry Potter of musical theatre. So, just a few short days and it's off to New York for a blitz of theatre. See you there!

Coming Together

Good morning, good morning, good morning. It is so great to be alive when there's a trip to New York in the immediate future. I bought the tickets for the 5 definite shows last night and was able to get great seats for all of them on the days we wanted to go. It works out nicely that we can see the last Off-Broadway performance of In the Heights, and that there's a Monday night performance of anything, much less Gypsy with the fabulous Patti. My companion isn't able to make it to that one, he'll still be on the train coming back from Connecticut, so it sucks to be him, but I'll be there waving my Patti flag proudly. I'm very happy that I'll get to see both her and Audra twice this summer. I get to see them next week in their shows, and then in August when they're at Ravinia together. My companion made our hotel reservations, we'll be staying at the Times Square Marriott, which is a great hotel, except their new elevator system is very annoying. Hopefully they'll have the bugs ironed out, it was only 3 weeks old when we stayed there a year ago and it didn't do a good job of allocating people to elevators. It would send 50 people to one elevator and then have 3 arrive with no one getting on. It'll be nice and close to most of the shows and they've got their own Broadway souvenier store next to Starbucks that I can check out and it's close to Broadway New York. Plus, the best part is that TKTS is right outside so as soon as we put our bags in the room we can go get in line for a Saturday matinee show, hopefully beating the crowd. The only drawback is that I won't be seeing Light in the Piazza here since we'll be gone for most of the run and I have other things to do when we get back (Wednesday night I can crash, but Thursday I'm going to the dress rehearsal of Most Happy Fella at Ravinia and Friday I've got Side Show. Speaking of MHF, someone buy my Friday night ticket already!). I'm fine with that since I saw the Live From Lincoln Center broadcast, but I'm worried that if no one shows up for it, instead of realizing that they need to make Chicago a flagship stop and promote the hell out of shows, the producers will interpret it as no one in Chicago cares about theatre and will stop bringing shows here at all (Ave. Q and Drowsey Chaperone announced expanded schedules, and we're still not on either of them, like either of them are going to play well in Raleigh or Charlotte or Fort Wayne). Of course part of the problem is we've got all three of our major theatres locked up with Wicked, Color Purple, and soon Jersey Boys. There isn't a lot of space left for large touring shows. Anyways, tomorrow is Gorey Stories and Sunday is Superman, this is turning out to be a fabulous month.

Good News

Look out New York, the queen is coming! I found out yesterday that my companion needs to go to New York the week of the 16th for work, so we decided to fly out early in the morning on Saturday the 14th andcan take advantage of a matinee, and then we'll be back on Wednesday the 18th. I've looked through playbill.com, and it looks like we'll be seeing Deuce, Xanadu, 110 in the Shade, In the Heights, Gypsy (with Patti!!!), and a Saturday matinee to be determined, most likely Frost/Nixon, Old Acquaintance, The Year of Magical Thinking, or A Chorus Line. Tickets for the 5 definite ones are all available and I'll be buying them tonight when I get home. We're remaining flexible for the Saturday matinee and are going to wait until we get there to buy tickets because if anything gets fucked up with the flight we probably won't make it to the show, and we don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars for tickets and not be able to go (and you know we're not getting a refund either from the theatre or American Airlines should that happen). We're supposed to arrive around 10:30, so we'll go to the hotel and then head to TKTS. I'll also print out any playbill.com offers and if the TKTS line is too long we'll just go directly to the theatre of the show we choose. My companion accuses me of being a little bossy when it comes to selecting shows, so I'll let him decide what the 6th show will be. However, I also remind him that if I left it up to him, we wouldn't get to see anything because he'd never get around to deciding and buying tickets, and also he's the one that wanted to see The Threepenny Opera, which is 2 and a half hours of my life that I'll never get back. So, tentatively the schedule will be:

Saturday Matinee: TBD
Saturday Evening: XANADU!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday Matinee: Deuce
Sunday Evening: In the Heights
Monday: Gypsy (the only one with a Monday performance)
Tuesday: 110 in the Shade

Since Saturday and Sunday will be filled with shows, I plan on spending Monday doing the Circle Line speedboat tour around the Statue of Liberty, having lunch at the Carnegie Deli, walking through Central Park and ducking into the Met or Guggenheim if it gets too hot, and going to the Broadway New York store and snatching up any and all Grey Gardens memorabilia. Tuesday I will attempt again to go to the Aquarium in Brooklyn and possibly seeing Coney Island. I'll need to update the playlist on my phone though, I don't want to get bored listening to the same shows over and over on the subway ride there. Then Wednesay morning, very early, we leave to come back and I can go directly to work. At least this time it won't be so cold and I should be feeling a lot better. Aquavit here I come!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

After a nice quiet week, there's been quite a string of bad news. First of all, over the weekend, it was announced that Audra McDonald has been signed to the cast of the Grey's Anatomy spinoff. I can understand her desire to do television, but why oh why does it have to be a spinoff of the most annoying show since Sex and the City??? Yes ratings will be huge, there will be a lot of interest, it will get her name out there, but it will destroy her artistic credibility. Is it really worth it Audra? If she wanted to get on TV, I'm sure there are tons of better shows that would love to have her. Granted, Desperate Housewives proved to be not very diversity friendly, but there's Ugly Betty, Boston Legal (and my fondness for BL is about 85% of the reason for my undying hatred of Grey's), Smallville, Bones, ER, Weeds, the 4400, even the resurrected Jericho, and I'm sure they could have found something for her on my new favorite show, Burn Notice. I'm sorely disappointed.

As if that wasn't enough, yesterday it was announced that Grey Gardens will be closing after Mary Louise Wilson's last performance on July 29. Instead of finding a replacement for her, they decided to shutter the show, which is an odd decision since Christine's contract was through October. Granted, with the numbers they were bringing in, even lasting that long would have been a stretch, and this allows them to at least give the appearance that they're going out in a good place, and the show is going to go to London and then tour the US, although I'll bet you anything that it won't come to Chicago, or at least won't be on the initial tour schedule, but it's still disappointing. It's a better show than Spring Awakening and way better than Mary Poppins, so it's disappointing to see it be the first of this year's Tony Nominated shows to close. On the bright side, this marks a rare occassion that a Kander & Ebb show isn't the first post-Tony's show to close.

So, to cope with my disappointment, I pointed my browser to half.com and, even though I just ordered several CD's from BMG, picked up another set of CD's, justifying myself on the grounds that most of them are on the verge of going out of print so if I want them, now is the time, and overall, it still isn't a very expensive order. I ordered the March of the Falsettos/Falsettoland double CD (going out of print quickly), The Act (going out of print), Triumph of Love (possibly going out of print, and while the Harold Washington Library supposedly carries it, every time I've looked for it when the card catalogue states that it's on the shelf, I can never find it, so since it was only $6, I figured I might as well get it), and Coco (actually just back in print, but I LOVE Kate and really want it for keeps). Hopefully they'll show up sooner rather than later, and with the Pirate Queen being released today, I should be filling up my mp3 player to the brim by the end of the month, time to look for a second one.