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.