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