I Could Write a Book on Losing My Mind

Take a look at my picture, to the right. Do I look anything like Ingrid Bergman? Apparently, Car-X thinks so because they have been desperately trying all summer to drive me out of my mind, and now emusic has jumped into the game. Here's the deal:

A few years ago, I worked at an agency in Lincoln Park. I routinely parked my car on the street behind the building, which was lined with townhomes that I would conservatively estimate started at $5 million. As you would expect, the surrounding area was pretty nice, although there were a few shadier blocks in the area, mostly around the el tracks, which tends to be the case in any neighborhood the el runs through. However, the immediate area where I parked my car was very nice, nannies would push strollers down the sidewalk, at least 3 or 4 homes on any day would have a lawn crew doing work, the street was lined with BMW and Lexus SUV's, you get the picture. Well, one afternoon I left the office to go do a home visit (I was a travelling social worker that visited home-bound people who had personal care workers paid for by the state). I got into my car, pulled out, and almost plowed into the line of cars still parked there. My car seriously pulled to the right. I slammed on the brake, grabbed ahold of the wheel, and tried again, and it still pulled strongly to the right. I pulled back over, got out, walked around the car, and discovered that my front passenger tire was completely flat. There was Car-X about half a mile away, and I figured it would be quicker to carefully drive there than to wait for a tow-truck to come and take me the half-mile. So, I drove VERY SLOWLY to Car-X where they took a look and informed me that the tire had been slashed, which totally blew my mind. In the middle of Lincoln Park, in the middle of the day, who would randomly slash a tire, and how could they not be seen doing it? We certainly weren't in the middle of the ghetto. So, I got a new tire put on and went on my way. A couple years went by, and I no longer work at that agency, I now work in Park Ridge. Well, somewhere around February or March of this year, I head out to my car one morning and notice that the front passenger tire, the new one, was a little low. I suspected maybe it was the record cold weather, but none of the other tires were low. I stopped at a gas station on the way home that night and pumped it up and thought nothing else of it until about a week later, I noticed it was low again. I pumped it up that afternoon, and about a week later, it was low again. There is a Car-X about a mile and a half from my new job, so I took it there, and they said they were unable to find anything wrong with it and suggested I take it back to the Car-X that sold me the tire, which is so much easier said than done. They pumped it up for me and I stopped by Target and bought a $15 cigarette lighter-powered air pump, which I used about once a week for the next month or so to pump up the tire, it was more convenient than stopping at the gas station every time and having to scrape up quarters for the air pump. After a few weeks of this, I finally had a meeting at our downtown office one afternoon. It wrapped up arond 4, so I snuck out and drove back to the Car-X by my old agency. They took a look at it, and found a nail that had somehow embedded itself on the inside of the tire and was in pretty deep, and could have been easy to miss the first time around. They removed it, patched it, pumped up the tire, didn't charge me, and I went on my way, happy that I had gotten this taken care of. Well, about 5 days later, the tire was low again. I pumped it up every 5-6 days for another few weeks and then was lucky enough to be back at the downtown office for another meeting (in case you're wondering why I didn't take it in earlier, this particular Car-X, again, located in Lincoln Park near Ashland and Fullerton is only open Monday through Friday from 7 am to 6:30 pm and Saturdays from 7 am to 3:30 pm, not particularly helpful when I work in Park Ridge and see clients most of the day on Saturday). Afterwards I went back, they took another look and said they couldn't find anything. They pumped it up, still didn't charge me, and I went on my way. Three weeks later, I had pumped it up another 3 times and was downtown again. Once again, I stopped by Car-X, they again said they couldn't find anything, but replaced the valve stint, didn't charge me but looked at my like they were considering calling the guys in white coats, and I was on my way. That was early August, and now, by the end of September I'm down to pumping it up every 3-4 days. Since I'm going to Europe for 10 days in mid-October, I decided that I don't want it to completely lose air the first few days I'm gone and then rest on the rim for another week before I get back, and it would be worth it just to get a new tire. I want the same Car-X to do it so I can bitch at them and hopefully at least get a discount if not a free tire, which I think is why they're claiming they can never find anything, they want me to go somewhere else to get it done. So, yesterday, I had a morning meeting downtown, and I told my boss that I was going to get this taken care of afterwards and then head back to Park Ridge. The meeting ended around 11 and off I went, it's only about a 15 minute drive from our office at Jackson & Halsted to the Car-X in non-rush hour. I got there and there were no empty parking spots in their lot, which was not a good sign. I parked in the middle, crossed my fingers that all the cars had been worked on the day before and were just waiting to be picked up while at the same time noticing that all the service bays were occupied, and went in. I told the guy (a different guy than the one who was there the previous 3 times) that I wanted a new tire, an oil change, and need a new O2 sensor (that was another drama with my car earlier this summer). He said he'd need the car for the rest of the day. That was impossible since I had to get back to Park Ridge, which would take until about 7:00 pm on public transportation. I said I couldn't do that and he said I could drop the car off in the morning. Yes, that will make all the difference because overnight there will be a miracle breakthrough in Star Trek-style transport technology and I can instantaneously get to Park Ridge from Lincoln Park instead of spending 5-6 hours each way on Public Transportation. I said I'd think about it and left. It could be do-able, but my companion had just flown to New York for 2 days, so I couldn't even have him follow me there the next morning, drop it off, and then take his car to work, and then drive both of us back the next morning to pick it up. The tire was really low, because I wanted them to see it, so I opened the trunk there in the middle of their parking lot, pulled out the air pump and pumped it up right there, then climbed in and sped off in a huff. I realized a little later though that I'm going to be back downtown all day next Wednesday, so I actually can stop there on my way to drop it off, take the bus, which should only take about another 45 minutes from there, and then take the bus back at the end of the day, which should get me there minutes before 6:30 and pick it up, so then I was a little happier. Still, I had wanted to finally get it taken care of yesterday, in the next week, at the rate it's now losing air, I'll probably have to pump the tire up 2 more times. Now, how does emusic play into this you ask?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, after I got High Spirits, I started on The Boys From Syracuse (the 1997 Encores Cast). My downloads refreshed on the 19th, and I hooked up my computer to get the rest of them. Now, the way I go about this is already somewhat complicated. We don't have broadband at home, for a variety of reasons, but mostly we're waiting for the association to finally follow through on a proposal they brought up about a year ago to wire the entire building for it and build it into the monthly assessment. We don't want to get locked into a contract with someone else then end up paying a second time in the form of the monthly assessment. However, I can use my kick-ass cell phone (T-Mobile's MDA) as a modem, which isn't as fast as broadband, but is much faster than dial-up, so it's a good compromise. I'm on the unlimited data plan, so I can download as many songs as I want. The only catch is that it only works with XP. My desktop computer is still Windows 98SE (a far superior operating system if you ask me, which Microsoft certainly did not). My laptop has XP though, so I have the cell phone set up to work as a modem on that one. The only problem is the Gateway laptop is a piece of crap, but I'm still paying it off, so I don't want to get another one yet. I'm not sure if it's so awful because Gateway makes shit computers or because XP is pure crap, or some combination of the two. Either way, at this point I really only use it for browsing the internet, I do everything else, including copying CD's on my desktop, and only use the laptop as I may have mentioned in an earlier post as a second try when scratched CD's from the library don't copy perfectly on the desktop. Part of the problem with the laptop now is that the battery is pretty much dead, so I can only use it plugged in and it takes longer to start up. Still, it saves time downloading from emusic. When I first installed emusic, it was a very quick download, less than 1 GB, and installed quickly. So, last Wednesday, I just wanted to download the last 5 songs I needed to complete TBFS. I logged in, selected track 16 to download, and got a message stating that the downloader software had been updated and I needed to download and install the update before I could download my song. I was so not in the mood, I just wanted to get my 5 songs, put the computer away, and call it a day. So, I clicked on "Download Now," and the download started. It was just over 3 GB so it took about 20 minutes to download it and another 5 or so to get it fully installed. I hate it. The old one was better. This one now fully runs the emusic site as a virtual machine, similar to iTunes or Rhapsody, which slows it down already just searching for music. You can then toggle between the store and the download manager. However, the look of the manager is now different and less useful. The old one would keep a running count of how much of the file had downloaded as well as the progress bar (ie, x out of xxx bytes downloaded) so you could see the progress. The new one lists not only the track name, but the album, artist, track number, which is redundant information because you can just toggle back to the store and see it, and in order to make room for all this, ditched the running count of the downloaded bytes and only has the progress bar. So, about half an hour after I first clicked on track 16, it finally started downloading. I downloaded the rest of the tracks, copied the full album onto my flash drive, and took it over to my desktop where I converted all of them from large VBR files to 96 kbps CBR files (I know there's supposed to be a degredation of quality the lower you go, but on an mp3 player with earbud headphones or an FM transmitter to a car stereo, there's little difference between 96 and 128 or even 160 kbps, so I can get more files on the hard drive with almost no noticeable difference, at least to my ears) and put them on my mp3 player. Now, I know I had said my next acquisition was going to be Anna Karenina. However, on Monday, amazon.com opened an online music store (amazonmp3.com) which, like emusic, sells DRM free mp3 files. I took a look, and while they don't have Grey Gardens or Seesaw (although a library by my parents' has Grey Gardens so some weekend when I go out there I'll take the laptop, stop by the library, grab the CD, set up shop in a corner somewhere by an outlet, and make the copy, hopefully before a librarian walks by, and Seesaw may just have to end up on my Christmas list, although one of the unavailable songs has now been added on emusic so maybe the other 2 will follow sometime soon), they did have the 1995 Pal Joey with Patti and Bebe, and they had all the tracks, including the one that emusic for some reason doesn't have. So, I figured I would buy that one track, and then download the other 18 from emusic, and then next week use my last 7 tracks to start Anna K., and then the downloads will refresh Octobe 19, which is the day I leave for Europe, so in the morning I can download the rest of Anna K. and maybe Ben Franklin in Paris, and listen to those on the plane (we leave around 4:30 so I should have time if I start around 8 or so in the morning). I had no problem getting the track from Amazon and it played fine (I was so worried it would end up like most of buymusic.com's tracks, either turning out to be the wrong track when you opened the file or only contain half the song). Then I opened up the new emusic software, pulled up Pal Joey, and made the mistake of clicking on "Download All" instead of doing them individually. The old emusic downloader limited itself to downloading tracks 1 at a time. Now, when you download two tracks at a time, you'd think that it would take twice as long to get them both. For example, it takes on average, about 5 minutes to get a song when you download it alone. You would think if you downloaded 2 songs at a time, they would both split the bandwidth and take 10 minutes to both download, which is the same amount of time it would take if you downloaded them individually one after the other. Logically, you would think that if you downloaded three at a time, it would take 15 minutes to get all three. This is not how it works. The increase in time is geometric. While it takes about 5 minutes to get one song, if you downloaded 2 at a time, it takes about 15-20 minutes to get them both, if you download 3 it takes about 45 minutes. It's always better to just download them one at a time, which the old downloaded seemed to understand. Well, as soon as I clicked "Download All," the new downloader queued them all up, and immediately started on 4 of them. I could not figure out how to limit the downloads to one at a time like you can with buymusic.com (one of the few good things I can say about them), and it took almost 4 hours to get the 18 tracks, it was just after 11:00 pm when it finally concluded. I transfered them, along with the one from amazon, onto my flash drive, turned off and put away the laptop, and took the drive to the desktop. Even though it was late, I wanted to get them onto a CD to listen to in the car this morning, along with a couple CD's I got from the library the day before and needed to listen to to make sure they copied ok. I started the conversion process, and when it got the 5th track, I got a message stating that "MMJB has committed an illegal act and needs to close." I let it close and figured that maybe the track had pasted onto a bad section of drive. So, I copied it off of the flash drive into another folder on the hard drive and tried again converting the file from there, and again, it encountered an error and shut down. I opened the folder and clicked on file 5, and the info that pops up on the left side of the folder said the file size was 0 KB. I clicked on all the files and discovered that file 6 was also 0 KB although all the others looked ok. So, being the anal neurotic I am, I knew I wouldn't sleep if I left it there even though it was now about 11:30. I had to pull the laptop back out, plug it in, start it up, plugged in the cell phone, and the cell phone for some reason did not register. It kept giving me an error, so I did a soft reset of the phone, wasting more time, and then it still wouldn't start, so I rebooted the computer. This time it recognized the phone when I plugged it in and connected again to emusic (another annoying thing with the new downloader/store combo is that it takes about 3-4 minutes from when you first click on it for it to open up, connect to the store, and display the home page, more time wasted). I cleared the completed files, deleted tracks 5 and 6 out of their folder on the hard drive, and clicked on Download Now just for track 5. Buymusic sometimes has a similar error where if too many songs start downloading at once, it will just drop one but claim that it successfully finished, and then, unlike emusic where you can re-download songs as many times as you want, you have to email customer service and wait for them to reset your license, and I hoped that that was all that happened here. It seemed so as track 5 started downloading, but after about 30 seconds, my cell phone dropped the connection. I had to reconnect, wasting more time, and then resume the download. It was also a large file (about a 4 and a half minute song) so it took forever. However, I tested it and this time it gave me a file size and played when I opened it with winamp. I got track 6, taking another 5 minutes or so, it was a shorter song, put them on my flash drive, and pasted them over the empty files on the hard drive on my desktop. They all converted successfully, so I threw in a blank disc, started the burn process, put the laptop away again, then packed the finished disc in my briefcase, shut down the desktop, and went to bed, at about 12:30 am. It took over 5 hours to get one CD's worth of music, fucking ridiculous. I'm just going to have to remember, if I can't find away to limit simultaneous downloads, to just not click "Download All" and just download them individually. I want the old downloader back. So, given it's position on the disc, I should start hearing it during my afternoon commute home tomorrow (I heard ALW's Requiem this morning and started on Haydn's The Seasons, which I just heard Music of the Baroque play last week. I then have The Wizard of Oz movie soundtrack, you'd think I would have gotten that when I was like 8 but better late than never, and then it will get to Pal Joey). Next week I'll get the first 7 tracks of Anna Karenina and then on October 19th I can get the rest and then take a long relaxing vacation out of the country to get over the stress of it all. I swear, it's time for a rest cure, especially after only getting 5 hours of sleep last night. At least I know Patti and Bebe will have been worth it.

A Wonderful Woman

I started this past weekend a little pissed off. I got an email update from Live Nation with the subject line Annie Lennox. I was so ecstatic that the last true diva I have yet to see before I die is finally coming back to Chicago (I tried unsuccessfully to get tickets to her 2002 solo show at the Schubert which sold out in about 30 seconds and opted to skip her subsequent shared headlining tour with Sting because I didn't want to die of boredom before she came on), but when I opened the email, I discovered that her show is on October 19, the day I'm leaving for Europe. I'll be somewhere over Greenland when she takes the stage. As if that wasn't bad enough, Kelly Clarkson will be at the Chicago Theatre the day after I get back, on November 1, and there is no way I will be awake at 8:00 pm. I'll be lucky to make it through work and not fall asleep behind the wheel on the way home. But, I was still looking forward to Lynda. My friend picked us up and we drove down there, and things looked up as we got a parking spot right in front of the Apollo, saving $9.25 right off the bat (the meter only ran us $.75 for the night as opposed to $10 parking in the Apollo's lot). I had received an email from Playbill earlier in the week with an ad from a nearby bar/restaurant called The Grammercy, and after perusing its website, we had decided to give it a try since it was just down the street. Well, we got there, and found the door locked with some guy washing the windows from the inside, a construction permit still taped to the window, and nothing going on inside at about 6:30 at night. So, we turned around and hiked it up to Maza, which is normally a really good restaurant, and while the food was good and my friend really liked it (this was his first time there while my companion and I have been there a few times), the service was awful. They were nice, but phenomenally slow. It took us almost half an hour just to order our entrees (the owner and apparently sole waiter kept dashing off as we would order drinks and appetizers) and then almost another 20 minutes before they arrived, and then he did get a little shitty when we couldn't stay for desert. We got out of there with 10 minutes to get to the theatre and just made it. Fortunately, it was all fantastic from there on out. We got our drinks and took our seats at our cabaret table. It was a nice setup, there were about 6 tables lined up in front of the stage and then a seating area that stretched around the three walls. The main section was pretty full, as were the tables, but the side sections were a little sparse, which was too bad, but their loss. There was one other guy sitting at our table, I guess to fill it, and he was with a group two tables down that were complete wackos, although I think they may have been with Lynda's management or the Apollo's PR company or something because they were so inordinately obssessed with her, much more than would seem normal for the occasion. This insane woman was talking with the guy at our table and said she had rented a limo for the event and he was welcome to ride back home with them afterwards (and sure enough, their limo was double parked next to my friend's car when we got out, but there was no one in front of him so he was able to pull up and get out). Finally she went back to her table, and he tried talking to us, but we weren't having it, and then this big queen at the next table who carried in bouquets of flowers tried chatting me up, but that wasn't happening either, I'm not really looking to make new friends (unless your name happens to be Cheyenne, Max, Lance, Jonathan, Chad, or Josh and then I'll make real nice). Anyways, Lynda came in through the back, walking right past our table and up onto the stage, and stayed no more than 10 feet away all night. It was about an hour and a half and went by way too fast. She really is a great singer and did a whole range of stuff, the highlight being a phenomenal rendition of "Fever." She had a great band (including a really hot drummer), and while she did some standards and torch-ish songs, they really stayed away from a full-on jazz feel. She started a little more light hearted and somewhat self-aware/camp, and openly acknowledged that she owes her career to Wonder Woman (unlike Rita Moreno's cabaret gig at Ravinia where she not once mentioned West Side Story). She was very gracious and had a terrific stage presence. As the show went on, she moved into more serious fare, turning it into full-blown cabaret, expertly moving from giving the audience what it came for to giving us what she really wanted to do, and making us love it. It was a fantastic evening, and to cap it, she looks phenomenal at 56. She said this was an audition for herself to see if she could make a go of her cabaret act, with her next stop being Feinstein's in New York, and based on this, she should be a huge success. She did play Matron Mama Morton in the London production of Chicago (and shame on B&N's editorial staff dissing her contribution to the 10th anniversary Chicago CD), and I would love to see her do something on Broadway. I'm sure with the right vehicle she could be a huge draw. It really is too bad that Grey Gardens closed, she could easily have replaced Christine when she goes to London, and she also would have made a great Mrs. Lovett were Sweeney Todd still around. Given the current shows on Broadway, I'm thinking possibly Fantine, more likely Madame Giry even though that part doesn't really have any solos or featured vocals, but that could make it a great introductory role for her, or, ideally, Donna Sheridan. She had mentioned something about CD's when she was briefly talking about what she's been able to do post-Wonder Woman, but a search on Amazon, B&N, and half.com only pulls up the aforementioned Chicago 10th Anniversary package. I'll have to do some more digging, anything by her would be worth having.

Now They Were There

So I went ahead and set my Tivo for The View yesterday morning and fired it up when I got home. Sure enough, this time the pre-show coming attractions clearly stated "The cast of Xanadu performs." I watched about 2 minutes of the opening chatter and then fast forwarded through the rest of it. Definitely boring, and the second new black woman (the one who isn't famous) added nothing. Then the first interview was David Hyde Pierce, so I watched that and it was definitely worth seeing. He's such a class act and he said that Curtains is hitting its 200th performance this week, which is pretty good for a Kander & Ebb first run. Then I fast forwarded through some exercise tips and finally got to the good stuff. Now apparently, whoever created the comming attractions clip thinks that Xanadu is a 2-person show since the only performers were Cheyenne and Kerry and the rest of the cast was nowhere to be found, and then the tech person didn't turn on Kerry's mic until her third line, but once that got straightened out, it was a kick-ass performance. They did "Suddenly" and it was just as good as seeing it the first time, plus we got closeups of Cheyenne's biceps. The audience definitely seemed to enjoy it, although the special effect of Cheyenne coming out of the phone booth with skates on was a little cheesier, instead of him changing while inside the booth, the camera cut to a different angle so we only saw them from the waist up, and then when it cut back to a full screen shot, he had the skates on. Still, it was the next best thing to being there. Unfortunately, they only had time for the performance and didn't do an interview or anything, and the show ended as soon as the song was done. Hopefully come Tony time they'll have everyone back for more.

Second Chances

Ok, I can't believe I'm defending her after she let me down twice, but what is the media's deal with Britney? Out of the four Hollywood trainwrecks currently dominating the headlines (Paris, Nicole, Lindsay, and Brit), despite far more important events going on daily in Washington, Iraq, and elsewhere, she is the only one that has not, as far as we know, driven under the influence. So she gave a bad performance and looks normal after having 2 children only a year apart, at least she's never put any innocent bystander's life in danger, multiple times, and gotten off lightly by our 2-tiered justice system. Give it a rest people.

Also, it was just announced today that Cheyenne Jackson and Kerry Butler are getting a second shot on The View tomorrow (nothing like a timely announcement). We'll see if it actually happens or not, I'm not very hopeful but I'll set the Tivo anyways.

The Fall Season

After a calm few weeks, the fall season is suddenly upon us with a vengeance. Kicking it off this week, of course, is the fabulous Lynda Carter. She starts a 5 night stand at the Apollo on Wednesday (I'll be there Saturday). How appropriate that last night's Will & Grace on WGN was the final season's Christmas episode in which Will claims to know that his nephew is gay not because he was Wonder Woman for Halloween but because he was Lynda Carter. Anyways, look for my review a week from now.

Also getting the season off to a start is the Marriott's production of The Producers, the first regional production after its close on Broadway earlier this year. Now you know I'm not a fan of the show, I thought the movie (the original Gene Wilder movie that the musical is based on, not the 2005 movie of the musical) was more stupid than funny and I'm really over the transformation of movies into Broadway shows, at least when they're done cynically like Producers, The Wedding Singer, Legally Blonde, ad nauseum, to make a quick buck. However, my companion wants to see it, so see it I will and of course you'll be the first to know my thoughts.

Starting later this month is a regional (I'm assuming it's the first since it's still playing in New York and touring) production of Altar Boyz at the Drury Lane Water Tower. No final announcement yet on casting, although its starting on the 28th (with an official opening on Oct. 3), so I'm not expecting any top names, but it's a great show and should be a good space for it. I should also be seeing that one sooner rather than later since my sister in law wants to go, although she did bail on DRS on us leaving us with an $80 empty seat, but hopefully we can get a good group together for a fun Sunday afternoon before the weather gets too nasty.

Also off to a quick, if too brief, start is Porchlight with their 6 week production of Maury Yeston's Phantom (Yeston apparently being the theme of the season as spring's production will be Nine, just in time for the movie). It could benefit by beating ALW's Phantom to the punch and drawing in audiences willing to experience something different, or it could bomb because its preceding ALW's Phantom and audiences will want to wait for the more well known show. However, Maury's Phantom does have a strong history in Chicago having run for years at the now-closed Candelight Dinner Theatre, and sophisticated audiences should know and be able to appreciate the difference. I know I do.

My most anticipated fall offering is American Theatre Company's upcoming production of I do, I do, which they are billing as a "World Premiere" because they got permission from Jones & Schmidt to reset it in Chicago and update the storyline. That's a bit of a cheat if you ask me, but it's a rarely done show with a great pedigree and I'm thrilled to have the chance to see it done by a quality company.

As I mentioned a couple months ago, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre is doing Passion starring Ana Gasteyer as Fosca. At the time I had said I'd be first in line, but with everything else going on this fall (besides these shows, the opera season is starting and I've got my trip to Europe and Billy Elliot coming up which not only knocks out the 2 weeks I'm gone, but I can't stay awake past 6:00 pm for about 3 weeks after getting back, which makes it impossible to go to an evening show. Too bad no one does shows at 3 in the morning when I'm awake and vowing never to go on an extended trip 8 time zones ahead ever again). However, other than Altar Boyz, it's the one show that I've seen before (Ravinia's terrific staging with Patti and Audra in 2003), so unfortunately, as much as I would love to support it and hope for further revivals of obscure shows, it may be the one I end up dropping.

Lastly, the House Theatre is reviving The Sparrow, which I had wanted to see earlier this year and didn't get around to, so hopefully I'll be doing that one for sure this time. They're doing it at the Apollo, which seems to be doing great business hosting extended runs of hit shows that would otherwise have to close, and it's running at least through the end of the year, so after I see some of these in the next couple of months, go to Europe, get my internal clock readjusted, I can go see it in December and be a little more relaxed about it.

Of course, the other big event to close out the year is the release of Sweeney Todd. Supposedly the advance word from the studio is good, but I'm still worried it's going to turn out more like The Nightmare of the Meat Pies and less like John Carpenter's (the director I would have liked to see helm it) Halloween, the movie Sondheim/Prince was most obviously influenced by when first creating it in 1978. The casting of Borat as Pirelli does not reassure me that Tim Burton is going to cut down his traditional cartoonishness and ramp up the sincerity. We'll just have to see.

Besides shows, the fall season is offering some good CD's. Of course there will be the Sweeney soundtrack, but before that the Grease CD is going to be released on October 2. Of course I'm not thrilled about the score itself, but it'll be great to have Max and Laura on record. The Xanadu cast recording will hopefully be released before the end of the year, although there's no official word. It will be interesting to see which leading man, Cheyenne or James, gets to record it. It should also make for an interesting Tony race next spring. Betty Buckley is finally seeing her long-delayed debut album from 1962 get released in October with a new album in February. Lastly, while I was browsing emusic, using up my download credits, I discovered that at long last, a recording of the 1992 musical Anna Karenina has finally been released. The show itself got overshadowed by Kiss of the Spider Woman and Tommy, and after bombing out at the Tony's (along with Blood Brothers), it quickly disappeared with only double digit performances. However, while the other three Best Musical nominees (even Blood Brothers) got cast albums, and KOTSW even got two, the producers of Anna K decided to cut their losses and closed the show before the cast got to the recording studio. So, this CD is not technically a cast recording, and not even a years-delayed cast reunion like Nick & Nora or Grand Hotel in which all the major players finally get to the studio years after the show closed to give us as close a true reproduction of the show as possible, but rather is an all-star recording of a slightly revised score, presumably in an attempt to entice regional producers or to lay the groundwork for an eventual Broadway revival. Still, if Anna Karenina can finally be heard by the masses, there's hope for Carrie yet. I used up my monthly downloads on The Boys From Syracuse, but they refresh a week from Thursday and you can bet I'll be firing up the computer as soon as I get home and getting this one, then starting on Ben Franklin in Paris with whatever I have left over.

Movie Misery

I watched a lot of movies over this long weekend, and ended up seeing one of the worst things I have ever seen: The Ten Commandments, The Musical. It was a filmed performance of the Los Angeles musical starring Val Kilmer and was really shocking in just how awful it was. I have nothing against the basic concept, I love Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar, but the execution left a lot to be desired. To start with, the music sounded like it was written by Kenny G. It was very dull, droning, repetitive, and had very few distinct songs. It was sung through, a la Les Miz (and, like Les Miz, it has its origins in France), but it came across more like The Woman In White, with one long string of recitative and a couple of blah songs thrown in. Then there were the liberties taken with the story, which, to be fair, had to be done to give the story a dramatic thrust, but they didn't succeed. The narrative was way too choppy and episodic with no through story. We barely got to know any of the characters, it was more like a moving diorama than a real story, which brings us to the AWFUL special effects. The plagues took up maybe 2 minutes of the running time and were portrayed as a CGI movie on a large screen backdrop. Totally laughable. Lastly, while Val Kilmer was hardly the worst singer (although was there really a casting session where the producers sat around and said "You know who'd make a kick-ass Moses? Val Kilmer! Is he available?"), it seemed that when auditioning the chorus they specifically chose people who could not sing, and that just did not help the lousy music at all. I knew the show had gotten awful reviews, but I had been hoping it would have been awful in a spectacular, fabulous, highly entertaining way, but instead it was just awful in a very blah, I want those 2 hours of my life back, kind of way.

Last weekend I finally got around to watching The History Boys, and I don't know if my expectations were too high, but I was not very impressed. Granted, in the special feature making-of documentary, Nicholas Hytner said they cut about an hour of material out of the show, but it still felt too long and, like The Ten Commandments, really did not have much focus. At the end it became apparent that the gay kid was the main character, but it took the entire movie to figure that out, and since no one really had that much of a story, it was hard to care about any of them. I thought the camera work was awful, way too static, and while the material was probably electrifying on stage, it had nothing new to say and the limitations of film really brought that to light. It was nothing more than a reverse Dead Poets Society (the current teachers are the good ones and the new one is the bad one), and without the corporal punishment scene to boot. I was very disappointed. There are ways to successfully turn plays into movies and make theme seem totally new, like Proof, Love Valour Compassion, and most significantly, Amadeus, but this one came from the Marat/Sade and Death and the Maiden static, stage-bound school of cinematic adaptation.

Lastly, speaking of movies, I was thrilled that Entertainment Weekly gave Balls of Fury an F (although I'm not so thrilled with their assessment of Xanadu, but more on that in another post). Dan Fogler did not win a fucking Tony award so that he could make movies like that. It's an outrage that Hollywood can't find anything better for theatre stars than crap like that. I can see why Chita decided to stay away (although after the movie adaptation of Sweet Charity, it may not have been solely her decision) and focus on live theatre for her career. Let's hope John Gallagher Jr., Michael Cerveris, and Beth Leavel, all recent wonderful featured performer Tony winners either get better treatment or opt to stay true to their art.