Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays to all you out there in theatre-world. I hope you all got everything you wanted. I got several good theatre-related gifts, including Charles Strauss's autobiography, the book My Unauthorized Travels with Patti LuPone (aka, my future life story), the boxed set Stephen Sondheim: So Far, and the cast recording of Me and My Girl. If I only I wasn't on a no-music plan until I pass the LPC exam in February, I'm obsessively listening to an audio study guide over and over and over and over right now trying to soak up as much as I can.

So, I hopefully head to Anaheim tomorrow. The last week and a half has not been kind to travellers, and with icy rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning, who knows if my flight will actually leave on time. I just checked online, and it's still forecast for on time, but the plane is arriving from LaGuardia, which has also had a tough couple of weeks, so there's still the potential for a lot of problems. Hopefully I'll make it there, otherwise I may be cancelling Disney and spending the week going to see Doubt, Frost/Nixon, and Benjamin Button instead. It would be great to see all of them in a theatre rather than sticking them in my queue. If I do make it to Anaheim, hopefully I'll get a chance to get out between seminars (I've got seminars Saturday though Thursday morning, I'm free tomorrow after I get there then Thursday afternoon and all day next Friday and Saturday when I'll be moving from the Hilton to Disney' Paradise Pier), and hopefully catch some celebrities (Max, Jensen, I'm looking at you!). With Broadway pretty much shutting down, it's a sure thing stars will be flocking back to Hollywood after having fled the other way about 10 years ago. It's good thing I saw all the shows I did this year, Gypsy, Young Frankenstein, and Mindgame are all closing early (Gypsy bumped up from March 1 to next week, so RUN to catch Patti in her best role since Evita), as well as Grease, but no one's going to be sad to see that one go. Boeing-Boeing is shutting down as well, leaving only In The Heights, August, and South Pacific as the last major Tony forces standing. Normally, this kind of clearing out would be good if it allowed for shows waiting in the wings to finally make it onto Broadway, but other than 9 to 5, it doesn't look like there's much product waiting to take these show's places. In fact, there's more off-Broadway now that I want to see than on Broadway (A Prayer for my Enemy and Dust are the top two). Hair may end up not showing up at all, and of February's upcoming revivals, only Blithe Spirit seems to have the star power to guarantee an audience, and being a play, it will have lower costs, increasing the probability that it will actually play, Guys & Dolls and West Side Story are question marks right now. Lastly, was any else surprised by the reception that Pal Joey got? Granted, I managed to catch Christian Hoff (a story that's now up there with my seeing Chita Rivera's half a performance in Spider Womaan story), but Matthew Risch did a great job with the small part he had then, and he's so unfairly stinking cute that I'd think the show would be a slam dunk. I find myself a little, bewitched, bothered, and bewildered by the show's reviews. Anyways, hopefully it'll still pull in its audience, Martha has been the one part of the show to get consistent praise (Tony award anyone?) and Stockard should be a good draw in her first musical role since Grease. Plus, it's old Broadway, a reminder of a better time. So, unless I get any good candids in Anaheim, which I promise to post right away, I'll talk to you all when I get back and my calendar starts filling up again.