Here She Is Boys!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I realize this post is way overdue, but when I went to see Superior Donuts, it was the last weekend, so there really wasn't much of a rush to get a review up, and I've been so busy with school stuff that I just put it by the wayside. But, we're now down to the last week of school, most of the major projects are done, and I've just got a couple small things to wrap up this week, so finally I have some time to get my thoughts down.

First of all, Superior Donuts was excellent. It was great seeing Michael McKeon, and everyone else in the cast was excellent. It was kind of a weird story, and I'm not quite sure how realistic (there's no Russian mafia in Uptown, only the Southeast Asians, I'd imagine the Russian mafia would be in Ukranian Village), but they did get the Uptown vibe right on. It was very entertaining and just the right length. Because it is so Chicago specific, I can't see it having the kind of extended life that August has had, but you never know, he's in demand right now so anything could happen.

As expected, the Gypsy cast recording is FABULOUS!!!! Every day at work I feel like Jessica Walter in Arrested Developement, dancing around the office belting out Rose's Turn at the top of my lungs. Unfortunately I don't have the glass of wine (stupid sober workplace polices), but it still makes the workday so much more entertaining. I'm sure the interns in the office next to mine are thrilled that I got the CD. Once I'm done with all of school next week I'll rip the beginning section of Rose's Turn for my ringtone. No new CD's to look forward to until Linda's in a few weeks, although I got my bonus 10 emusic downloads and finished up [title of show] and started The Frogs. My regular downloads refresh on Sunday and I'll finish the Frogs and get I Remember Mama, and then start Guys and Dolls with what I've got left.

In show news, it turns out a green skin color may be more symbolic of illness rather than being flush with money. After only about 2 weeks of previews in Seattle, Shrek has already called in show doctors. Not a good sign. Most shows that need a doctor are completely incapable of being fixed (Kelly, Golden Boy, Subways are for Sleeping all come to mind), but every so often there's a show that just needs a new perspective and goes on despite all initial naysayers to be a smash (Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, and My One and Only come to mind in this category). Let's hope Shrek is in the former category, although the doctor is Jason Roberts, director of Avenue Q and Curtains, so they certainly went for the best.

Now, saving the best for last, have you ever wondered what Baby Jane's stage show would have been like had she actually gotten it to the stage and not gone completely bonkers on that beach? Well, Ravinia presented it Thursday night when Carol Lawrence (after a long delay) took to the stage. To set the scene, it had rained all fucking day since 9:30 in the morning, without stopping for even 2 minutes. I really was not in the mood to pay over $50 for a buffet dinner in the indoor restaurant, and it was so gross that the foodcourt was not going to be an option, so I stayed at work until about 6:30 just killing time and then drove to Ravinia, figuring I'd just run in, see the show, and then pick something up on my way home. I got there around 7, and sat in my car in the parking lot until 7:30. It almost brought back PTSD from the Deborah Voigt concert last year, except fortunately we did not have the apocalyptic thunder and lightening, it was just constant rain. I had decided that I didn't care about paying for parking, it was so disgusting there was no way I was going to hike down that forrest trail between the remote parking and the gate, and was pleasantly surprised when I pulled in, $20 in hand, that apparently Ravinia staff had decided it was too gross and just opened up the parking to anyone who wanted to pull in. So, I did get one more free parking for a Martin Theatre concert after all. I was worried I was going to come back and find my car under water, or at least so sunk in mud that I wouldn't get any traction to move, but I found a nice spot on a more gravel-covered section of the parking lot and that turned out not to be the case. I just left all my shit sitting in the car and grabbed the umbrella and made a run for it. I still got completely soaked, although not as bad as in New York, and got into the theatre. There were actually more people in there than I was expecting, especially given the lack of cars in the lot. 8:00 came, 8:05 came, 8:15 came, and still no Carol. At 8:20, this big queen walked onto the stage, and I was not expecting good news, and he said that he was Carol's son and she was still getting ready downstairs and begged us to be patient. He got off the stage and 8:25 came, 8:30 came, and finally, about 8:35 the lights went down and a video montage was projected onto the back of the stage of scenes of Carol in WWS and then over the years, accompanied by a fabulously 70's Love Boat-styled remix of a medley of WWS songs, obviouly pre-taped but fully orchestrated, and she came out in an over the top high necked, long sleeved, floor length dress in a weird salmon color, with a completely bedazzled torso and pleated skirt, with sunburst diamond earrings and a blinding diamond necklace. She did a medley of WWS, accompanied by the same taped disco mix, and Billy Cox came out and sat at the piano. Apparently his job was to turn the tape recorder on and off, he played very little piano, which is kind of a waste for a man of his talent and experience. She then launched into another very 70's Love Boat styled song, accompanied again by a recorded track, and then went into a very long monologue for about 10 minutes about nothing in particular. Idina and Heather take note, this is what happens to your career if you don't get a tighter stage banter down. It was definitely interesting in just how loopy she was, but I was also hungry, wet, tired, and cranky, and not fully in the mood. She did a couple more songs, a costume change into a hideously inappropriate at her age red dress with a skirt made of red streamers, and then went out into the audience and got 8 old men to come up on stage with her, spent 10 minutes teaching them a dance, then did a 30 second number in which they did the dance and then picked her up and carried her offstage. She then did another 1 minute long number and then brought out a special guest, LeRoy Reemes (I think that's spelled right, fresh off the Producers national tour) and had him do several numbers while she was offstage, which begged the question, if she had him on the program, how come once she realized she wasn't going to be ready by 8 (and there's no excuse why she shouldn't have been, she lives in Melrose Park for god's sake and the traffic wasn't that awful even with the torrential rain), why didn't she send him on as an opening act and have him do some of the songs? When she joined him after about 5 songs (all very well done), she was still in the same costume, she obviously didn't need him to buy her time to do a costume change. She then did a couple songs with him and again left, leaving him on his own, and after only about 2 songs, came back in another high necked salmon colored, very 70's dress and did 42nd street with him and then they both left and it was intermission. By that time it was 9:45 and I was so tired, but I was curious to see if the second half would get even more over the top, so unlike about 90% of the audience, I stayed. Seriously, almost the entire theatre cleared out like they couldn't get out of there fast enough. I do understand that there was a 10:08 train and then not another one until almost 11:30 so some people may have had to go, but come on, after all that, you're not going to stay and get your money's worth, especially at $75 a ticket? I was a little concerned that she'd take another 2 hours for her intermission, but she did stick to 15 minutes and came out promptly at 10, coming from the side stage door and walked around the audience. I was in the 4th row, square in the middle, so I never got any attention from her any of the times she came wandering in to the audience, but that's fine because I was not in the mood. It's not like she was Liza, Barbra, Patti, or Diana Ross, the only 4 woman that I would put up with that behavior from, and even Liza and Barbra both managed to start within about 10 minutes of the start time printed on the tickets. The second half was much tighter. She did a lot of tap dancing and then brought LeRoy out again for several Gershwin songs, then she left him to do Hello Dolly, impersonating all the people (except for Babs) who have played the part before, and then came out in the best dress yet. LeRoy said goodnight and she did Embraceable You (which seems to be the theme of the diva season thus far-Embraceable You and poorly conducted stage chatter), and then the most fabulous schmaltzy 70's disco remix medley of several light rock songs, the most noteworthy being Through The Eyes of Love. Then, that was it, no encore, although that may have been because the audience got up and left before the lights even came back on. They probably realized it was better just to cut it there and let everyone go. So, it was very fun and for the most part worth seeing, although the massive stage chatter in the first half did kind of get bogged down and went from Baby Jane campy fun to kind of dull, but overall it was such a sadly fabulous display of a faded star firmly stuck in the 30 years ago past. It was still raining when I left, although not quite as heavily, and I headed home, forgoing picking something up because I do not want my new car to smell like Taco Bell or McDonald's. The rule is no eating, drinking, smoking, or transporting of smelly foods or people. The new car smell is almost completely gone, so I would like to try to at least keep it non-smelling.

So, I think that gets me all caught up. There's nothing definite although I'm finally getting my companion talking about Boys From Syracuse, although we don't have much time left. I think The Full Monty is out, but when there's a glut of things to see, the shows I haven't seen before generally take priority over those I have unless it's Kander & Ebb or Sondheim (except for last fall's Passion, which I'm still kicking myself for not seeing), and even then I still don't get all of them, such as I Do I Do. Drury Lane Oakbrook is doing Mame starting next month, so my priorities are Boys, Mame, and Court Theatre's production of Caroline or Change, which is a real long shot with my companion. Anyways, that's it for now.