Halfway Over

Gutten Tag!  I just got back to Prague from Berlin and so far this has been quite the whirlwind trip.  First, we got out just fine last Friday and arrived in Dublin shortly after 5:00 am.  However, I've heard a lot of good things about Aer Lingus, and my experience with them was very disappointing.  First of all, alcohol is always free on international flights.  Any airline, any section of the cabin, it's always free.  However, apparently not on Aer Lingus.  Granted, I can understand not wanting to provide unlimited alcohol on a plane to Ireland, but still.  To make it worse, after pushing the drink cart through, they then got on the intercom and made a big deal about the Duty Free shopping cart that they were continuously pushing up and down the aisle and telling us all about things we could buy.  I felt like I was back in my car at any intersection in Chicago where I'm constantly subject to homeless people, newspaper vendors, or various charities knocking on my window and trying to get my money.  Jesus Christ people, do I look like an ATM?  The in flight movie was "License To Wed" so I turned on my mp3 player and had a little Sondheim festival in my seat.  Unlike Air France, they only had one screen in the front of the plane and showed one movie, there was no choice.  After we landed, we took our time going through customs and getting money (the bags were checked in all the way to Prague so we didn't have to worry about retrieving them) so that we wouldn't be milling around the city center for too long in the dead of night.  We got a teriffic cab driver who was very friendly and told us where we could go around the office where we needed to pick up the tour bus tickets.  She dropped us off at a nearby hotel and pointed out the bus stop.  The hotel's coffeehouse wasn't open yet, so we walked around a bit, which was nice to see the city so early (it reminded me a lot of certain scenes from Once), but it was also kind of scary, there were a lot of drunk people heading home.  I wanted to take some pictures of the bridges lit up, but I didn't want to pull out the camera at 5:30 am and be like "naive tourist here, just waiting to be ripped off" so I didn't.  We walked around A LOT, by Trinity college, the town hall and Dublin Castle, and then walked past the Westin hotel which was just opening its restaurant.  We had breakfast and sat for a while (they were very friendly and very patient, and can I just say, the Irish are really a very attractive people, at least while they're young).  Then we hit a couple of souvenier shops and then picked up our bus tickets.  This was an hour and a half, hop on/hop off tour that went around the city center then out to the Guiness factory and Kilhearn (sp?) jail and then back to the center.  It was very cold, we initially sat on top, but after 5 minutes went down into the bus.  We did one complete tour then went again and got off at the Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral.  We got on again and were starting to nod off already, so we finished the track and started again and went to Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells and then hopped in a cab back to the airport.  Again, we got out no problem, but this plane was even worse.  It looked about 20 years old, no movie or anything, and this time they even charged for pop.  I fell asleep before we even took off and slept most of the way to Prague, so it didn't bother me.  We landed, got through immigration, met our friend, and went to his place to drop our stuff off.  We went out for a quick dinner then returned and crashed for about 12 hours.  Sunday we walked around, hitting some of our favorite sites (the Infant Baby Jesus was wearing his green outfit that day), and then we had an opera that night.  It was called either A Well-Paid Walk or A Walk Worthwhile, depending on who's translating.  It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen.  It was written by an avant-garde theatre team during the 60's and had been fairly successful at the time.  It was apparently made into a television movie directed by Milos Forman, although I can't find it anywhere, and he directed this production.  It was much more musical theatre than opera, and was a very crazy Czech style, but it was good and Forman came out at the end and said some words since it was the premiere.  We then went to Restaurant Rekjavich for a fantastic dinner and then went to bed.  Monday we walked around again, doing some shopping, and then did a Haunted Prague tour that night, which was fun, although extremely cold.  That seems to be the theme of this trip, cold weather, along with unruly children.  Tuesday we hopped on the train and made it to Berlin.  We stayed at Hotel Alsterhof which was very nice.  We checked in, put our stuff in the room, then had the concierge get us tickets for Tanz der Vampire and then walked around.  We got tickets for another hop on/hop off bus tour for Wednesday, walked around a bit, then went back to the hotel to change.  We had a great traditional German dinner at Reiser-2 restaurant and then went to Theatre des Westens for the most crazy spectacular show I have ever seen.  I did pick up a CD on the way in, figuring even if it sucked it would suck in a good way.  We were in the 5th row, center, which was phenomenal, and the show was insane, but in a very good way.  I can see why it didn't succeed on Broadway, the whole Euro-Spectacle thing was very over by then and apparently the producers made several changes to the book to try to make it more friendly for American audiences, but it had the opposite effect.  However, what made it a classic was not just that it somehow used a German version of Total Eclipse of the Heart to open the second act (which I'm sure they weren't able to use in the States), but that later in the act, they used a German version of the Taylor Dayne song "Original Sin" which was written by Meatloaf for the 1994 movie The Shadow.  How obscure can you get?   It was awesome.  It was kind of long, but really kept our attention.  After the show we went back and went to sleep, and then Wednesday we slept in longer than we wanted, but eventually got up and caught the bus.  We went around the west and south city center area and then got off for the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which was fascinating.  We got back on and went through East Berlin, then got off at the Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate.  We did a little shopping and got a snack, and tried to go into the Reichstag, but the line was hours long, so we hopped on the bus and went to Charlottenburg.  We bought tickets for dinner and a traditional concert which was done in the palace, and we walked around a bit before dinner.  By that time it was really cold and my throat was starting to bother me.  I could tell I was getting a bad cold.  The dinner at the Kleine Orangerie was excellent and the wine helped push my sore throat back a little.  The concert was excellent, but afterwards, it was about a 2o minute walk to the nearest subway, and by the time we got there, my cold was in full swing.  We went back to the hotel where I popped a Benadryl, but I didn't sleep well, I could feel the sore throat in my sleep, and woke up with my entire face in pain because of pressure in my sinuses.  I took a Sudafed and eventually felt better and we walked around a bit, did some more shopping, and then went to the German History Museum.  Now, that is a Museum.   We pretty much spent the rest of the day there, which was nice to stay inside, and then we picked up the luggage and went to the Hauptbanhoff and got on the train to come back.  We got back not too long ago and I'm about to head to bed and see if I can sleep off some of this cold.  Overall, despite the weather and not feeling so hot today, it was a fantastic trip.  Berlin is a very modern city, probably because it was almost totally destroyed during the war and everything was just rebuilt.  Only a few buildings in the West were restored, unlike Vienna or Paris which completely restored their buildings, and nothing in the East was restored, they just rebuilt, so everything looks very modern and you can see that people actually live there, unlike Prague or Vienna where you have to wonder where the people live and what they do.  So, I know this is a cliche, but anyone who is anywhere near Berlin, you must run, do not walk, to Tanz der Vampire, it's so worth seeing.  Hopefully someone will catch this revival and get an idea to try it again in another 10 years or so on Broadway.  It's a terrific show and if they can do it right, it totally deserves a second chance. 

Still Losing My Mind

Oh my fucking lord, what a week it's been. First of all, I was so happy to have all my car problems taken care of on the 3rd. Well, on Monday, the 8th, I went out at lunch to run some errands and when I pulled back in at work, I thought I saw out of the corner or my eye exhaust or smoke or something coming up out of the hood on the passenger side. I took a direct look at it and didn't see anything. I figured it may have been a heat mirage since it was so hot, but I also noticed that the interior of the car smelled like exhaust, which I had attributed to a gigantic truck that really had no business being on local roads at all that I had followed most of the way back. I shut the car off and turned it back on, and didn't see anything. I shut it off, got out, looked at the trunk, didn't see anything, felt it, and it was cool. I went in and didn't think about it again. However, on the way home I again started smelling exhaust even though there wasn't a truck in front of me. I still chalked it up to a large SUV in front of me, which was more a reflection of my thoughts about them than the reality of the situation, and switched the air intake to recirculate instead of drawing it in from outside, and the smell went away. However, on the way home, and all day Tuesday, I kept thinking I was seeing smoke or something out of the corner of my eye, but every time I looked at it directly, there was nothing. Wednesday coming home it got much worse, so when I got home, I walked in front of it again, and this time there was a nasty brown fluid gushing out of the front grill, but only on the passenger side. So, my companion and I got up early the next morning and he followed me back to Car-X. When I pulled out of my spot, I noticed a huge puddle where I had been parked. I got to Car-X fine, there were no lights on or anything, although this is the kind of thing where you can drive for a week with no problem, then all of a sudden when you're in the middle lane of a three lane highway, the check engine light comes on and the car dies 5 seconds later, which is why I wanted it looked at right away. I told them the problem, gave them the keys, then my companion walked to the el station and I drove his car to work. I got a call around 2 and they said that they apparently had not tightened the seal on the oil pan, or wherever it is they put the oil. when they had changed the oil last Wednesday and that's what was leaking out. That would explain the smell and the smoke. They rechanged the oil again, tightened the seal, cleaned out the mess, and didn't charge me for it. I stopped by after work, but my companion was swamped and couldn't meet me, so I picked up the key and went home. I had to see clients at 8, but my companion picked me up after at 9 and drove me there and I drove the car home, no problem. I even stopped at Taco Bell. Well, Friday morning, I pulled out of my parking spot and noticed another puddle, which I attributed to excess oil working its way through the engine. I got about a mile and a half away and stopped at a red light. When the light changed, I pressed the accelerator, and the car kind of shuddered as it started going, like it was trying to get traction, which was strange because the road wasn't wet. I did a mental "huh" and kept going. I got to another red light, stopped, and started when it changed no problem. However, at the next light, which, thanks to the brilliance of Chicago's street designers, was only about 10 feet away and still managed to be red, the car again shuddered as I started. I figured I'd have it looked at during lunch at the Car-X by work. Well, I got about halfway down the block, and traffic came to a halt. I stopped, and the whole car started violently shaking. I shifted into Neutral and it was ok. Traffic started again, and it shook when I started but then was fine. However, traffic again stopped for no apparent reason a few feet later and again the car shook violently. So, I figured I would stop at the Car-X at Western and Foster and have it looked at. However, getting into the Car-X requires making a left turn off of Foster onto Western, and the light is a red light camera light. It was green when I got there and there was one car turning left that was already in the intersection. I pulled up behind it and it made the turn. The light was still green, so I pulled into the intersection, but had to wait for oncoming traffic. The light then turned yellow and I started to get a little nervous as oncoming traffic seemed not to care that it was about to cost them $95 (what a fucking scam/rip-off the city has going), and continued to fly through. I couldn't turn because they would have plowed right into me. The light turned red and I was still stuck in the middle of the intersection and couldn't turn because I could tell one more oncoming car was going to run it. I had to wait, and sure enough he ran it and the flash bulb popped, and then I was able to turn. So, if I get a fucking ticket for that, I am tracking down the driver of that car and someone is going to die. What was I supposed to do, start turning and just let him plow into me? It turns out, that actually probably would have been the preferable course of action because then I could have gotten a new car. I pulled in to Car-X and let them take a look at it. I called my boss and left him a voicemail explaining the situation (fortunately he never cares at all about things like this, although I did feel bad that I had gotten a late start and it was already 9:05, which meant that even had this not happened, I wouldn't have been at work until 9:45 or so). The guy then came back out and handed me a sheet of paper and stated that the fuel injectors all needed replacing. One was dead and the other three were pumping minimal fuel into the engine, which is probably why my fuel efficiency had suddenly seemed to shoot way up over the past couple of weeks, and it was a miracle I had been able to drive there without it dying on me somewhere. The bare minimum work necessary to make it driveable again was going to be almost $1000. Now, those of you loyal readers know that I am going on vacation to Europe on Friday. I don't have 1000 fucking dollars to spend on car repair, and even if I did, that's one quarter of the down payment I want to put down on a new car. I called my dad and asked if I should have it done or should we get someone to tow it to a junk yard, sell it for scrap, and go car shopping that afternoon. It was a little earlier than I wanted. I want to save up a little more to get that $4000 for a downpayment to come out of my mutual fund rather than pulling it out of savings, and I need to join the credit union at work to get the best priced loan, and I don't want to get a new car just before winter and have to drive it through salt, slush, and ice right away, and the beginning of the quarter is the worst time to buy a new car since there's no bargaining power. However, I now have no trust in this car whatsoever. He convinced me to have it done, for most of those reasons (I don't have the financing set up yet and it's the wrong time to buy), and said that as long as it's running, I should get $800-$1000 in trade in value for it, as opposed to $100 if I junked it, so I would at least get my money back that way. Since I hadn't really been counting on getting any trade in value for it, I was able to accept that, although I still now have no money for the trip. I'm going to be sitting in my friend's apartment for 10 days watching Czech TV and then go to London, sit in the hotel for 8 hours, then go see Billy Elliot, and then go back to the hotel until the flight home the next day. They said it would take 3-4 hours, so I figured that would be around 1:30. I called my boss, this time talking to him, and told him I was taking a sick day, because I was sick of my car and I would very quickly have a nervous breakdown if I had to do anything more mentally taxing than watch TV all day. He agreed and I hopped on the bus and went home (although hopped may not be the right word, it took 50 minutes to get back to Sheridan and Montrose from Western and Foster, fucking ridiculous and they want to cut service and raise their rates when they can't even responsibly manage the money they get now and provide crappy service as it is). 1:30 came and went with no call, so around 2 I gave them a call. They said it was taking a little longer, but wouldn't cost me anything extra, and said it would be ready between 2:30 and 3. Well, 3:00 came and went and no word. Finally, at 4:35 they finally called and said it was ready. Again, it took about 50 minutes to get there, and I paid and drove home with no noticeable problems. I parked and left it until yesterday morning. This time there was no puddle when I pulled out of my spot, but I still feel it shaking a little whenever I stop, which may just be a sign of a nervous breakdown on my part, I have no trust with the car now and am probably very paranoid about something else happening. So, now it's back to my original plan, I'm going to drive it through winter and get my money's worth and then go car shopping for my new Yaris in June. Then, my companion was not very supportive as I was complaining about the timing of this and started bitching about how he's not going to sit around on vacation (which is fine, I never said he had to, I just have to), so I was just done. I went into a mental haze for most of the weekend, but was glad to get some good news on Playbill's website yesterday when I got in to work.

Apparently, Megan Mullally is releasing a new CD. It's about time since her last one came out in 2002, and as fabulous as it is, it's not enough to justify this long of a wait (plus, we should be getting the Young Frankenstein cast recording in the next few months, making it two CD's of hers). Playbill said it was coming out soon, but when I checked Amazon, they only had it listed as an out of print CD with one copy available from an independent seller, and no release date. So, I'm a little confused about the details, but I'll be keeping an eye out. Then, today, the news got better. As I had hoped, the announcement that Cheyenne Jackson is now the official lead in Xanadu has lead to an announcement that the cast album is now forthcoming. It's been in limbo for a while, presumably while the producers were waiting to see what was going to happen with James, although had he returned to the show, I would have advocated a double CD, one CD with James and another CD with Cheyenne, with I think Equity would have frowned on that, they tend to ruin good ideas like that. The CD is coming out January 8, at which time I will be on a cruise ship (barring any more car expenses), so while that would normally mean I'd have to wait another week until I get home, the CD will actually be available through the show's website beginning in early December, which coincidentally is around my birthday (hint, hint. . .). So, I'll have it in time for Christmas, with memories of Cheyenne to keep me warm.

In addition, there was another announcement today that normally would have made me ecstatic, but instead falls into the category of "why that show?" Clay Aiken, the real winner of Idol's season 2, is going to make his Broadway debut in January. As I read the first part of the headline, I started jumping out of my seat, but then saw that the second part stated that it was going to be in fucking Spamalot. Again, why that show? I would see him in just about anything else, even Legally Blonde or Jersey Boys, and maybe, just maybe Colour Purple (are there any white guy parts in it?), but I just can't take fucking Spamalot. Hopefully this will at least open the door on a new career path for him so he doesn't have to keep borrowing Amy Grant's (seriously, enough with the Christmas concerts already!) and I can see him in something else sometime soon.

Also keeping me sane, something that was driving me nuts a couple weeks ago, I listened to the Pal Joey recording, and it is fantastic. I don't understand why it's not readily available in stores. Seriously, order this now before it disappears. Patti is superb, as is everyone else. Peter Gallagher finally makes up for The Idolmaker.

Lastly, how fabulous is Kristen Chenoweth in Pushing Daisies? While Ned the Baker is gorgeous, she's the spark to the show and makes it the must see series this year, which is good since there aren't many others.

Alright, with all that, it's off to Europe in 72 hours, and Billy Elliot 2 weeks from tonight! Let's hope my bad luck is over, if I miss it I'm going to be furious! However, I was doing some research on shows in Berlin (although we still have yet to make any reservations so who knows if that's even going to happen at this point), and while I knew Mamma Mia was there, I also discovered that Tanz der Vampire is there!!! Now, for those of you who haven't heard of it, Tanz der Vampire is the original Austrian production of the show that became Dance of the Vampires on Broadway, also known as the show that proved that Michael Crawford's 15 minutes ended somewhere around 1993. It opened and closed after 44 performances in 2001 with the biggest loss in Broadway history. I'm not sure what show it beat out for that honor, I know previous champs were The Happy Time, Darling of the Day, and Kelly (which had the honor to become the first show to lose over $1 million), but it was pretty significant. No Tony nominations and not even a cast album, although the Viennese cast album is available (although after my experience with the Rebecca CD, I'm just going to see if I can find it when I'm there rather than trying to order it). Hopefully I'll make it, keep your fingers crossed!

Well, this post may not be as timely as I had hoped when I first started composing it, but there has been a lot going on for your reading enjoyment.  To start with, Tuesday kicked off the fall CD release season with not one but two highly anticipated CD's (and by highly anticipated I mean that I rushed right out for them); Annie Lennox's Songs of Mass Destruction, and the Grease cast recording.  Even though I have some Borders certificates to use, I was hoping not to have to drive to the nearest Borders in Randhurst to get Grease.  So, Tuesday morning I went to Best Buy's website and of course they had Annie Lennox, but I was shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, when I did an inventory search for Grease and it showed that the Best Buy 5 minutes away from work actually had it in stock, although no other Best Buy's in northern Illinois apparently did (that last part not being shocking at all).  So at lunch I hopped into my car, with the sagging tire, and headed to Best Buy where I picked them both up.  I was expecting one, maybe two copies of Grease, but there actually about ten.  I don't know how they figured there would be that much demand for it, but I was very happy to see that.  Hopefully they will see that there is an audience for these CD's and not the weekly ghetto offerings cranked out by the major labels, and start stocking up more cast albums and Broadway vocalists.  I hurried back to work and popped them in the CD player.  As expected, Annie was fabulous.  It usually takes a few listens for her albums to really sink in, and I'm not quite there yet, but in a few more days I should be.  The first time I listened to Bare, the only song that stuck out was Pavement Cracks, but now I can't just listen to one song off the CD, if I start it, I have to listen to it all the way through, it works so well as a whole, and I know the same thing will happen here.  She's very much a fabulous acquired taste.  Then it was on to Grease.  I'm a little disappointed with the packaging.  The cover is the cheesiest cast album cover I have ever seen, period.  It's a mostly red background, transitioning to blue about 7/8 of the way down, has the Grease title logo at the bottom, and then a large picture of Max and Laura in the middle, in a pose reminiscent of  Howard Keel and what's her name at the end of Kiss Me Kate, the movie, where they're superimposed over the audience in the theatre.  Laura looks like Olivia N-J, but from the Xanadu poster, not Grease, and Max looks like he's well on his way to being stoned.  It's the oddest thing.  Opening the case up, there's a color photo on the back of the booklet with a scene from the show, but Max is kissing Laura, and from the angle the picture was taken, you really can't see either of their faces.  Opening up the booklet, all the rest of the pictures, including the inner cover pictures, are B&W, there are no other color pictures of Max except for one very small thumbnail on the back of the CD case.  The booklet contains the show and album credits, and the lyrics to all the songs, and that's it.  There's no plot synopsis (not that one is needed, but it's still a sign of quality), no essay or notes about the show itself, and not one word about the casting process.  It really comes across as being a half-assed effort (which is almost exactly what EW said about the show itself).  The CD itself is not too bad, considering the show.  The music isn't nearly as grating as the movie soundtrack and Max and Laura do very well, although I'm disappointed that Max only has one solo, the lead on one ensemble number, and co-lead on another ensemble number.  I guess a potential featured actor nomination is pretty accurate.

 

Now what do I mean by that last sentence you ask?  Well, I will tell you.  The Tony awards committee met for the first time this season on Tuesday and made two announcents.  One, for Xanadu, Tony Roberts will be considered for featured actor (a wise decision, with his name above the credits he normally would be up for lead even though his part is more supporting, the way Debra Monk was nominated for lead in Curtains, and he will have a better chance of winning in the featured category), and Cheyenne will be eligible for a leading actor nomination even though his name was not in the program on opening night due to his filling in at the last minute when James Carpinello was injured.  Then, they simply said that all other decisions are consistent with the opening night credits.  Well, looking at the Grease credits in the CD booklet, only the producer's names are above the title, Max and Laura's names are immediately below, and then everyone else's are below them.  That means barring any future petitions by the producers, they will be eligible for nomination in the featured categories even though their roles are essentially leads (the same thing happend to Chita Rivera with Bye Bye Birdie in I think 1956, although correct me if I'm wrong on that, since she was a newcomer, the producers but her name below the title and only Dick's above so she got nominated for featured performer and lost to someone who really did have a featured role).  So, Max and Cheyenne will not be competing against each other and we could potentially have two hotties taking home the awards, although my money right now would be on Tony over Max and Lin-Manuel Miranda from In The Heights for lead.  However, there's A LOT happening between now and then so stay tuned.  The fight has only just begun.  Then, the next day, the producers of Xanadu announced that James Carpinello will not return to the show and Cheyenne will take over permanently, although they will work around his filming schedule, which was what led him to decline the offer after he did the workshop and the casting of James in the first place.  They made a very vague statement that they hope to find "a place" for James on the tour.

 

Also on Wednesay, I FINALLY got my car taken care of at Car-X.  I was at our downtown office all day so I dropped it off on the way and took the bus, which worked out fine, and I got there in about 25 minutes.  However, it took just over an hour and a half to get back after work.  The CTA is so fucking ridiculous I can't believe they even have the gall to be asking for more money than they already get.  I took the Madison bus to Ashland, which was not a problem, but then waited forever for an Ashland bus.  After about 20 minutes and one bug bite later, an express bus showed up.  The sign at the bus stop said it made "limited stops" but did not indicate where and the sign on the front said it was going to the Sheridan Red Line station, so I figured it was a straight run and did not get on, figuring I'd wait for a local, which is what I had taken down that morning.  Well, another 20 minutes go by and another express bus pulls up, so I figure I'll at least give it a shot, and got on and asked the driver how close he got to Fullerton & Ashland which is the nearest intersection to the Car-X and he said that he did stop there.  However, he made every single stop between Madison and Fullerton, calling that bus an express was blatant false advertising.  If that really was an express, I am so glad I didn't get on a local, I'd still be on it now.  Then, about a mile away from Fullerton, this woman gets on pushing the largest stroller in baby history.  People on the side had to pull their legs up so she could push it past.  How fucking inconsiderate, and she had the nerve to act like she was frazzled and annoyed.  If you don't want to be annoyed, leave the kid at home or take a regular sized stroller onto the bus, especially if you're going to be on it at rush hour.  Finally, finally, we got to Fullerton and I got off and walked to Car-X and got my car.  The new tire is still full of air and the check engine light has stayed off.  Here's hoping nothing else needs to be done before June when I can trade it in and get my Yaris.

 

Lastly, can I just say, the Cubs fucking suck.  I'm walking a friend's dog while she's out of town, and they live at Roscoe and Southport.  So, mindful that the Cubs are starting their (hopefully last) playoff game at home at 5:00 pm, I went over right after my last appointment this afternoon, and got there around 2:30, thinking that I could still find a space, after all, I don't show up to the Lyric three hours before curtain so that I can sit at the bar and guzzle wine.  Boy was I wrong.  I spent more time circling around looking for a spot than I spent walking the dog.  I finally, just as I was about to give up and call her boyfriend to have him do it, found a spot on Racine just before Roscoe.  I pulled up, put my blinker on, and as soon as I shifted into reverse, this suburban white trash bitch all decked out in Cubs apparel, flies up and stops right behind me.  Where the hell did she think she was, New York?  No matter how bad I have ever had to deal with parking, Chicago drivers at least have an unspoken code, that as inconsiderate and awful as they may be while actually driving, if a person finds a spot, it's theirs, no harrasment or intimidation, everyone else just keeps looking.  Fortunately, the bitch got the message after about two minutes and backed up and pulled around and went on her way and I got the spot.  Had she been more polite, I would have let her know that I was only going to need it for 15 minutes and if she wanted to wait she could take it when I got back, but she made her bed.  I hope she's still circling.  I just don't understand this sports fan mentality that they have to get there half a day early and then sit around and get hammered to the point they aren't going to remember the game they spent a buttload of money on tickets for.  Hopefully tonight it will all end, at least for another year.

Amateur Night at Porchlight

On Saturday, my companion surprised me with tickets to Porchlight's production of Maury Yeston's Phantom, which I've been dying to see. I was shocked that he had actually been paying attention when I've talked about it, usually scheduling something with him is like pulling teeth and then once we finally settle on a date it's up to me to get the tickets. So, after a great dinner at Mama Desta's and desert at Bittersweet, it seemed like it was going to be a great night. Unfortunately, the production did not live up to the standard set by Ragtime, which is surprising since the principal production staff returned. Maybe it's unfair to judge everything from here on out by Ragtime's standard, but at the same time, it was such a leap forward for them that it can't help but cast a shadow over everything they do. While the story was fine on its own (although having read Gaston Leroux's novel, I can say that Yeston and Kopit made just as many changes to the story as ALW did, it isn't any more "authentic" despite what the critics would try to get you to believe. If you really want to see the actual story played out, the 1925 Lon Chaney silent film is the truest adaptation you can get), the acting was wildly uneven, the sets were mediocre to awful, and as much as I hate to criticize the orchestra when they usually perform a thankless job as it is, and I hate even more to criticize a fellow trumpet player, the score was heavy on the trumpet and trumpet player Kevin Tague played like he had just had extensive dental work done earlier in the day. Every time he would play, the people in front of me would start laughing, it was so awful. However, the rest of the orchestra did fine, and the synthethized honky-tonk piano added character by making it sound like the soundtrack to an old silent movie, effectively setting the tone for the rest of the prodution. However, I found Yeston's songs to be far less compelling than the scores of his other three major shows, which may explain why this one never made it to Broadway and found success on the dinner theatre circuit instead. They were nice, but hardly memorable (again, despite what the critics would have you believe. "La La La La La, Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba" is hardly in Music of the Night territory.) I will take Lloyd Webber's bombast and pomp over Yeston's timid and safe tunes any day. Then there was the set. After using the space so effectively in Amadeus, Sweeney Todd, and Ragtime, one would think they could have come up with something better than an open thrust with a revolving backdrop that looked like it was about to fall apart at any minute. Seriously, the back drop was a round drum that spun from the stage to the manager's office to the Phantom's lair, any other setting was achieved by drawing the curtains across the backdrop and setting up some tables or other visual cues. It was very noisy (audibly and visually) and distracting. The chandelier drop was probably the most anti-climactic thing ever in a theatre, although my companion was right next to as it swooped down the aisle and got a good jump out of it which he doesn't think I noticed! I wasn't expecting anything sumptuous, but after seeing how effectively they did Ragtime (and again, Amadeus and Sweeney) I was expecting better. If they couldn't do realistic, they should have gone for abstract and done a less-is-more approach. Lastly, there was the acting. Other than youngster Drew Mikuska, who played the Boy in Ragtime and did so well, and older Jim Sherman, who played Grandpa in Ragtime just as well, there wasn't a single regular in the cast. There were a few bit players from the Ragtime transfer, but no other regular Porchlight members, which in a cast of 16 made a noticeable difference. Hopefully they're resting up for Nine. Drew was good but wasn't given much to do, and Jim was fantastic, one of the two bright spots, the other being Lara Filip, who was an excellent Christine. She gave the character all the vulnerability and strength needed to make her believable, and has a fantastic voice that easily segued between the more pop style inner-musing type songs and the more operatic character performance songs. She was superb. The rest of the cast was blah, with the exception of Peter Oyloe as the Phantom, who wasn't totally awful, but bordered on it. To start with, he looks about 20 in his program photo, and not helping any is the fact that Kopit wrote the character with the over-emotionalness of a goth high school kid. However, in the book, every adaptation except for the movie of ALW's production, and we know what I think of that, the Phantom is much older, and according to the timeline presented by Jim Sherman's character, the Phantom should have been pushing 40. The overly dramatic lines he was given were cringe inducing, and while Oyloe is a decent singer (obviously why he was hired), he can't emote his way out of a paper bag (and I mean that literally, the mask looked like he had covered his face with masking tape and even though Christine did remove it, his back remained to us so we never got to see his face which is essential to forming an emotional connection with the character). The Phantom remained a cypher throughout the show, which didn't allow the audience to emotionally bond with him. Instead we attached ourselves to Christine and had to wonder why she didn't pursue Philippe (Raoul's name was changed and he was now a Champagne heir, sort of a male Paris Hilton) with a little more determination. Still, it wasn't awful. If I hadn't seen Ragtime and had my expectations set so high, I probably would have enjoyed it more, and I do still recommend it at least to contrast with ALW's take on the show. I just hope they put a little more effort into Nine next spring.