Happy New Year

Well, my first resolution this year was to get this final post about the trip done. I've been putting off writing it because it acknowledges that the trip is over and I had such a good time that that is hard to do. We ended the trip 3 for 3 on shows (or 4 for 4 if you count the opera). The Receptionist was truly wonderful. Jane Houdyshell gave a terrific performance and Kendra Kassbaum (who I saw play Glinda in Wicked here a few years ago) was pitch perfect as the neurotic co-worker who drives everyone crazy with the details of her personal life instead of working. I've been in a few offices like that, although we never tortured our "clients" or had to take a trip to the Central Office when a co-worker failed to show up for work. It was a great play that will hopefully have a long afterlife in regional theatres across the country. As a special added perk, the Playbill had a photo spread of Ceyenne Jackson in several of his recent roles as well as his new headshot. If I hadn't already dedicated my bedspread to a silkscreen of Matthew Morrosion's new headshot, I'd be running out to get Cheyenne's. I'd scan the photos for you, but I think that would be a copyright violation, so instead I'd recommend going to see The Receptionst this week and getting your own playbill to ogle. Afterwards we went back to the Holiday Inn to get our luggage (which was a lot more complicated thn it was dropping it off, they were not organized with that at all, which put a slight damper on the entire experience) and hopped in a cab to LaGuardia. We were able to get there early enough to bump up to a 5:15 flight, which was nice because I really was not wanting to get back to work and have to scrape my car off at 10:30 at night. Instead, we were able to do it at 7:30 and were home by 8:30. As I was unpacking, I pulled out the books I bought at Broadway New York and starting flipping through one of them, which was Broadway Musicals Year by Year. In the store it appeared to be kind of a "yearbook" of all Broadway musicals. However, at home, I flipped to 1986 to see Carrie's entry, and there wasn't one. There was also no entry for Kelly, Darling of the Day, Hallelujah Baby (even though it was a Best Musical winner), Nick & Nora, The Rink, The Act, Jerry's Girls, Skyscraper, Tovarich, or Merlin, and Bring Back Birdie was only briefly mentioned in the last sentence of Bye Bye Birdie's entry. Plus, it ended in August 1997, so there's no mention of Ragtime, Dance of the Vampires, Aida, or Hairspray, although the silver lining is that there's no mention of Contact, The Producers, or The Colour Purple. You'd think they would have updated it by now since that was already the 5th edition. They must have been trying to get rid of it. Still, for what it is, it's definitely interesting and it's still one of the most comprehensive listings of Broadway show history that I've come across. I finished unpacking and that was that. It was a terrific long weekend, and I can't wait to go back, hopefully around April so I can catch Sunday in the Park with George and Gypsy as well as finally getting around to Chorus Line, Young Frankenstein, and The Little Mermaid, as well as maybe Catered Affair, November, and The Farnsworth Invention. There's a lot to look forward to this year!