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.