So Good It Should Be Tuesday

Well, it's been a very good news day. To start with, I got my Mandy Patinkin tickets first thing this morning. Then I clicked over to playbill.com and saw the good news that finally, the strike is over. I'm going to say it one final time, I admire the producers for sticking to their guns, but they should have hired whoever they needed to to keep the shows going, and I would have been more than happy to help out for free. I wish I could be in New York tomorrow, in celebration there's going to be a free daytime concert at the Marquis to celebrate the return of Broadway, featuring Bernadette Peters, Angela Lansbury, and Bob Martin, among others. It sounds like a fabulous afternoon and I'd give anything to be there. Lastly, Patti is heading back to Broadway. The City Center Encores production of Gypsy, which I was so fortunate to see back in July, is transferring to Broadway in March with Ms. LuPone reprising her role. FINALLY, that long overdue second Tony may become a reality. I'll be at Borders the day that cast recording hits the stores, it's going to be a classic.

Sweeney Wonka, or Willy Todd

Ok, first of all, let's get this out of the way; it's still dragging on and I'm really getting peeved with the producers for not firing all the striking stagehands and hiring people willing to work. Ok, on to more important topics.

So last night, I had one session with a client and then hurried home in the horrid cold and settled in to watch Reaper in which the onscreen homoerotic tension often warms me up. However, I found it to be very disappointing, first because it was the first episode, at least in my recollection, in which Bret Harrison has remained fully clothed throughout. Normally he spends an extended amount of screentime in only his boxers, or at the very least shirtless, and I was counting on that to help me warm up from the bone chilling cold already settling in, and I was left high and dry. Then, about three quarters of the way through, we got an exclusive extended sneak peak at Sweeney Todd. To start with the good, visually it is not as Burtonesque as I was afraid it could have been. Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Tim Burton in general, when he makes a good movie like Batman Returns or Edward Scissorhands, he makes masterpieces, but when he makes bad movies like Planet of the Apes or Willy Wonka, he makes horrid movies, and his signature visual style, in my opinion, doesn't fully go with the feel of Sweeney Todd. I imagine something sincerely dark with streaks of black humor, not cartoonish dark with a broad wink at the camera, which is what I was so afraid he was going to do. Fortunately, he seems to understand the material and has given it the visual look it deserves, although whether the entire movie will remain consistent with this sneak peak remains to be seen. Unfortunately, Johnny Depp's singing still didn't get any better, and I'm really not sure that he's the right actor for this part. I know, he's chummy with Burton, and those pesky pirate movies notwithstanding, he's an A-List talent (and should have won the Oscar for Finding Neverland), but I think musical theatre is not for him. Why isn't Michael Cerveris, George Hearn, or even Len Cariou playing the part? They could have had a terrific movie, instead by casting Depp, they seem to have settled for making a blockbuster, same as the producers of Hairspray did when they opted for John Travolta instead of Harvey Fierstein. They showed part of the Epiphany number, and again, he was doing it with a very thin voice almost speaking in sing-song rather than actually singing in the menacing snarl the number deserves. I understand that it's a hard number to film while keeping the narrative going, because it starts with Mrs. Lovett in the store, then Sweeney addresses the audience, and then it goes back to Mrs. Lovett and the story resumes. I'm interested to see how they're going to work a lot of that out, hopefully it will be better than the movie version of A Little Night Music, probably the only other Sondheim show besides Forum (which also had a horrid movie adaptation) and Into The Woods with as filmable a narrative as Sweeney, although Passion and Bounce may make good movies depending on who becomes involved should the decision ever be made to cinematize them. Follies, Company, Merrily, and Sunday would be much more difficult, although if Chicago could be done, I'm sure there's a way any of these could as well.

Speaking of Sunday in the Park, I got an email from the Chicago Theatre on Monday announcing a pre-sale for Mandy Patinkin, who will be appearing in concert on March 29. I'm just waiting to hear from my compainon if he wants to go or not and then I'm buying. At least Chicago is still a city for good musical theatre events.

Holiday Stretch

Well, it's still going on. The New York producers are still refusing to hire stagehands willing to work. I respect them for sticking to their guns against unreasonable demands, but at some point they need to get the shows running again. Hopefully, with the end of the month approaching and credit card bills and rents coming due, the stagehands will start to exert some pressure on their union leadership to end this already. Still, it would make a visit to New York so much more pleasant to go there right after Christmas and not having to deal with the crowds. Too bad though that the producers of Mauritius decided they had enough money and closed the show yesterday. I guess I'll be going with Make Me a Song or The Receptionist to fill the non-Frankenstein slot on the trip. EW reviewed Young Frankenstein this weekend and while they didn't find it horrible, they weren't thrilled either. Still, the chance to see Karen Walker live is enough to get me into a seat.

I finally saw my first commercial for Sweeney Todd over the weekend and was less than impressed. Most of it focused on the backstory, which apparently gets greatly filled in. The only music was a brief clip of Johnny Depp walking down the street singing No Place Like London, and his voice was very thin, and it really wasn't so much singing as it was more speaking in sing-song, like a nursery rhyme. I am not filled with hope, although I strongly expected to dislike Chicago up until the minute it started, so there may still be a chance that this can be saved, although the cinematography also appeared to be a little too Burtonesque for my taste. I'm really worried this is going to be more of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sequel in which Willy Wonka bakes the oompa-loompas into candies than it is going to be the definitive version of one of the greatest musicals ever. Suddenly, the Muppet Into The Woods concept that was being thrown around 15 or so years ago doesn't seem so bad.

A Weekend of Boys

What a nice theatre weekend this was, despite numerous attempts by the Powers that Be to get in my way. First of all, on Friday night I settled in to watch Ghost Whisperer as usual. I was thrilled, although a little wary when during the opening credits, one of the guest stars' names was Matthew J. Morrison (at least I think it was J, it was some letter that normally does not appear in Matt's name). Of course, I was immediately excited about the prospect of seeing Matty on screen since I just missed him in New York over the summer. However, the J, or whatever the middle initial it was gave me pause. He did not have a middle initial in his name in the credits of Once Upon A Mattress, so I was worried it might be a bait and switch, similar to how Melrose Place had a "Vanessa Williams" in the cast the first season, but it wasn't the real Vanessa Williams, it was some other actress trying to use the name and ended up not being invited back for the second season and hasn't appeared in anything else since. The real Ms. Williams then appeared in Eraser as Vanessa L. Williams a few years later but then dropped the L in all future screen appearances. So, I was worried that this Matthew Morrison might turn out to be some ugly old man. About 20 minutes in though, I was very pleased to see the real Matt in a very good role and, while he was made up to look somewhat ghostly, he still looked good, although I have to say that while I'm usually not a fan of guys with long hair, I do miss the curly locks he had for Piazza over the buzz he had for 10 Million Miles and which hasn't totally grown out yet. Still, he's just adorable no matter what and they left his character available for future appearances, let's hope they takea advantage of that.

Saturday was fairly uneventful, but Sunday was quite an exhausting day. As I mentioned, I had tickets for Altar Boyz with my sister in law, a friend of hers, and a friend of mine. The plan originally was for my sister in law and her friend to take the Metra in from Aurora and arrive at Union Station at 11:42 am. I would meet them there and my friend would pick us up in his car and drive us to Water Tower where he would park and then we would all go have lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe and come back for the show. Afterwards he'd drive back to Union Station to drop them off and then drive me home. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. I got a call from him early Sunday morning, around 9, saying that he was having car problems and was taking it in somewhere and would just meet us at GLC at 12:30. I figured, no problem, we'd just cab it from Union Station and still get a ride back afterwards. Around 10 I jumped in the shower to start getting ready, and when I got out, the phone was ringing, so I ran out and picked it up and it was my sister in law stating that their train was indefinitely delayed due to a maintenance problem, so they were driving in and would just park at Water Tower and meet me at GLC around noon. So, that gave me some more time to relax, and around 11:15 I left to hop on the el. It managed to show up fairly quickly, which is very rare on a Sunday, and just as we were pulling into the tunnel after Armitage, my phone started ringing, and it was the friend, but when I answered I had just enough time to hear him say hello, and it lost the signal. About 10 minutes later we got to Chicago, so I got off and ran out of the station and back above ground and got the signal, and immediately got about 4 text messages and two voicemails. I just ignored them and called my friend back directly. He stated that the repairs were taking longer than expected, so he was just going to meet us at the theatre. At this point, I was almost over the entire afternoon already, so I just said fine and headed on to GLC. When I got there, the line was out the door just to get a name in. Apparently the weekend before Thanksgiving is now the new Weekend after Thanksgiving, and the north Michigan Avenue area was flooded with shoppers and impossible to navigate, quickly reminding me why I avoid downtown Chicago at all costs for the last 6 weeks of the year. I managed to find my sister in law and her friend and we decided to just go get a snack, see the show, and come back to GLC afterwards when it should be less busy for an early dinner and then they could drive back. The whole point of trying to eat before the show was so that they could get the 4:30 train instead of having to wait for the 6:30, but since they had driven, that was no longer a consideration. So, we headed over to Water Tower and decided to try Foodlife. There wasn't much of a line, which was good, but the last person standing in line was, of all people, my friend, who had just gotten down there and had had the same idea. So, we were able to eat together and walked over to the theatre around 1:30, which was just around the corner. I got the tickets and a large glass of wine, and we headed into the theatre around 1:50. Upon entering, I was very disappointed at the small size of the audience (there were about as many people as there had been at Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, although at least the theare is only about 1/3 the size so it didn't seem quite so sparse), and there was a large contingent of children (and I mean very young childre, like 5 and under) for some birthday party, and we were right in the middle of them. Surprisingly, they were well behaved for the most part, they got a little chatty in the middle of the show, but the parents did a good job quieting them down, which, sad to say, is so surprising anymore. However, they did provide one moment of entertainment near the end of the show. They had been very responsive to the group onstage, treating the show like a real concert, and towards the end, one of the Boyz yells out something like, "Who's still a sinner out there" or some such thing, and one of the 5 year old boys near me yelled out "Yeah" which got the whole audience laughing. It was very cute and really funny. Anyways, the important thing was, the show was FANTASTIC. I actually liked it better than the New York production. The smaller stage worked to the show's advantage (the slightly larger New York one seemed to swallow up the performers at points, which while that may have been intentional to show how cluessly inept the Boyz are, it still made it feel like the show was a little lacking), and the cast was tight. They all did a fantastic job, but the standout was definitely Brian Crum as Mark, he out-Marked even Tyler Maynard, who I did get to see in the role in New York. He really brought out every personality tic and his dancing was dead on, and he culminated it by bringing the house down with "Epiphany." What a fabulous voice, I'm sure he's going to go far. The rest of the cast was right up there with him. It was nice to see Devin DeSantis again, after small parts in Shenandoah and The Most Happy Fella, in a much bigger role this time as Matthew, and I think he was better than Jason Ceyala, at least physically he fit in better with the rest of the group which gave the show a more cohesive feel. Of course, having seen it before, I knew the story and have heard the songs on the CD countless times, but it really just reinforced how clever the lyrics are and how catchy the songs are in this context. The lyrics, and even the dialogue, really never let up, there's so much to catch that it really was like seeing the show for the first time again. The parent next to me got a little agitated during Juan's exhortation to a confessee not to covet his neighbor's donkey, and instead bring it gifts and maybe the neighbor would let him get physical with it, but for the most part there was nothing offensive for the kids (they re-choreographed the "Rhythm in Me" number so that Mark's "Put it in me" refrain isn't quite so obvious unless you're looking for it), and at their age, the double-entendres went right over their heads. The group really performed together well, and brought it to a very satisfying conclusion with I Believe, which could be a hit outside the showtune circuit with the right marketing. It was a wonderful performance, and it totally made up for the morning's craziness. I highly recommend the show and urge everyone to go see it and beef up the audience numbers, a show this good should not have a one third full theatre when the theatre only has 500 seats to start with. Everyone else loved it too, and afterwards we all went our ways and I headed back home and just crashed in front of the TV for the rest of the evening, recuperating from all the running around.

One last quick update, apparently the talks in New York over the weekend did not go at all well and all shows, except for the few exempted, are now cancelled through next weekend already. According to what I read on playbill.com this morning, it sounds as if it's all the union. I'm shocked at their tenacity when they are so in the wrong, but it will eventually come back to bite them when they do start working again. Still, this really could work in my favor since other than Chorus Line and Little Mermaid, which should still be around if I go back next spring as usual, everything I want to see is either still playing or Off-Broadway, so I can see them, sightsee, and shop, without having to push through crowds in Times Square (seriously people, you're in the restaurant capital of the country, why are you standing in line to get into Bubba Gump, Olive Garden, or TGI Fridays?). Tentatively we're on for a trip the weekend of December 28, although I'll have to call in sick that Friday morning so I can use sick time instead of vacation time. I'll have to do some acting of my own all that week to set it up! Anyways, it's now a few weeks off, although I may try to push my companion to do The Sparrow on my birthday, but we'll see. There's enough non-theatre stuff going on.

Worst Buy

And it's been another busy week. No rest for the wicked for sure. To start with, speaking of wicked, the Broadway stagehands strike is still going strong, although talks are scheduled to resume this weekend. I am surprised at how obstinate the stagehands are being. They have no credibility, the issues they are stuck on do not reflect well on them or their work ethic, and they're losing money at a much faster rate than the producers. Still, at the same time, the producers do share a lot of the blame for not hiring people who will work and keeping the shows going. Now that the contracts have expired, they are under no obligation to hire only union members, they can hire whoever the hell they want that's willing to work. So come on producers, let's get it in gear and get the shows going again. All you have to do is pick up a phone and I am more than happy to do anything in any theatre (except for where Legally Blonde, the Color Purple, Jersey Boys, or Mary Poppins are playing) to help out, and I'll pay my own airfare and get my own accommodations on top of that. Ideally I wouldn't mind working at Hairspray and getting some backstage time with Lance, but I'll take anything you've got.

Now, on to more immediate topics. The third season of Melrose Place was released on DVD Tuesday. This was THE season for the show, and I'm really surprised at the lack of promotion for the DVD on Paramount's part. Granted, Season 2 was not a big seller, but this is the season everyone remembers and will be the one they want to have, but you've got to let them know it's available. However, it's not only Paramount that seems to not want viewers to get ahold of this set. When I got in to work Tuesday, I did a search on Best Buy's website, and out of the 5 stores closest to where I work, only 1 store had it in stock, and that was the Evanston store at Howard & McCormick, the one farthest away of those 5. I kept checking throughout the morning, and around 11:00, the Skokie store in the Village Crossing shopping center on Touhy finally added it to their inventory. So, around 11:30 I took an early lunch and headed to Village Crossing. I went in and went right to the movie section. It was not with the New Releases, so I went into the TV Shows section and couldn't find it. I walked around again and still had no luck. I tried to find someone to ask, but apparently everyone who works there was also on an early lunch. However, I have also found that this is the worst store in the area for trying to find someone who can help, they seem to be chronically short staffed. I walked around again, and this time I noticed a small sign on the shelf at the beginning of the M secion in the TV Shows section that said "Melrose Place Season 3." However, there were no DVD's on the shelf. They were either all sold out (in the 30 minutes since the title had appeared in their inventory) or were still sitting in the back room waiting to be shelved. Again, there was no one around to ask, so I left the store and headed to the Evanston store, which I should have just done in the first place, since stopping by the Skokie store had greatly lengthened the trip. I could have just taken Oakton out to McCormick and gone down to Howard, instead I had gone down to Touhy and then had to go to McCormick and up to Howard, which is a greater distance than Oakton to Howard. Anyways, they had it in the New Releases section, so I grabbed it, paid, and got back to work, about an hour and a half later. Fortunately, my boss doesn't ever care how long I'm gone. Still, this is just one more instance of Best Buy really declining in quality with what they stock. They may be a gay friendly company to work for, but they are not a gay friendly company to shop at. And, they're not the only ones. Borders is also continuing its long slide downhill in quality. My companion and I saw Julius Caesar at the Lyric on Sunday (overall good although in some spots it tried to be silly just for the sake of being silly, like their Magic Flute production, and that just wore on my nerves very quickly), and we went to Borders afterwards. I had just found out earlier in the week that the playbill.com columnist I really enjoy reading, Seth Rudetsky (who totally has the life I was meant for) recently published his first novel, and I had done a search of Borders' inventory, and only the State Street store had it, which fortunately is the one closest to the opera. I got into the store and went to the R section in Fiction and couldn't find it. I hopped onto their in-store computers and it said that it was in the store, in the Gay Fiction section. Now, years ago, Borders was the place to go for Gay Literature. They were the first store I ever saw with such a section, and I came across at a very critical point in my life, and I have been very loyal to them ever since. Even Barnes & Noble has a non-fiction Gay Studies section, but no Gay Lit section. However, for about the past 3 years, at all Borders, including the one in Lakeview, the Gay Lit section has been rapidly shrinking to the point where it now takes up about 2 shelves (not shelving units, two shelves total) and is comprised mostly of gay mysteries, which really don't appeal to me, and literary porn stories (you know the kind, they've got a shirtless guy on the cover and the back gives a synopsis of some impressionable lad who gets a lot of "lessons in life and love. . ."). I guess it's good that stuff like The Front Runner, The God In Flight, People Like Us (and most of Felice Picano's other books), etc. are now in the regular fiction section, but it's still kind of sad to see the section that gave such an identity to my life for so many years shrinking so quickly and appealing only to dirty old men. So, determined to support a kindred spirit in his first literary effort, I found the section, but despite the sign labeling the section stating that books were filed in alphabetical order by author, it was in complete disarray. I skimmed through it and could not find it under either R (for Rudetsky), S (for Seth) or B (for Broadway Nights, the title of the book). However, none of the books were in anything that could by any stretch of the imagination be called alphabetical order. I quickly perused the section, didn't see it, and went around the shelving unit to the Drama Section (since it is theatre-related) but couldn't find it there. I went back around to the Gay Lit section and this time went book by book, figuring that since it was all of 2 shelves, it wouldn't take long, and this time found it, between one book written by an author whose last name started with a T and another book written by an author whose last name started with M (in what sort of alphabetical order does T come before M?). I thought about saying something, but figured that no one would care, so I just bought the book and left. I'm kind of glad I didn't go up to the CD section, seeing the woefully depleted showtune section would have just made me even more depressed. It's just so sad that a store that used to so cater to my likes has completely gone the other way. I almost hate getting Borders coupons in my email anymore, they almost never have anything in the store that I can use them on. I've got all the showtune CD's they've got in stock and they don't have much of a gay lit or theatre section anymore, and the horror section seems to also be getting pared down, which is the other category I love. It may be emblematic of the dumbing down and increasing crassness of our culture, but if that was true, Barnes & Noble wouldn't be filling the void, which they're doing to at least a certain extent right now. I dread the day I go in there and find that the showtune section has shrunk from half of a wall to one row.

So, anyways, maybe it's time to start a letter writing campagin to Borders and Best Buy. For now, I'm still filling out the surveys every time I buy something and letting Best Buy know what I think of their inventory's increasing blandness. Sunday is Altar Boyz and then a well deserved break for a few weeks until Frau Ohne Schatten at Lyric just before Christmas. I'll keep you posted on the potential New York plans. Even without the strike, there's still the Met, Make Me A Song, Frankenstein both Young and original, and Mauritius. Hopefully I can catch them all.

Good News/Bad News

Well, it's been another eventful week. It started off well, but the Grinch arrived today, and it's not the one the ticketholders at the St. James in New York were expecting.

Starting with the good news, I had not had time to download Anna Karenina before the trip, there were just too many last minute things that had to be done. I finished it over the weekend and listened to it Monday and it really is good. I don't know what didn't work on Broadway, but the music is certainly worthwhile and it definitely sounds like it was much better than the Vivien Leigh movie version. I then used up the rest of my downloads to get This Ordinary Thursday, a collection of songs by Georgia Stitt, the vocal coach from Grease; You're the one That I Want. There are 12 songs performed by today's biggest Bway stars, including Matthew Morrison, Cheyenne Jackson (dueting with Tituss Bergess), Susan Egan, and Kelli O'Hara, among others. I was worried it was going to turn out to be a bland, generic sounding effort, like too many solo albums by Broadway second-tier stars turn out to be, but it really is spectacular. I finished up witht the first three tracks of Ben Franklin in Paris. My downloads refresh around Thanksgiving, so I'll use the holiday weekend to get the rest of Ben Franklin and Patti LuPone's The Woman With the Torch, just back in print and recently added to the store, and then start on the follow up EP, Still Burning. When the downloads refresh again, I'll finish Still Burning and get The Maury Yeston Songbook.

So, after listening to Anna K while at work on Monday, I went home and then headed to my private practice office to see a client. As I walked in, I ran into a former boss who also rents an office in the building. He now works for the Center on Halsted, which is Chicago's GLBT center. As part of his job, he facilitates an elderly GLBT support group and once a month they have an opera appreciation night. He said that a while ago he had emailed Deborah Voigt's people about the possibility of her making an appearance at the group. He hadn't heard anything in quite some time and had almost forgotten about it until earlier that day when they called and stated that since she's in town to perform in Die Frau Ohne Schatten starting next week, she would be very interested in appearing, but she was only available for about 30-45 minutes on Friday night between other events. So of course he booked her and got me on the list for the event as a guest of the group, since I'm still about 50 years away from being able to be a member. So last night, I got home from work, packed her CD's that I have (Obsessions and Wagner Love Duets) into my coat pocket and hightailed it to the Center,arriving right at 6:30, which was the scheduled start time. In true diva fashion, she arrived around 7:15, but was very apologetic. The event was set up as a panel discussion with my old boss asking her questions, and they then surprised us by bringing out Jill Paige, her costar in Frau and a close friend, as well as an out lesbian. So, my boss asked them questions and got a lot of juicy tidbits, and Deborah really was just as friendly and personable as she appeared to be on the Ravinia stage. They briefly talked about the experience, and she mentioned in passing that it had been disappointing to have a sold out show turn out to be so empty, but she followed that up with talking about how gratifying it is to perform for anyone. She really was so classy, it was truly a night to remember for the rest of my life. Deborah and Jill ended up staying for just over an hour, until 8:20. It really was amazing how down to earth Deborah was. Unfortunately, they were late for their next event, and were not able to stick around afterwards and were rushed right back out the door, so I did not get to speak with Debbie, get her autograph, or get a picture. Still, I will always have it in my memory, it was truly a wonderful night.

After getting back home, I turned on the news and there was an update on the Hollywood writer's strike, which I really don't care about, and the reporter capped it with an announcement that the Broadway Stagehands Union was rumored to have plans to start their strike today. Now, I've been following the progress of the negotiations closely as I may get another very quick trip to New York in December, we want to see Prokofiev's War & Peace at the Met and I can catch a couple other shows. While I was still in Prague, they announced that talks had broken down but that the union would keep working through the end of November. Well, on Friday they reneged on their word and the union boss authorized a strike. The shows went on Friday night, but the strike was then called abruptly this morning as the crew was getting ready for the 11:00 matinee of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and it snowballed from there. Only a handful of theatres had their matinees, most were dark. Now I'm fairly confident that the strike will be over before the end of the weekend; the last strike lasted like a day when the musicians went on strike and the stagehands have lost all credibility at the bargaining table by going back on their word, and since every missed show is pure lost money, its going to come to a quick resolution. However, it's just ridiculous that it came to this in the first place. The negotiations are stuck over a ridiculous demand by the union (that the producers hire more stagehands than are necessary and essentially pay them to do nothing), and if these stagehands don't want to work, I'm sure there are tons of other people who do and the producers should just fire those who are unwilling to work and hire those that are. Seriously, I would be eccstatic to fly to New York with my own money and pay for my own accomodations if I could work as a stagehand until the strike is over and the real stagehands get back to work. I'm sure I'm not the only one (well, given my site rankings, maybe I am, but still, with this economy, I'm sure any number of people would love to have the job). Whatever happened to The Show Must Go On? Apparently that went out around the same time as Liza's first hip. Fortunately, even if the strike does drag into February, other than Chorus Line, it's not really going to affect what I want to see. The Met is still up and running as are all Off-Bway shows, so we could still do War & Peace and then I really want to see Frankenstein off-Bway (not to be confused with Young Frankenstein on Broadway, which is one of the few shows still playing, although considering the reviews it got, probably not for long. Just ask Twyla Tharpe, or Nathan Lane & Matthew Broderick, lightening rarely strikes twice on Broadway. The last back to back hit that I can think of for anyone is Cy Coleman who had back to back Best Musical wins for City of Angels and The Will Rogers Follies. Granted, there was Susan Stroman, so technically this was lightening twice for her before striking out on the third go-round, but I refuse to acknowledge Contact's existence and place in Broadway History. A Best Musical with no singing, give me a break). Anyways, I also want to see Mauritius on Broadway, and by luck, that one is also still playing during the strike, so as long as we get our tickets far enough in advance, since there will probably be increased demand, there shouldn't be a problem. Coming up though is Julius Caesar at the opera tomorrow, and Altar Boyz next Sunday. So much for taking a breather after getting back, the shows just keep on coming

Back Home, Part 2

Alright, continuing yesterday's stories, I forgot to mention that the king of Saudi Arabia was in London the same days we were, and that really fucked up a lot of what I wanted to do. First of all, why is any civilized country trying to consort with him? That's how we got into trouble with Saddam in the first place. Yes, he may be the least evil in the region, but by looking the other way, we're just setting the stage for a larger disaster later. Granted, he's not torturing and murdering his subjects to the extent that Saddam was (they're more than happy to do that themselves and are actually upset with him that he's not doing more of it, which is more craziness that I just don't understand), but still, any human rights violation should not be tolerated. It's bad enough that our own government won't give us the rights we deserve, we shouldn't go encouraging other rulers that are even worse. Anyways, plenty of Britons were furious about it too, which was nice to see. While our leaders may have lost their minds, at least the people still know right from wrong and hopefully upcoming elections in both countries will start to set things right. But, I digress. The point is, the king apparently decided to go everywhere that I had wanted to go, which meant that everything I wanted to see was shut down to accomodate him. There was no changing of the guard because they were too busy protecting him, we couldn't get anywhere near Buckingham because of security concerns, and at the Tower, we had to wait an extra hour to jump on the City Cruise boat back to Westminster because they shut the riverfront area down for an hour to accommodate him. By that time I was seriously considering stopping by the Old Bailey and getting a restraining order. The man was following me everywhere and really fucking up my trip. So, we had to go with our second choices of things to see. We caught the Big Bus right by the hotel and took it around the western edge of the central zone, through Kensington and Chelsea, and past the Marble Arch. We then hopped on another bus and went through Picadilly and by Westminster Abby and then to the east side. We went through Fleet Street, where there are no more meat pie shops, and I wanted to get a picture of a street sign that said "Fleet Street", but we flew past all of them, so that didn't happen. I actually didn't get that many pictures in London. It's kind of like New York in that everything is so big it's impossible to get a good picture of anything, you can only get a small part of any building or monument, and usually it's not worth trying. I wanted to do the London Dungeon, which is kind of a Wisconsin Dells-styled indoor amusement park, but my companion does not like rides and I didn't want to waste his time while I wandered through it, so we rode past and got off at the Tower, where thanks to King Abdullah, we spent most of the afternoon. It was very nice though, and definitely the one thing to see. The only disappointment is that they don't allow cameras in the building with the crowns or the crown jewels, which of course were the two buildings that I most wanted to take pictures in. I can understand why they don't allow it, but it was still very disappointing. However, it was totally worth seeing, and we had a great time. Once the waterfront opened back up, we hopped on the City Cruise boat and went back to Westminster, which was nice. We got to see the new Globe Theater as well as some other buildings that the busses speed past, and the captain had an incredibly hilarious commentary going the entire time. At the end he mentioned that they're going to go all automatic in a few weeks and retire all the captains, which is really too bad, it was his commentary that made the trip worthwhile. I'd strongly encourage City Cruises to rethink that decision. Anyways, we went back towards Picadilly and did some shopping. I went into the Virgin store hoping to pick up some cast albums, and was seriously disappointed with the quality of the store. I was looking for a recording of Jerry Springer and the Song & Dance two disc set with Sarah Brightman (it's the only in print recording of Variations currently available), but the showtunes section was abysmally small and had the same stuff we can find here, and actually, even less of it. There was Mamma Mia, Phantom, Les Miz (but only the concert version, not even the original London recording, which is still the best), the Lion King, and that was about it. They did have We Will Rock You, but I really didn't care about that. I went to the Pop/Rock section to check out Sarah Brightman in the hopes that they might have S&D there, and they didn't, but they did have her 1996 album "Fly", which was never released in the States. I picked that up, along with a recording of Verdi's "Attila", which is also very hard to come by here, and Fly is a fabulous CD. It's too bad she didn't continue down that road, it would have been a worthwhile trip. It's kind of like listening to the Carpenters' first CD (Ticket to Ride) and wondering what could have been had it been successful and they decided to go with that sound instead of the "Close to You" sound, or if Barbra had stuck with disco or Bette with "The Rose" style rock. Still, it's a fabulous CD and totally worth tracking down. I had actually left my companion to go there while he went to some other stores, and we were supposed to meet at the statue of Eros after about half an hour. I got there before he did and suddenly had a flashback to this dream I had a few months ago. At the time, he had been out of town on business, and our phone line quit working. I kept checking on it all night because I needed to use the internet, and kept getting a dead receiver every time I turned the phone on. When I went to bed, I had a dream that we were in London and had split up and he was supposed to call me when he was done with whatever he was doing, but my phone wouldn't work. As the dream progressed, it was getting closer and closer to curtain time for Billy Elliot and my phone still wasn't working and I couldn't find him and I was getting so worked up about it until I woke up in a panic that we were missing Billy Elliot. So, as I was standing there waiting for him, and he didn't arrive exactly on time (which is not unusual at all for him), I was like "Oh my god, this is my dream happening!" and started freaking out until he showed up a few minutes later. We then went to a luggage store and got a fabulous carry on (although I'm still plenty pissed we had to buy it in the first place) and then caught the Big Bus back to Westminster where we hopped off and got on the subway (for another $8) and went back to the hotel. We changed, spent another $8 apiece, and got to the Victoria stop where the theatre was waiting in all its resplendent glory as we walked up out of the station. I got the tickets and then we walked around and found a place for dinner. I unfortunately don't remember the name of it, but it was very good, although our waitress disappeared right at the end of the meal and we cut it really close getting back to the theatre on time because we were waiting for her to get the check. But, we made it and, as I expected, had fantastic seats. We were exactly in the middle (row N), right under the edge of the balcony, and on the aisle, which my companion always appreciates. I got a T-Shirt before it started and then went ahead and bought a program at intermission, it was so good I wanted everything I could get. Usually I don't get souveniers, the shirts are usually cheaply made, and everything else just piles up, but this was so worth it, and the shirt is actually very well made. It has an official Billy Elliot tag instead of a Fruit of the Loom tag, which right there says Quality. Anyways, the lights came down on schedule and the B&W newsreel started, and then the trumpet opening of The Stars Shine Down started and I totally got chills. Then, a couple showed up and needed us to let them into the aisle, which completely distracted me as the miners were arguing and about to go on strike, but we let them in. However, they got halway down the aisle, couldn't find their seats, and then came back and we had to let them out again. Of course they were being totally loud and as obstructive as possible about it. Fortunately, the two seats in front of us were empty and they just sat down there until intermission when they got an usher and found their seats. It really made me appreciate the Lyric Opera, which has a strict no admittance after curtain time policy. But, I got right back into the show, and it was fabulous. The only thing that threw me, is that it wasn't loud. I could actually make out the individual instruments in the orchestra, and the singers' voices actually blended in well. At first it sounded really wrong and I wondered what the problem was, but then I realized, this is what a real, non-overamplified orchestra with un-body-miked singers sounds like. It's not just a wall of noise, it's actually music, and I loved it. Plus, we didn't have those ugly body mikes which look like huge silver pimples distracting us. I really hate those. The story was so moving and of course, the music was just as good as it is on CD. The only drawback is that they all had THICK English accents and I couldn't always understand what they were saying, but I got the gist of it and loved it. My companion loved it too. He hadn't heard the CD at all (compared to the hundreds of times I've heard it) and hadn't even known it was a musical until I told him we were going to see it when we first started planning the trip earlier this year. He hadn't even seen the movie, and he was so thrilled with the show. It really was a night to remember. Everyone was great, but I really have to give props to Sam Angell (I think that's spelled right) who played Billy that night. I can't believe he's only 13, he has quite a future in dance and musical theatre ahead of him. It truly was a performance beyond his years. As expected, I had tears in my eyes by the end, and hated to leave, even after 3 hours (it's so rare that shows are that long any more, it's nice to have that engrossing of a story that we barely noticed the time flying by). We headed back to the hotel and packed, and got both of our carry ons into the new carry on. We went to bed and in the morning got up, finished packing, had breakfast, and hopped into a cab to Heathrow. Now, this was where any unraveling that we can legitimately claim to have happened did happen. I just hate flying to start with, and dealing with airports just adds insult to injury, and I was already pissed about the whole carry on thing. The airlines are never going to fully recover until they stop treating their customers like criminals (and like ATM's, but that's a little later). Granted, 6 years ago 19 criminals did get on 4 airplanes and have caused no end of trouble, but still, there's got to be a better way to handle the situation. It does no good to make everyone go through security and then randomly select half the flight for additional screening beyond that at inconvenient times. Either fully screen everyone or don't bother. Anyways, without going into all the details, let's just say that while Heathrow doesn't fully deserve its reputation as the worst airport in the world (an honor I give to Charles DeGaul in Paris), it's close. They do have nice shopping once you get through check in and security though, which would take some of the sting out of the experience, except then you have to go through another level at the gate when you're carrying all the stuff you've just bought and trying to get it into the one carry on you're allowed, which is what I found really annoying. The flight was operated by American, so I knew it was not going to be pleasant. They are one of the most notorious for nickel and diming, and sure enough, it as a repeat of Aer Lingus. They tried to charge me $5 for a glass of wine, so I said forget it and had pop throughout the trip. There was no good entertainment (again, it was License to Wed, who the hell thought that after not wanting to see it in theatres, we'd want to see it on an airplane, the only envirnoment more unpleasant than a movie theatre?) So, I continued my Sondheim festival and got into Into the Woods (having started with Company on the way over and working through the shows chronologically through the trip) by the time we landed. Fortunately, US customs wasn't too bad and we got our luggage without any problem and made it home. So now, I'm battling jet lag but getting over my cold. And with that, it's time to leave again. On a final note, it was sad to have the trip bookended by the deaths of two greats, Deborah Kerr the day we left, and Robert Goulet, the day we got back. They will both be missed.

Back Home, Part I

Well, after another week-long whirlwind, I am finally back home. The rest of the trip was great, even if the weather in Prague continued to suck. After finishing the last posting, I had a cup of some sort of herbal tea our friend had and it made me feel so much better. My sore throat was gone and my sinuses started to unclog. I took a Benadryl and slept for about 12 hours. When I woke up, I felt so much better. We lounged around a bit longer and then my companion and I hit the shopping and I managed to get all of my Christmas shopping done and got some souveniers for myself. I got a Santa Claus nesting doll (I love Russian nesting dolls and have gotten them on each trip as souveniers, I plan to have a very extensive collection by the time I'm 50) and a cool bookmark with a Golem charm on it. We stopped at the local CD store and I picked up the soundtrack to a Czech musical called Golem (it was playing there, but only towards the end of our stay, so we didn't get to see it; hopefully next time). I also picked up a recording of Smetana's opera "The Secret" which we saw in a fantastic production at the National Opera when we were there last year, and the CD is not available here in the states. After a full afternoon of shopping we met another friend for dinner and then went back to the other friend's place where we were staying, had some more tea since the cold weather was starting to cause another sore throat and quickly fell asleep. The next day we did a day long tour of two castles outside of Prague, Konopiste and Karlstein. Konopiste was the home of Franz Ferdinand, where he lived until he took that fateful trip to Sarajevo. The area around it was beautiful, and it was a very impressive castle, although the inside in places looked like something you'd find in the 815 area code. Karlstein is one of the oldest castles outside of the Prague castle and was more of a fortress-style castle, compared to the residential style of Konopiste. That one was a hike to get to after we got out of the bus. In keeping with its fortress function, it was at the top of a very tall hill which took about 15 minutes of climbing to get to. Still, it was worth it. We got back around 5:30, rested for a bit and then met the other friend again for dinner and ended up staying out until almost midnight. The restaurant was close to the Jewish Quarter, which we walked through afterwards back to the subway station. Now, Prague's Jewish Quarter is the only Jewish area in any European city to have survived WWII intact, and as such, it was used to film Yentl. I was very tempted to run down the streets singing "Papa can you hear me?" at the top of my lungs, but managed to restrain myself since I didn't have my fake nails and Barbra wig with me. On Sunday, we finished up some quick shopping and then saw Libuse at the National Opera. It was a fantastic production, although the story is phenomenally inconsequential, as it is in most Czech operas. The music though was absolutely fantastic and the performers were all wonderful. The staging was somewhat in the Lyric Opera style which was a little distracting, but for the most part it managed to work. It was long, which is odd for a Czech opera (usually they're under 90 minutes, except for Russalka), and while I started to nod off during the first act, some caffeine at intermission woke me back up and I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the performance. We met our friend and his companion for dinner and then headed back to his place to pack. This is where things started to get aggravating. My companion brought an empty second carry-on bag for all the souveniers, which we filled up and placed the carefully wrapped breakables in. The plan was to take it on the plane along with his computer and my carry on. The airlines usually don't have a problem with this. We got the Prague airport very early the next morning and got checked in to fly to London no problem. We got through security (for the most part I like how they do it at each gate so there isn't a huge backup like at most airports, but at the same time it's annoying because if you have to go to the bathroom while you're waiting, you have to leave the secure area and then go through it again to get back) and waited. They started boarding on time, and as we were going through the gate, I noticed a sign that said that all passangers could take 1 carry on plus a handbag or computer case, but there was an exception for passengers flying out of Great Britain, they are only allowed one carry on of any kind. I noticed this and brought it to my companion's attention. Now, this information was nowhere on any of our tickets or confirmations from the airlines and he had not been told this when we booked the flight. Given that we had all these breakables, we really didn't want to have to check that bag, so we decided we'd get a larger carry on in London and put his computer and my bag into it and then just take them out once we got onto the airplane. I was (and am still) of the mind that we should send a bill for the new carry on to the airline since it's absolutely ridiculous that you can bring more into England than you're allowed to take out. It just completely symbolizes everything that is wrong with air travel today. They're doing nothing but making themselves the dumping ground for the world's travellers. But, I digress. The flight was very smooth and pleasant (it was on British Airways, and they certainly have a level of class about them that no other airline comes close to). It was much better than Aer Lingus, although since it was early in the morning I didn't get alcohol, but at least the pop was free. We landed and made it through immigration pretty quickly, although this one line for EU passport holders and one line for the rest of the world isn't working so well. They should have one line for EU passports, one line for non-EU friendly countries like Australia, Canada, Japan, and the US, and then one line for non-EU crazy countries. I am so sick of getting stuck behind someone from some crazy arab country that takes 15 minutes for their passport scan to clear. Still, we were through in about 30 minutes and then hit the first major drama of the trip. Heathrow's baggage claim is basically a HUGE hall that replicates Vegas's McCarran airport's baggage claim on a much larger scale, and much more crowded. We pushed our way to our carousel, but our luggage did not come out. After about 20 minutes most of the crowd from our plane had left, but we were there with about 10 other groups who were still all waiting for their luggage. The flight info board above the carousel changed and said it was now for a flight from Jordan and another huge new hoard of people began descending on the carousel. My companion and most of the rest of the group trekked to baggage claim and about 20 minutes later came back, empty handed, but walked towards another carousel. A BA rep joined them, spoke heatedly into her walkie-talkie for a long time and after about another 10 minutes, the carousel started moving and everyone's baggage came out. Apparently, all this baggage had been in the final section to be unloaded from the transport vehicle, but the baggage handler had some gripe with management and refused to unload it until they would speak with him. We were not happy and my companion is sending them a nasty letter. Our time was limited already, we were not happy to waste almost an hour just waiting for our luggage which was being used as a hostage in some internal labor conflict. Still, happy to finally have everything, we hopped in a cab and went to the hotel. We were staying at the Holiday Inn in Kensington, which was a good thing, because it was fairly close to Heathrow and already ran over 40 pounds, which is over $80. If we had been on the eastern side of central London, we would easily have paid over $100 for the cab ride. Seriously, the only reason to go to London is if you have a lot of money you want to quickly get rid of. The exchange rate (which hit a record high the next day we were there) was just over 2 to 1, which means that while their prices levels are not that high in their own currency, especially compared to other European countries, they are exhorbitant for us. Subway rides are 4 pounds for a one way ride, which is $8 every time you hop on. That's ridiculous, it makes the CTA look like a bargain, however it's a much nicer subway system than the CTA. Still, we were determined to enjoy ourselves. The hotel room was very small, but nice. We set our luggage down and then stopped by the concierge's desk where I got a ticket to the London Eye (that's the huge ferris wheel that you see in any picture of London). My companion refused to go on it, but it was totally worthwhile. It was dark by the time we got there, but seeing the lights of London from that height was phenomenal, and I wouldn't have traded it for any other time of day. The only drawback is that because the glass on the car was curved (the cars are eliptical in shape), I couldn't get a lot of good pictures, because it reflected the flash back towards the camera. I managed to get a couple decent ones of Big Ben and Westminster as well as St. Paul's, but for the most part, the view is only in my memory. We walked around the area for a while and then had dinner at Salieri, which was really good and even after the exchange rate, not too much more expensive than a nice dinner downtown with wine and desert. We went back to the hotel, stopped by the concierge desk again and got tickets for the Big Bus Company's hop on/off tour for the next day and then went to bed. Anyways, right now it's about time to leave work, so I'll continue the story tomorrow, just be reassured that Billy Elliot was TOTALLY worth the trip, but I'll give you all the details tomorrow.