Now That It's Gone

What a weekend this has been. Of course winter would come back in a big way the weekend I had Mauritius, Xanadu, and Music of the Baroque on consecutive days (although granted MOB isn't until tomorrow night and the snow should be gone by then). Fortunately, both Mauritius and Xanadu were A+ Fabulous. We saw Mauritius last night at Northlight, it's got one more week and I HIGHLY recommend running to see it before it disappears. It plays very well on the small stage, it's very intimate which increases the sense of forboding and makes it much more disturbing. The highly stylized dialogue took a few minutes to get used to, both in the first act and after intermission, but it really helped to highlight the fact that the real story was in what was not being said. I have a hard time seeing it as having been on Broadway given the very intimate nature of it, but regardless it was terrific.

Then today, in the middle of a blizzard was the second to last performance of Xanadu, with the last one starting in about half an hour. Shame on you Chicago for not stepping up to the plate and making this more of a hit. We finally regain our status as the coveted first stop for Broadway tours and get a fabulous production that, dare I say it (please forgive me Cheyenne) was even better than it was on Broadway, and we give it a collective yawn! No wonder we're dead last for Spring Awakening. However, the producers also deserve some blame for plopping it down in the middle of the second worst winter of the past 30 years (second only to last year) while promising that it would stay until July, which only encouraged ticket buyers such as myself, still sick of last year's winter and not wanting to deal with this one to wait to see it later in the spring when the weather gets better. Of course people were not going to show up right away. That being said, it's a terrific production, and if you had had the nerve to wait it out a couple of months and invest in more of an advertising campaign, you could have had an Alter Boyz, or maybe even a Spelling Bee sized hit. The cast was top notch, and I do have to say that Max Von Essen is far more gorgeous in person than he is in those ads. I'm not sure what kind of filter the photographer was using, but he looked old in those ads when in reality he looks almost just about as good as Cheyenne (and that's plenty good enough for me) when he's in his real costume on stage. The only difference between this production and the Broadway one, in addition to the lack of a balcony in the theatre, is that they got rid of the mirror and instead put the mural on a wall which then opened to allow the actors to come out, which was more effective than the mirror anyways. Everyone did a great job, and my eyes were partcularly drawn to Jason Michael Snow in the Curtis Holbrook chorus role (although due to casting constraints, the other male muse was the tap dancer for Whenever You're Away From Me). He is quite the cutie and I expect to see much more of him in the future (and BTW, he was in the pre-Broadway and workshop versions of Glory Days!). Lastly, while I do know that sufficient rehearsal was an issue for the Broadway production and I did see it in its first weekend, I felt that this production flowed much better and seemed much more of a whole than when I saw it on Bway when it was more of a series of sketches, although I did regret in this production Caliope's classic line was changed from "gay men" to "gay people" which doesn't quite has the same impact since lesbian's aren't really into theatre, and particularly not musical theatre. However, it's a minor quibble and the overall production was excellent. With the right stars lining up, there could be another movie in the Xanadu story, bringing it full circle and correcting a lot of wrongs. I'd be first in line for tickets.

Speaking of tickets, Ravinia announced its season and once again I'm a little underwhelmed. The highlight of couse is Patti's return, although just as it was with Gypsy, she's here the weekend of my mom's birthday which creates some scheduling conflicts. There'a also the concert version of Camelot which I'll be at, David Hyde Pierce doing Cole Porter songs which is intriguing, and Kelli O'Hara and Paulo Szot offering an evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein to close out the summer, so I'll probably do those and maybe one of Dmitri Hvoretovsky's performances. Other than Patti though, they are extremely light on the divas this year, and even the CSO is keeping it pretty safe, no Philip Glass (or appearances by Mr. Glass for that matter), or other interesting works. However, that can be a good thing as I'm shelling out small fortunes for tickets through the beginning of the summer, so buying less Ravinia tickets will give me more for Night Music, Art, and Once on this Island. Anyways, that's about all for now, I'm trying to keep this short so I can enjoy the rest of my Sunday with a few hours of nothing to do before it's back to work and my final week before classes start again and I'm overwhelmed for the next 10 weeks.