One Sweet Weekend

Oh, what a great weekend last weekend was. Saturday I went to Candide at Porchlight, which was thoroughly delightful. I've never seen any production of it before, and this one lived up to Porchlight's generally stellar standards (not counting last fall's Phantom). Ryan Lanning was just adorable as Candide and quite an excellent performer, and Jeremy Rill as Maximillian was also quite fantastic, with this and his turn in Jerry Springer, he's quite the performer to watch at the moment. The orchestra was set up in the middle of the theatre with platforms extending on all sides, and the audience set up around all four walls of the room, so it was more of an in-the-round production, but it worked really well to give the story a sense of the characters' travels around the world. The orchestra was great, although I'm not a fan of reduced instrument overture orchestrations. Overtures should either be done full orchestra or just piano, anything in between feels incomplete. However, the orchestra did an excellent job with what they were given, and then once the show started they really complemented the performers well. I was particularly impressed with percussionist Phil Martin (also quite the cutie) who interacted with the actors as part of the story-telling. It only plays this weekend and then it's done, so go catch it.

Then, Sunday night was all about Madonna and the Sticky & Sweet Tour. This was by far her best tour since Drowned World (which I did not get to see in person, although not for lack of trying, and had to settle for watching on HBO). She only started 50 minutes later and kept the AC on. Apparently getting divorced has actually loosened her up. She seemed much more relaxed on stage and focused on having a good time and giving the audience a good time instead of putting on huge, spectacular yet soulless spectacles. The show was much more focused in that it really was a promotion of Hard Candy and made a terrific argument for giving the unjustly overlooked CD (her second worst selling after American Life) a second look. She did just about the entire CD over the course of the 2 hour show, and worked in one song from each previous CD except for Like A Virgin which was oddly unrepresented, but since she did Material Girl on both previous tours and Like A Virgin on the Confessions tour, she may have felt it was time to give it a rest. For those who want to know, the older songs were: Borderline (in a great punk-pop arrangement), La Isla Bonita (the show's one misfire done in a hoe-down meets gypsy band arrangement), Into The Groove with a brief sampling of Jump (one of the best moments of the show), Like A Prayer (the best performance of the show), Vogue, but done to the accompaniment of Heartbeat from Hard candy (and Vogue covered both I'm Breathless and Immaculate Collection, she did not do either of the "new" songs from Immaculate nor did she do any of the "new" songs from Something To Remember), Rain, done as a video interlude during a costume change with a sampling of the Eurythmics Here Comes The Rain Again, Human Nature, You Must Love Me (making the concert showtune queen relevant), Ray of Light, a sampling of Beautiful Stranger, Die Another Die (done as a vocal-over during a costume change while two dancers did a homoerotic boxing routine) and Hung Up. So, it was about half Hard Candy and Half hits, not a bad ratio for a tour for any artist. Furthermore, I was so much closer this time than the other two times. Both previous times we were up in the upper 300 level of the UC, this time we were in the 100 level and had the perfect seats. We were in the uppermost row of the section, so there was no one behind us, and above on of the entrances to the section, so there was no one sitting in front of us. We could stand when we wanted to and sit when we wanted to, which was nice since I was wearing my uncomfortable boots that make me taller so I can see over people if I have to. We were about halfway along the wall between the stage and where the stadium curves around, and she had the same set up as the Confessions tour; the stage with video screens and then a long catwalk extending about halfway down the main floor, so when she was at the end of the catwalk, she was almost right in front of us, I got to actually see her in so much more detail this time instead of seeing a tiny stick figure down on the stage in harsh backlighting, and at 50 years old, she looks damn better than most people do in a lifetime. The costumes and video backdrops were also much more colorful this time, giving the show a much more upbeat lighthearted feel. She only made two lengthy costume changes this time, keeping the momentum going, and interpersed it with a few very brief costume modifications, which kept the show moving and kept it from bogging down. She also cut most of the mystical, save the world, Kabbalah crap that seriously bogged down a good portion of the Confessions tour, limiting it to an appropriate video display during Like A Prayer, and she also limited the political save the world commentary that bogged down Reinvention, again limiting it to one video montage, the one with the infamous shot of John McCain mixed in with shots of dictators past and present. There was no mirrored cross with a crown of thorns, no grenade thrown at Bush, or anything else done for shock value instead of pure entertainment. It was a great night and finally the show that I always imagined a Madonna concert would be. I'll definitely be there the next time she comes through.