Keeping in Touch

Well, as I promised, it hasn't been another 6 weeks between posts, although it still has been way too long. No rest for the wicked, it's been papers and postings for the past several weeks with only two more weeks to go and then a short break! Obviously, I am not in New York, but will hopefully be there towards the end of March, which is nice because I'll be between classes and won't have to take time out to do anything, which is always a plus. I do wish Cheyenne the best with his cabaret debut tomorrow and hope with all my heart that it is the first step towards ultimately releasing a solo CD.

Cav/Pag was excellent, and we've only got one more opera this season, Abduction from the Seraglio on the 22nd. We're doing the backstage tour on the 15th, which I'm very excited about, although I've been told they don't allow cameras, which is somewhat disappointing. Still, the premium package includes getting our picture taken on stage, so hopefully I will get that scanned and posted.

I've got Miss Saigon at Drury Lane next Saturday, and that's all that's on the immediate tap. We've got Mauritius at Northlight on the 28th and we're looking at Xanadu sometime in April, it is getting extended piecemeal, and then I must get tickets for Chorus Line (can you seriously believe that I've never had a chance to see it in my ## years on this planet?).

In music news, Liza's CD is fabulous, although it kind of threw me that it was actually a studio recording instead of live like Liza's Back was. I can just imagine all the applause she must have gotten at various points, so I can understand how a studio recording may have been preferrable, the listener can actually hear her instead of only getting the audience. Plus, it's nice to have studio versions of My Own Best Friend and New York, New York. I've listened to John Barrowman (Fabulous), as well as finally the Guys & Dolls and Lady in the Dark Recordings. For an anonymous company, the G&D recording is excellent and is really making me rethink my stance on that show. Yeah, the movie isn't all that great, but I'm really looking forward to getting to see the new revival when we go to New York. Lady in the Dark is also quite stellar, much more musical than I'd expect a Weill show to be. I just wish I could figure out even just a tiny bit of what the plot is actually about! But, that's what Wikipedia is for, I just need to find a few minutes somewhere. I've still got Once on this Island (the London one, in order to avoid that Bitch, although speaking of her, I also listened to The Secret Garden, which I copied from the library, and that is a truly fabulous score, it's too bad the creative team hasn't done much since, I'd love to see what else they could come up with, and Daisy Egan totally deserved her Tony, it's also too bad that she hasn't done much else since), and Sondheim: The Story so Far on my mp3 disc in my car and should hopefully get through them in about the next week and a half, which will then be just in time to download a new allotment of emusic and create a new disc for the car. Up next is finishing the Musicality of Kander & Ebb and then getting Sean McDermott's newer CD, John Barrowman's older CD, and then starting on Barbara Cook's new CD with any remaining allotments. I'm hoping they'll get Next to Normal once that's recorded. I'm thinking they'll release it before the Broadway opening because it's free publicity, but we'll see. After hearing so much about it, I'm very excited to finally get to hear it. Something else I'm also excited to hear but probably never will is The Story of my Life. I was not interested at all from the pre-opening publicity (I really don't care for Malcolm Gets), but when they announced that it was closing right after it opened, they finally spilled the beans and the plot sounded really interesting. It's a murder mystery!!! That is not at all what the pre-publicity made it sound like, and I can understand the lack of interest. Hopefully with the small cast, it'll be a natural pick up for local companies (I'm thinking Bailiwick, but since they're currently homeless that's kind of a long shot. About Face would also be good, but seeing as how they've cancelled the rest of their season due to massive debt, I don't think that will happen either. Ironically it's probably too small for Porchlight, although there's still a good chance, or maybe BoHo, which did such a fabulous job with Sideshow on a shoestring). We'll see. I doubt there'll be a cast recording, but you never know. Anyways, time to get back to work. I'm not making any promises, but hopefully I'll get a posting up after the opera tour.