Fiorello!

What a weekend it's turning out to be, and it's only halfway over. First, when I got home on Friday, I found our Entertainment Weekly waitimg in the mailbox, with the cover announcing their pronouncement of the "new classics." New for them means anything in the last 25 years, but their definition of classic is much, much looser. They picked 100 movies, albums, books, TV shows, and video games, and 50 Broadway shows, to be the new classics, and I knew as soon as I saw the cover graphics that it would be in my best interest to just burn the magazine without ever opening it. Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of me, and what it did to the cat, it's been doing to me all weekend. I thought I was going to have a stroke as I read through it, not only are some of the best in each category completely ignored (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, Parade, Carrie the Musical, all of Linda Eder's, Audra McDonald's, Sarah Brightman's, and Betty Buckley's CD's, the movie versions of Chicago and Sweeney, A History of Violence, AI, Amadeus, Supernatural, Boston Legal, and the list goes on and on), but some of what they consider classics leaves a lot to be desired, including Pulp Fiction, Titanic, Rent, Naked Gun, Casino Royale, The Breakfast Club, Blue Velvet, Lord of the Rings, The Emancipation of Mimi, Sheryl Crow, Achtung Baby, Dangerous in Love, Jersey Boys, The Producers, The Lion King (stage musical, the movie totaly deserved its inclusion), Noise/Funk, just to scratch the surface. Really, who picked these, the Frat boys of Animal House? About the only bright spot was the inclusion of Chess at number 50 in the stage classics. I could go on and on and on, but I think my doctor would prefer it if I stop here and focus on something that doesn't send my blood pressure through the roof. So, Saturday night I went to see Fiorello, and that restored my confidence in the state of the arts. It was a terrific show, and I highly recommend it. The entire cast was excellent, although PJ Powers as Fiorello came across as somewhat affected at first, but that grew on me as the show went on. It was so great to see an honest to god real book musical, it's about time for them to return. Concert style shows are more of a novelty, exciting the first time, but without strong characters and a compelling story, they don't hold up to repeated viewings. Anyways, other standouts in the cast included Andrea Prestinario, who played Violet in Side Show last summer, as Thea, who rocked When Did I Fall in Love, Rebecca Finnegan as Marie (and the program contains snippets of a fascinating interview with Sheldom Harnick who talks about meeting the real Marie and her opinion of Thea), Michael Kingston as Morris, Fiorello's very loyal assistant, and cutie Andy Schmuckler, who was one of the hot brothers in Shenandoah last summer, as the other assistant, and who is welcome to be my assistant any time his cute little heart desires. Anyways, it was a great night, and I strongly encourage everyone to head over to Timeline Theatre before July 18. On the way home, we picked up the Sunday paper, and as usual, I grabbed the Arts section, and halfway through was a full page ad for Sarah Brightman's Symphony tour, coming to the Allstate Arena on December 4, which will make a nice, slightly belated birthday present to myself. Tickets go on sale Monday the 30th at noon, so hopefully our flight back from NY the night before will go smoothly and I won't find myself stranded there with no computer access at sale time. Given her history, it's a sure bet this will sell out quickley, and I intend to finally be there. Now, it's time to head to Ravinia for Betty B. See you tomorrow with my thoughts.