Help Needed - Urgent!!!

Alright, I saw The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Marriott Lincolnshire on Sunday, and it was FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The cast was perfect and the in the round format allowed for better blocking and choreography for this type of production than the Drury Lane Water Tower did (not that that was a bad production, but this one was even better). A good portion of the cast were graduates of that production and their experience really showed. I recognized some of the jokes from the previous productions, but there were also some new ones (or at least ones that I didn't remember) as well as the improvised lines, my favorite being that their normal celebrity pronouncer, Senator Roland Burris, was unavailable this year but they expect him to be free again soon. They did tone down some of the more off color ones for the suburban audience (the most disappointing absence being Dengue as a word and using it in a sentence, try to youtube the 2005 Tony Awards performance to see how it was used), which was a little disappointing although understandable. This was the first time out of all the shows I've been to there that the theatre wasn't completely packed (it wasn't totally empty either but the empty seats were noticeable), so they don't want to alienate their core audience. As I mentioned in my last post, they did have an intermission, it came after they eliminated the final audience member contestant (a young girl who did surprisingly well, they had to break out the difficult words for her to much audience applause), but the second act started then with Chip's song, My Unfortunate Erection (simpy titled M.U.E. in the program, again to avoid offending the suburban audience), there was no performance of We Love Spelling, but that was ok as the show was so good I didn't miss it. It came in at exactly 2 hours, leaving us plenty of time to get dinner and get home at a decent time.

Now, here is where the help is needed. Through midnight tonight (June 30), the theatre is letting the general public vote on which productions they would like to see next season. So, if you are reading this and it's still June, please, Please, PLEASE, click over to:

http://www.marriotttheatre.com/

and scroll all the way to the right (the site doesn't automatically resize to fit the screen), and at the top of the right column is an icon that says "Vote on our 2010 Season." Click on that and it opens a survey in a new window. Don't worry, you don't have to register or give any personal information, it stays completely anonymous. It asks you a couple questions about if you subscribe and how you chose what you want to see and then it gives you a list of about 10-12 shows and asks you to check off the 3 you would most like to see. Feel free to do that, I wasn't ecstatic about any of the choices, they were all pretty suburban and mainstream (I selected Chess, Titanic, and The King & I), but in a bad economy they need to produce what people will pay to see. However, the next question is the important one. They give you a text box and allow you to submit one name of a show that you would like to see that was not on the list. Go to this question, and type in "Carrie: The Musical" in the box. Do this as often as the site will allow. This is the best chance we're likely going to have to get another production mounted anywhere in the country. After this question there's a general comments section, this could be a good place to remind them that if they do the show, not only will it attract about 20 years' worth of frustrated impatient audiences who have been dying to see what all the fuss was about, it could also be an opportunity for them to expand their business and offer a world premiere cast recording, although this is not as important as just getting the show on their radar in the first place. Seriously, if they do Carrie, I will go multiple times. They've already got the gym decor from their current production that they can recycle. If we can pull this off and get them to do it, I will seriously do something for my readers, maybe have a drawing to meet at intermission for drinks or something, on me of course. Vote early and vote often, we only have until midnight tonight.

What's Wrong With Borders?

As promised, I'm back before heading to New York, and I've had a disturbing event on my mind for the past couple of days that I have to get out (and no, it's not the rushed closing of August: Osage County, which while it was initially disappointing, it turns out it was to make way for Superior Donuts, so it all works out for the best). Remember last week I said I wanted to get the recording of Chess in Concert? Well, on Thursday I got an email coupon from Borders for 40% off one item. I figured since I was going to Naperville on Sunday to meet my family for dinner to celebrate Father's Day near the Fox Valley Mall, I could stop at the Naperville Borders and pick up the CD. On Friday I checked Border's website and it said that the complete 2 disc CD was "likely in store" (there's a 1 disc highlights version but since you can never get enough Idina, unless she's doing her own music, I want the whole thing). This Borders in particular holds a very special place in my heart as it was the first Borders to appear in the suburban area while I was in high school and the very first place I ever saw a "Gay & Lesbian Fiction" section. Granted, I couldn't keep myself in that section for more than about 10 seconds at a time out of fear that someone might see me, but it was still a huge turning point for me. Plus, over the years, I've bought so many cast recordings there, although after the Geneva Borders was built, my trips to Naperville have greatly decreased as the Geneva store is much more closer to my parents'. So, I left a little early on Sunday afternoon and headed to Naperville. The first problem occured about 15 minutes later as I reached Lakeshore and Jackson only to find that Jackson was blocked off for the Puerto Rican Pride parade and I had to go down to 55, take that to 83, and get off there to 75th street and take that all the way out. 55 was absolutely horrible for now discernable reason, so I ended up not getting to Borders until about 20 minutes before our dinner reservation. I figured I'd be in and out quickly, and ran in and headed towards where the music and movies section has been for the past 15 years and was confused when there were simply more bookshelves in that area and no music or movies. I figured they moved it and walked around the store, but could not find any music or movie section, only a few endcaps with clearance CD's. I went to the information center and checked on the computer and sure enough, it said the full Chess 2 Disc set was still "Likely In Store." As I turned to walk away, since there was no one there to ask, I saw that there were some Best Selling CD displays by the checkout line and went to check those out. One one of the displays was the highlights CD (their #2 best seller, surprise surprise!), but the 2 disc set was not there. I did a quick walk around again in case they had created a basement section and I had overlooked a staircase, but no such luck, it was still all on one floor. I went back to the information section and there was finally someone there, so I asked him and he said they're phasing out their music and movies, but to be sure, he checked their staff-only inventory list and said that even though the website was saying that the CD was in store, it looked like they actually didn't have it, but he could call some other stores. Well, at this time it was almost time for our dinner reservation, so I just left. I'm not so disappointed at not getting the CD, I can go to Barnes & Noble and get it since they still see the value in having a showtune section, but it's really sad to see Borders going so far downhill. When you walk into just about any Borders anymore, there's much more empty space than there is merchandise for sale, although some stores are able to hide it better than others. I understand they're having cash flow problems, but getting rid of music and movies is not going to draw in more customers, it's likely to actually have the opposite effect since people don't really read anymore, do they think people are going to come in for books? They need to figure out what brought them success in the first place and get back to basics. Showtunes and opera need to return.

On a happier note, one week from right now I'll be trekking about Central Park and the upper West Side, about time to head back to the hotel and get ready for dinner before heading to Blithe Spirit. I've been checking the extended forecast and Thursday looks great both here and in New York, so the airlines have no excuse for not getting us there as scheduled. Friday though is a little more problematic. I just downloaded an audio tour of public art and monuments in the downtown area, starting in Battery Park and ending at South Street Seaport, which I will put on my phone for Friday, but the forecast for Friday is rain in the morning and early afternoon before clearing out for a very nice rest of the weekend, meaning it could be an unpleasant, heading-to-Blau-Gans experience all over again. Fortunately, because of the holiday weekend, many shows are doing Friday matinees, so if I wake up and the weather's crappy, I plan on heading to TKTS and seeing if I can get a ticket for Little Mermaid. My companion will be working and has no desire to see it, so I can get it taken care of without having to deal with him. No matter what happens, there'll be a Starbucks stop across the street from the Crowne Plaza around 10:30 (hint, hint Gossip Guys).

Sunday is Spelling Bee at the Marriott. They're putting in an intermission, so I'm hopeful that means they'll restore "We Love Spelling," which is actually my favorite song on the CD. It looks like the weather will actually be very nice on Sunday, making it a little disappointing that I won't be going to the parade, but I've really outgrown that, it's no longer fun to get way too drunk standing around in a huge crowd outside where I always get sunburned. A fun show in an air conditioned theatre with a glass of wine at intermission followed by a good dinner nearby is much more my speed. I'll let you know how it turns out. See you in a week boys!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check out the top headline on playbill.com:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/130366-Short-Lived_Glory_Days_Will_Get_a_Cast_Album_Authors_at_Work_on_New_Musical

I will be closely monitoring this development and will post any dates as soon as I have them. You know I'll be first in line the day it comes out. Of course, Lestat was also supposed to have a cast album and they went into the studio to record it, yet we're still waiting and it's been over 3 years now. Still, a girl can dream. Does this mean we're one step closer to a Carrie recording?

I'm Alive (at last, and I'm full of joy!)

Alright, I know we've got a lot of ground to cover here. I'm finally coming out of the mental fog I was in as my classes were winding down last week. That was one fuck of a quarter, mostly because of shit going on at my job that was bringing me down, but next quarter should be better since I have a month (now almost down to three weeks) this time between classes, giving me more time to rest and recharge. I do have to say that procrastination works! You remember that paper I was working on during the Tony's? I got it turned in 10 minutes before it was due and got an A! Not quite the lesson I need to take away from that experience, but a valuable one nonetheless. Now, on to more important matters.

First of all, Chess! We all saw it on PBS/Great Performances last night, correct? FABULOUS, FABULOUS, FABULOUS. Yes, the story is weak and we're not given any reason to care about the cardboard cutouts of the characters, but the score is fantabulousnomenal. No one can belt like Idina (and ps, why can't she sing like that and perform that style of music at her own concert?) and Adam was in fine voice and looking quite good as well. I haven't really seen him since he was here with the tryout of Aida 10 (!!!) years ago but he hasn't aged a day. I'll take one night in Bangkok with him anytime. Josh Groban wasn't quite as exciting, but he did nail Anthem and that's what counts. If you didn't see it, stop reading now, click over to Netflix, add it to your queue, and bump it up to the top. Ok, welcome back. I know I got the original concept album a couple of years ago, but I'm going to have to get this CD as well. Let's hope some producer saw it and realized that the time is right to bring it back to Broadway with cast (and full sized orchestra) intact. Bring back Carrie while you're at it and make it 1986 all over again (and speaking of 1986, in that year there was only one Phantom on Broadway, let's make it 1986 and keep it that way too).

Finally, after many false announcements, I am officially back on my way to New York again, for a long 4th of July weekend. We're flying in on the morning of July 2 (hopefully without all the drama this time, we're taking American from O'Hare so it could be a tossup) and then I'm flying back on Sunday night July 5 while my companion stays for work and comes back a couple days later. The only problem is I need to fly out of Newark because he's actually working in Philadelphia and is going to drive there on Sunday and can drop me off at Newark, but the only flight that night was at 7:15, which means that there's no way to fit in a Sunday matinee show, not even God of Carnage. If it wasn't the Sunday night of a holiday weekend I might be tempted to try GoC, because if it started right on time and was exactly the 90 minute length playbill.com says it is and we were right by the door and got out before anyone else and got all green lights walking back to the hotel (we're at the Crowne Plaza this time, so coffee at the Starbucks across the street on Friday morning at 51st & Bway) and got our bags immediately and got in a cab, with no traffic I would get there about 6:15, giving me JUST enough time to check in, make it through security, and find the gate. Given that there's probably a road full of tourists doing the same thing that weekend though, the odds of it happening that smoothly are slim to none. So, we're only going to do four shows: Blithe Spirit (Thursday night), 9 to 5 (not my choice but my companion really wants to see it, on Friday night), God of Carnage (Saturday matinee) and Next to Normal (Saturday night), and we'll try to get West Side Story next time, as well as the ongoing saga of attempts to see Little Mermaid and South Pacific. So, it should be good, it's the highest ratio of musicals to plays out of the last couple of trips, although I think my souvenier magnet from this trip will be yet another play: Blithe Spirit (which could almost count as a musical since most of the stars are primarily known for their musical performances). Speaking of Blithe Spirit, we all the director, Michael Blakemore, directed City of Angels, and after this fall's production of Nine, guess what Tony winning musical is next slated for the big screen treatment??? That's right, completely out of left field but so deliciously on target is CoA itself. Could we possibly get the original cast? If not, may I suggest Richard Gere for the lead (he did such a fab job subbing in for James Naughton in Chicago, let's let him sub in for James's other Tony winning performance)? Anyways, back to the shows at hand, I'm rather disappointed that Aaron Tveit will be on break from Next to Normal (making him unavailable for coffee), but his replacement, Kyle Dean Massey, is quite hot himself and would make an excellent coffee mate Friday morning, as would the rest of the usual suspects (Cheyenne, Matt C., Matt M. (if he's in town and not working on Glee, more on that in a moment), Jonathan Groff (ditto on the being in town), Curtis Holbrook, and/or Gavin Creel, Friday morning July 3 boys!). Who cares how he sings, it's a fact that anyone named Dean is gay and hot (see Supernatural if you don't believe me). So, the plan is then on Thursday we'll have a late lunch at the Carnegie Deli (first time in years that I'll have been there, I can't believe I've been away so long) then walk around the park and museum row (too bad the Guggenheim's closed on Thursdays but the Neue Gallery and Met are open), then Friday I'm on my own and planning to grab coffee (and maybe something/someone else) and then head downtown to see Battery Park and do a self-guided audio walking tour provided by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center of the monuments in the downtown area, ending up at South Street Seaport where I can have lunch and see the museum, then hop on the el to the village and eventually back to the hotel for dinner and the show. Then Saturday is the shows with Colony Records stuffed in the middle, then on Sunday instead of the show we'll do the International Center for Photography instead, which should make for a nice afternoon. Then it's off to the airport and back to my crappy job on Monday.

Ok, on to Glee. Other than the scene with Matt M. laying shirtless in bed, I wasn't totally blown away. However, given the fact that I had Rehab stuck in my head for about 2 weeks afterwards, and the preview of the upcoming season actually looked much funnier, I'm definitely willing to give it a chance. After all, the first episode of Arrested Development wasn't the best of the series, but it got me hooked enough and I am so glad I went along on that journey. Hopefully Fox will treat Glee better.

Lastly, upcoming events in Chicago. It's looking like Once on this Island may be asking too much, but we are going to Spelling Bee at the Marriott Lincolnshire on the 28th instead of the Pride Parade (much gayer, funnier, and air conditioned with much less risk of drinking too much). Then in late July, they're starting Light in the Piazza, so I will definitely be back for that even if I have to go on a weeknight after work by myself like I did with Shenandoah. After that, in October, it's Hairspray through the beginning of December, so I'll be back for that again. Can I go ahead and request Carrie for next season? I'm hoping at the very least we'll make it to History Boys in July as well, and at this point, given everything with Ravinia in later July and August, if we can do those, I'll be happy through the end of the year. It's still too early to start checking to see what will be in Amsterdam and Prague, but by mid-August I should be able to.

Ok, I think that gets us caught up. I really don't have much more to say about the Tony's other than that Liza was fabulous and Elton was certainly very gracious in the acceptance speech for Billy's Best Musical win (and now having downloaded the Next to Normal recording from emusic, I can definitely say that while it's good, it doesn't have anything that beats the letter from the dead mother song in Billy and its win was absolutely much more a comment about Lestat than about N2N's superiority in comparison with Billy). Looking ahead to next year, hopefully we'll have some better choices among musicals, although there aren't any big projects on the horizon. It may be a few more trips of plays before we get anything to be excited about again, although if Roundabout can get Merrily mounted and do Bye Bye Birdie right (the way the producers of the upcoming movie version aren't; if it's all new songs, it's not Birdie, they might as well film Bring Back Birdie instead) there might be something to head back for. Anyways, I definitely plan on being back a few times before classes start, look for my thoughts on Spelling Bee a week from Monday.

Quick Update

Ok, they just showed some of the technical awards, and there was actually a tie for Best Orchestrations between N2N and Billy, and Billy won Best Choreography, which it inexplicitly has not in Britain or Australia, which further indicates that Elton lost more because of Lestat than because N2N was the better score. It's looking like Billy could pull it off, although there's still always room for a suprise, especially since it's gone to the expected winner for the past few years, the voters may be feeling restive and needing to assert their independence. We'll see how it goes. Ok, they're doing Best Featured Actor in a musical, I'll stick with it and give my thoughts, I'm predicting Gregory Jbara, and it's. . . I was right!!! Yay!!! The Best Musical usually has at least one winner in an acting category (looking back to Avenue Q for the most recent exception to that rule), so it's looking good.

Quick Tony Check In

Ok, I know I've been a little lax, but I've been swamped with shit from work and trying to knock out two papers for school. I'm actually working on one as I'm watching the Tony's, desperately (YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Liza just won her FOURTH!!!! Tony!) racing against rapidly declining motivation to knock out a paper on Oppositional Defiant Disorer. However, I had to make a quick check in with my thoughts. First of all, LOVED the opening number and I'm starting to rethink my position on Shrek, I may at least have to check out the cast recording. I'm still not down with Rock of Ages at all though, Constantine Maroulis still hasn't managed to find any talent since getting voted off Idol. Did anyone else tear up just a little during Angela Lansbury's acceptance speech? There's a good chance I might get to go to New York for the Fourth of July Weekend and that's top of my list to see. Lastly, it's looking like it might not be such a big night for Billy Elliot after all. Yes, it did get Best Book (which I had really been hoping would go to [title of show]) and surprisingly Best Director, but it shockingly lost Best Score and Best Orchestrations to Next to Normal, although the Tribune did predict the win for Score. However, there's a chance that those awards were the committee's way of punishing Sir Elton for the awfulness of Lestat rather than proclaiming N2N the superior musical achievement. I started downloading the N2N recording from emusic and will finish it up next week when my downloads refresh and then I can deliver a more balanced judgement, although I find it hard to believe that any score could have been better than Billy (and BTW, REALLY loved the very opening with the three Billy's dancing to Elton's singing). Lastly, what's with the horrible sound production on this telecast. During the switch from Billy to West Side Story in the opening number, there was more noise from the audience than there was music from the stage coming through, and now as the Guys & Dolls cast is performing, the feedback sounded like a thunderstorm, drowning out the performer. You'd think with their one shot a year at a national audience, they'd be paying more attention to the technical logistics, but at the same time, that's the magic of live theatre. Ok, back to Oppositional Defiant Disorder (I've been acting out long enough taking this break), barring any big surprises, I'll get my final thoughts up tomorrow, or the next day, or sometime. Oh, last thought, run to see A Little Night Music at Light Opera Works, I saw it this afternoon and it is SUPERB, excellent performances all around, and it's always great to hear a real orchestra turning out Sondheim's best score.